BG:
You mentioned that you´ve been working in films since the early 80ies. How did you start, what were you doing and how did things change for you?

MB:
Actually I started with Super8 and I still love to do Super8. So I still continue shooting on Super8 but the technics are more developed now. First I screened in bars, independent cinemas or even open air and brought my Super8-projector to the show. After some years I started blow-up the edited Super8 to 16mm and did also shooting on 16mm. This opened the door to bigger festivals. Again some years later I started working with video and computer. I always liked to test and mix different medias. In my very first Super8 film there is already a sequence taken from a video surveillance camera for example, and my newest film »NY 'NY« there is quite a new development for me: shooting on Super8 then editing in a computer like modifying the image a bit and give it from the computer directly to 35mm. So these are the developments I did like in the technic sense. Let´s say I like to keep shooting on Super8 but I changed all the post production process. Now it´s like in the computer more or less and now I´m lucky because I nearly finished or better: I´m working on 2 CD-ROMs, interactive films, or say: non-linear films for interactive media. This is quite a new research for me. And it's fun.

BG:
Yeah, you´re getting involved in the technology now..

MB:
Yes I like that: testing and creating all different kinds of 'moving images'. Actually I could mention.. 'visit my website!'. It´s »www.brynntrup.de«, so please come and visit me. There are some 'filmic' ideas on too, some flash movies etc.

BG:
With the films, there is a lot that goes on in the films. There seems to be a lot of different tendencies that you have, a lot of different styles. Sometimes it's really rooted in found footage and often with a lot of humor, a lot of irony. Other films that are a lot more metaphorical, a lot more narrative based. So you seem to have a lot of tendencies that, a lot of things that you wanna to explore in different ways. So can you talk a little about that?

MB:
First of all: all of these themes are very personal. Sometimes very directly like: 'read my diary'; - I made these Tabu-films about my diary. Sometimes I have -let's say- 'visions', images in my 'brain', - then I often construct a story, a little narrative around them. Or friends of mine inspiring me. I know their stories or ideas or crazy minds, and then I ask "Please tell the story for us, for this film"... That´s actually the background of the documentary we see tonight: »Aide Mémoire«. It´s a 'gay document for remembering', an interview film with a friend, Jürgen Baldiga. Actually he died on AIDS in 93 but we had this idea to make a film about him. He was photographer. That was another interest we had in common, so we spoke about photography and film. That´s my only 'so styled' documentary film but in a way all of these films are a kind of documentary so let's say my »Loverfilm« too.

BG:
Really? Ok. »Loverfilm«. »Loverfilm« is a very ironic documentary. What do you tell us about that?

MB:
Ok. Just to make the range, or as you said already: all these films are quite different (...) You can describe »Loverfilm« as a kind of structural film -let´s say- it's a listing of all my former beloved lovers.

BG:
It´s quiet a catalogue!

MB:
It´s quiet a catalogue, yeah. But on the other hand it´s film as well, it´s not a written statistic or so.... For me it´s very important, that it´s seen as film and the theme is as well 'How works an image'. Sex and privacy, and what does the audience has to do with it by watching the film. That's my »Loverfilm«.

BG:
A classic. A classic I must say. This is a hilarious film and also very intelligent and that´s the part of it´s humor. It´s just so smart.

MB:
Oh great. Thanks. The most narrative tonight is called »Sudden and Unexpected - a Dejá Revue«. It´s actually the film where the CD-ROM is based on because the dramatic stucture of the 16mm film is already non-linear. It tells a story in a narrative way but in looping situations. Again and again you enter situations you saw before, but slightly different, like other perspectives, and you get the impression like in a 'Dejá vu'. - So this is what I like to do: to be open for every 'genre' and the complete possibilities what film could be ranged from found footage film, documentaries to narrative. And then play with the possibilities and expectations. But one thing all these different films have in common: all of them are short.

(...)

BG:
Thematically your films are really interesting. There are reoccuring themes but the most reoccuring theme of course is the theme of death.

MB:
Yes.

BG:
Yes, Michael. Where does that come from?

MB:
Yes, where does it end? That´s the question. ... I studied philosophy before I was filmmaker. And this is I guess an influence too. So okay, I´m catholic, catholics deal a lot with relics and so. But the main influence I guess is the abstract way coming out from philosophy or just by the thought 'Why are we? Why do we live?' 'What is this blue planet? Where are we?' These are the universal questions I'm always asking.

BG:
And you`re also dealing with personal identity and the construction of personal identity and some of the films in fact even seem to go through a process of constructing an identity. So can you tell us a little about that?

MB:
I think identity has to be built up. You create your own identity - for sure.

BG:
Sometimes you create many. Sometimes depending on the situation you have a different identity.

MB:
Yes.

BG:
We gotten pretty serious with the philosophy here. And what we should also remind people is that a lot of these films are very funny, very campy and just a lot of fun to watch.

MB:
»All you can eat« is a found footage film. I took some imagery from porn actually. So. But don´t expect getting satisfied or whatever. I call it headfilm which means in german: a film for the head, what's going on in the heads of the viewer. But it means also what it shows: the heads of acting porn actors.

BG:
Very very take close ups of their faces, yeah..

MB:
yeah... of their faces like doing their thing...

BG:
Yeah, it´s very funny...

(...)

(Interview by Barbara Goslawski on CKLN-FM Radio
at Ryerson University, Toronto, live on 05.11.99)