Films by Erwin Wagenhofer

Austria, Germany 2019, 116 min
by Erwin Wagenhofer

Filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer doesn't make it that easy for himself. In his latest film BUT BEAUTIFUL he’s looking for the beautiful and the good in life and he finds people who break new ground. What could a good, a happy life look like? Is a 'different' life actually possible? The result is a film about new perspectives without fear, about connectedness in music, nature and society, and about people with different ideas sharing one big common goal: a sustainable world.Women without formal school education who build solar panels for villages all over the world. Permaculture visionaries on La Palma who transform wastelands into a green paradise. A forester who develops and builds the healthiest houses in the world. A spiritual leader with a waggish sense of humour and essential messages. His Tibetan sister with a big heart for the youth. A young jazz trio, an established pianist and a soulful Colombian singer, who bestow upon us the sound of beauty. With Kenny Werner, Barbara & Erich Graf, Shanaz Banu, Bunker Roy, Kamla Devi, Basanta, Lucia Pulido, Erwin Thoma, Mario Rom, Lukas Kranzelbinder, Herbert Pirker, Jetsum Pema, Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Austria, Germany 2013, 120 min
by Erwin Wagenhofer

We’re living in times of sweeping changes, crises and disori- entation. The financial system, energy, climate change: All the problems in these areas have one thing in common, they were created by humans. Many were created by humans educated at the world’s best universities and institutions. Is this mess a side effect of their education, or the underlying attitudes and approach? Is the main problem the structure of our brains, and therefore the structure of our outdated thinking? We will never find the courage and inspiration to solve tomorrow’s problems by applying yesterday’s solutions! Nowhere else is that fact so obvious as in our educational system, where the greatest opportunities and talents are eradicated by improper methods and forcing everyone into standardized molds. Rather than standardization and economic utility, creativity, diversity and sustainability must be the focus of new educational institu- tions! In the future, education must abandon yesterday’s sys- tematic preaching from on high and instead foreground the re- alization of potential and enriching students through diversity and variety. And lastly: Who will start this process if we don’t?!