TransArts - Transdisciplinary ArtIt
is about questioning and examining the existing image of cinematic work, especially seemingly secure routines of working methods.
To enable experience with the hitherto unknown, but also to challenge it. To give film work a basis, as nature studies and
nude drawing are for painting. For the students this usually means dealing with living conditions other than their own, entering
foreign territory. How do I approach my subject?
Attention, observation,
approach, alert modesty. And despite all the emotionality involved, to speak with Brecht, it means thinking coldly, sharply.
First and foremost, film means learning to see. This requires social accuracy, curiosity, approach and openness. And a refraining
from oneself and one's own state of mind if they are not the subject of the investigation. Film and especially documentary
film, if it has something to show, lasts longer than any editorial office that commissions it and longer than the state in
which it is made. A spectrum that ranges from giving testimony, of man and his existence in history, to the playful handling
of realities themselves and to forms of visual art. But good film is always about making things known. Of people, of relationships,
of contexts. The nature of these relationships is essentially shaped by the history that produced them. By the people who
made this history or were subjected to it. Developing an awareness of the dimension of the matter is an essential task.
Thomas
Heise born 1955 in Berlin (GDR), general polytechnic high school 1961-1971, apprenticeship, skilled worker for printing
technology 1971-1973, 18 months military service, NVA air force Peenemünde 1974-1975, assistant director, DEFA studio for
feature films 1975-1978, adult education center / high school diploma 1976-1978, Academy for Film and Television Potsdam Babelsberg
1978-1982 (discontinued as a result of operational processing by the MfS 1976-1988) Since 1982 freelance author and director,
master student at the Academy of Arts 1987-1990 on the initiative of Heiner Müller and Gerhard Scheumann, member of the Berliner
Ensemble 1990-1997, permanent directing collaborator of Fritz Marquardt, various productions. Own productions, since 1997
again freelance author and director for film and theater, since 2001 member of the Academy of Arts Berlin-Brandenburg, since
2007 - 2013 professor for film at the State Academy of Design Karlsruhe, since 2013 professor for art and film Academy of
Fine Arts Vienna, since 2018 director of the section film and media art of the Academy of Arts Berlin.
