Jürgen Vsych (/ˈjʊərɡən ˈvaɪzɪk/) is an American filmmaker and author, known as the writer-director of the films Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, which won the Prince's Trust Award,[1] Son for Sail, Ophelia Learns to Swim, and Tyrannosaurus Tex. Her films have been shown in forty-nine film festivals in thirty countries. Vsych's journal was included in the book World Cinema: Diary of a Day.[2][3]
Vsych is the author of The Wroughten Director and the historical novel Captain Death.
Wroughten Movies
editWroughten Movies, Vsych's production company, derives from the word "wrought", and is also a wordplay on "rot." The company's motto is, "Not the same old rot."[4]
In her autobiography, The Wroughten Director, Vsych writes: "When I was learning to read, I tried sounding out the name of a sign I saw on Venice Boulevard, 'WROUGHT IRON.' Mom said it was pronounced 'rot,' and it meant that the iron was very good, very well-crafted. Later that afternoon, I went to nursery school and painted with Matilda Gomez. When Matilda painted a really good picture of a boat, I said, 'That's wroughten.' She said, 'It is NOT!' and stabbed me in the eye with her paintbrush.".[5]
The Woman Director
edit
The Woman Director: The Adventures of a Really Independent Filmmaker Ages 6–36 by Jürgen Vsych is the first autobiography of an American female film director. It is only the third memoir ever written by a woman director (the other two are by Alice Guy Blache and Leni Riefenstahl), and it is the first written in English.[6] It is based on Vsych's 17,256-paged diary and describes how she graduated from making one-minute Super 8 films financed with baby-sitting money and edited with her father's toenail clippers, to writing, directing & producing the 35mm feature film Ophelia Learns to Swim.
Partial filmography
editWriter-director-producer
edit- Ophelia Learns to Swim - starring Julia Lee, George Gray and Hilary Shepard
- Ralph Nader Crashes the Two Parties (2004, Nader for President 2004 Campaign Biography)
- Son for Sail starring John Vickery
- Pay Your Rent, Beethoven (1992) - Winner of The Prince's Trust Award.[7]
- "The Music Scholarship" (1989)
- "Tyrannosaurus Tex" (1974)[8]
- "Go To Your Tomb, Young Lady" (1973)
- "The Rocks Go On A Picnic" (1972)[9]
Bibliography
edit- Captain Death (2021) Historical novel
- The Woman Director (2006) autobiography, ISBN 0-9749879-0-5
- What Was Ralph Nader Thinking? (2008) biography of the consumer advocate and presidential candidate, ISBN 978-0-9749879-2-7
References
edit- ^ "A California Yank in Glasgow Square" Glasgow Herald October 5, 1992
- ^ Education Resources Information Center
- ^ Scorsese, Martin (1995). World Cinema: Diary of a Day : A Celebration of the Centenary of Cinema in Conjunction with Bfi. ISBN 0879515732.
- ^ Los Angeles Times "Only in L.A." November 5, 1994
- ^ Vsych, Jurgen (2004). The Woman Director. ISBN 0-9749879-0-5.
- ^ Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library
- ^ The Scotsman, September 4, 1992
- ^ "Ten Young Filmmakers to Watch" Evening Outlook April 4, 1975
- ^ "A Night of Women Film Directors" Program Edinburgh Film Theatre September 1992