Biography
Kurt Kren was born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria from a Jewish father and a German mother. From 1939 till the end of World War II, Kren lived in Rotterdam, where he was sent to with one of the Children's Transports. In 1947 Kren returned to Vienna, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank. He began making films in 1957. 2/60 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi -Test (1960) was his first serial film and 3/60 Bäume Im Herbst (1960) confirmed this structural orientation. He realized in the 1960s his most famous films with the Viennese actionists, where his skill of short film blossomed. In 1966, he took part in the « Destruction in Art Symposium » organized by Metzger in London. In 1968 he visited the USA for the first time, showing his films in New York and St. Louis. This very year he became a founder of the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative. After a participation in a happening "Kunst und Revolution" ("Art and Revolution") at the University of Vienna in 1968, Kren's films were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank. He participated in 1970 in the International Underground Film Festival (London) and in 1971, in the Cannes Film Festival. He then moved to Cologne for five ye…
Directed
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15/67: TV (1967) — Director
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37/78: Tree Again (1978) — Director
- 31/75: Asylum (1975) — Director
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6/64: Mom and Dad (An Otto Mühl Happening) (1964) — Director
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10/65: Self-Mutilation (1965) — Director
- 1/57: Experiment with Synthetic Sound (Test) (1957) — Director
- 3/60: Trees in Autumn (1960) — Director
- 8/64: Ana - Action Brus (1964) — Director
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7/64: Leda and the Swan (1964) — Director
- 2/60: 48 Heads from the Szondi-Test (1960) — Director
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9/64: O Christmas Tree (1964) — Director
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10b/65: Silver – Action Brus (1965) — Director
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49/95: thousandyearsofcinema (1995) — Director
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38/79: Sentimental Punk (1979) — Director
- 16/67: September 20th (1967) — Director
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26/71: Cartoon - Balzac and the Eye of God (1971) — Director
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44/85: Foot'-age Shoot'-out (1985) — Director
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5/62: People Looking out of the Window, Trash, etc. (1962) — Director
- 36/78: Rischart (1978) — Director
- 10c/65: Brus Wishes You a Merry Christmas (1965) — Director
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12/66: Cosinus Alpha (1966) — Director
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28/73: Time Exposure(s) (1973) — Director
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23/69: Underground Explosion (1969) — Director
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32/76: To W + B (1976) — Director
- 4/61: Walls Pos.-Neg. and Way (1961) — Director
- 13/67: Sinus Beta (1967) — Director
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20/68: Honey (1968) — Director
- 17/68: Green-red (1968) — Director
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11/65: Helga Philipp Painting (1965) — Director
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50/96 Snapshots (For Bruce) (1996) — Director
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41/82 Getting Warm (1982) — Director
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40/81: Breakfast in Grey (1981) — Director
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39/81 Which Way to CA? (1981) — Director
- 34/76: Tschibo (1976) — Director
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43/84: 1984 (1984) — Director
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33/77 No Danube (1977) — Director
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18/68: Venecia kaputt (1968) — Director
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22/69 Happy-End (1969) — Director
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24/70 Western (1970) — Director
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27/71 On Peacock Isle (1971) — Director
Also appeared in
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Sodoma (1970)
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Exit... But No Panic (1980) — Voyeur
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Birth of a Nation (1997) — Self
- 10c/65: Brus Wishes You a Merry Christmas (1965) — himself
- 36/78: Rischart (1978)
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Homage to Kurt Kren (1997)
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Home Movies 1971-81 (1985)
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Becoming Otto (2010)
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29/73 Ready-Made (1973) — Himself
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Portrait: Kurt Kren (1970) — Himself
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Porträtfilm: Kurt Kren (1969) — Himself
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Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Part 3 (1993)
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No Danube - Kurt Kren and His Films (1988) — Self