Steff Gruber

Steff Gruber (born 3 April 1953 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a film director, photographer and author. In the seventies he was one of the first film makers to work in the docudrama genre.

Life

Steff Gruber is the son of the painter Hannes Gruber and Annemarie Gruber-Vogelsanger. He grew up in Oberrieden on Lake Zurich. In childhood his greatest ambition was to be a pilot and inventor. He constructed his first radio receiver at the age of eight; when he was fifteen, during the first manned space flight to the moon, he succeeded in listening in on the dialogue between the astronauts and ground control. He started to train as an electronics engineer, but abandoned the course before completing it after deciding that he wanted to become a film director.

Both during and after his time at the Juventus Gymnasium [higher secondary school] in Zurich, from 1972 on Gruber attended film lectures and courses given by Dr Martin Schlappner, Viktor Sidler, Georg Radanowicz and Sebastian C. Schröder at the University of Zurich, ETH Zürich [Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich] and F+F, Schule für Gestaltung (Zürich) [F+F Zurich College of Design]. During his two-year course at the College of Design he studied with Serge Stauffer, Hansjörg Mattmüller and Peter Jenny. On the side he worked as a commercial photographer and film maker.

In 1976 he transferred to the University of Georgia, where Gruber made the acquaintance of the painter and film director James Herbert. His friendship with Herbert had a lasting effect on him, and remains an influence on his work to the present day. Returning to Switzerland, for a short time he worked as assistant to the American painter Sam Francis, with whom he cooperated on a film about C.G. Jung. In 1976 Gruber joined René Grossenbacher in founding the cultural advertising firm ALIVE Media AG, of which he is still a Managing Director today. He has also taught since then at various schools and colleges. From 1994 to 1997, for example, he was a lecturer in Film and Electronic Media at FH Konstanz [Konstanz Technical College]. As a cameraman he worked for the artist Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch and the film maker Erich Langjahr.

Since January 2008 Gruber has been CEO of the recently founded film production company KINO.NET AG, which not only aims to produce innovative auteur movies that take a critical view of contemporary life, but also handles the business of distribution and global rights. KINO.NET AG is currently producing Gruber's Passion Despair as its first film.

As an author and director Gruber has spent several years working on each of his films – not just because he does practically everything himself, up to and including the design of the film poster, but because he has also been busy on the side with other projects as a pilot and internet pioneer. He continues to indulge his passion for flying, making round trips as a pilot in the Swiss Alps, as well as taxi and private flights within Europe and North Africa.

Steff Gruber is married to the German communication designer Anke Felgenhauer. They have two sons.

Works

Steff Gruber started work on his first long film, the docudrama Moon in Taurus, in Georgia in 1976. It was completed in 1980. The film is thematically focused on codes in relationships and the question why relationships break up. The original version included interviews with Cindy Wilson (The B52) and Silver Thin (Andy Warhol Factory); these were however omitted from the final cut. The unconventional form in which the film realised its aims brought it international acclaim. Based on selection from 15 hours of documentary materials, the film linked fiction and documentation in an original way. The film was nominated for an award at the Mannheimer Filmtage [Mannheim Film Festival].

Gruber's second film, Fetish & Dreams, was also created in the USA. He started work on it in 1982. Filmed in New York, it constitutes a formal and thematic sequel to the one preceding it. In his second long film Gruber also embarked on new paths in a technical sense. With the help of a method he developed himself, the film was first created electronically on video before being copied subsequently to 35 mm, making it the first video transfer in Swiss cinema. Fetish & Dreams was given its first showing in the Locarno International Film Festival competition, winning the prize 'for directorial originality in dealing with documentary and feature film elements'. The film has been shown at various film festivals worldwide.

During the work of filming Gruber was introduced by his cameraman Rainer Klausmann to the German film director Werner Herzog. In 1987 the latter invited him to follow the filming work as his film Cobra Verde was created in Ghana. The result was the film Location Africa, which documents the filming work and last cooperative project of Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Between 1991 and 1995 Gruber was working on a new film, in which he aimed to investigate the erotic codes in interpersonal relationships. But after he had already filmed more than 120 hours' worth of materials, he felt his theme had been overtaken by media developments and so abandoned it.

Thirteen years later, Secret Moments was completed after all. Created exclusively from the original film materials, this is a reflection on the project and the reasons for its initial failure.

Between 2005 and 2011 Gruber worked on the documentary Passion Despair in Moldova. The film premiered at the Gdansk DocFilm Festival 2011.

Gruber's new feature film Fire, Fire, Desire! is a love odyssey in Southeast Asia, which is inspired by Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness (1899).

Filmography

1972: Portrait (short film, 16mm, s/w, 12 Min.)

1973: Tourist Information (short experimental film, 16mm, black/white, 14 min.)

1980: Moon in Taurus (docudrama, 35mm, colour, 97 min.)

1984: Wo Männer zu erscheinen haben (1-inch-video, 4 min.)

1985: Fetish & Dreams (docudrama, 35mm, colour, 82 min.)

1987: Location Africa (documentary film, 16mm, colour, 65 min.)

2006: Secret Moments (documentary film, DigiBeta, colour & black/white, 82 min.)

2011: Passion Despair (documentary film, DigiBeta, colour & black/white, 95 min.)

2014: Fire Fire Desire (feature film, DCP, colour & black/white, 125 min.)

Awards

Publications of Steff Gruber

Bibliography

External links