Walter Ungerer

Though birds and people appear to have some similar qualities; affection, caring, tolerance, aggressiveness, belligerence, combativeness; in the scheme of things, we are all waiting our turn in the queue.

The film is an improvised story about a young man who meets a young woman in a public place. He attempts to establish a friendship. This situation is played out three times, each time with different characters and different actors in different locations. What occurs unfolds differently with each story. In each situation the actors don't know each other. They respond spontaneously as they create the dialogue and the narrative.

A sensuous woman, an angry artist, a mysterious puppet maker, suspicious townspeople, mischievous kids; these are the characters in the film.

A daily record of one year at Mount Battie, Maine. It is a record of the seasons, the changing light from dawn to evening, sunrise and sunset; the changing weather from bright sun to overcast skies, fog, rain and snow; and the changing visitors that come by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck and camper to make a pilgrimage to the mountain vista that overlooks a small harbor on the coast of Maine, the North Atlantic coastal islands, and the expansive Atlantic Ocean.

The theme is apparently the birth and growth of civilization, its ultimate destruction and rebirth; however, MEET ME, JESUS is actually about loss: the loss of innocence, dignity and hope. The film's final irony is our usual compensation: "If these wings should fail me Lord, meet me with another pair." MEET ME, JESUS is a compilation film using found footage as well as original material and hand painting on film. —Canyon Cinema

Using hand-painted film, animation and an inventive soundtrack, INTRODUCTION TO OOBIELAND is an exploration of gateways: a repeated series of movements from the familiar and safe to the unknown and dangerous. Cycles are left incomplete. Chases are never consummated; the day ends with no promise of rebirth. In this way the film touches on our oldest instincts, leaving us saddened and scared by the knowledge of a world that will never know freedom through the completion of action; safety through the sanctification of place.

Someone attempts to find Oobieland. The realm of artificial sound encountered in the first film (INTRODUCTION TO OOBIELAND) is left behind; there is a terrible silence. The television studio of the second film (UBI EST TERRAM OOBIAE?) is also left behind; big trees and snow populate the visible world in SOLSTICE. Somewhere a boundary is crossed; the viewer is caught up in a cycle of meetings with strange inhabitants of that short space of time we call winter solstice.

In the kitchen of a Vermont farmhouse, four people come to sit around a table. The silence of solstice holds them together. Before a ritualized meal they each tell a story. Their stories are ominous, yet, as in the first OOBIELAND film (INTRODUCTION TO OOBIELAND), they are incomplete. Earlier, the titular mother has passed on her powers to a young woman. At the close of the film, this young woman enters the farmhouse and, with final simplicity, restores the old order.

Los Angeles is called “City of the Angels”. On this visit in December 2012 what I recorded became the substance of this film. It is an exploration of inanimate objects: toys, dolls, and figurines, and locations with people: LA auto show, city streets, Getty Museum, a memorabilia shop, and the LA observatory. These were interwoven in such a way as to suggest a correlation between the animate and inanimate, the real and the unreal.

Arthur, a 21 year old American male has been drafted into the army. It is the time of the Viet Nam War. Slowly we are introduced to three sets of characters whose decisions ultimately determine the course of Arthur's resolution to his dilemma, and thus his life. First comes a group of non-Americans. Then a second group consisting of actual friends, family and acquaintances of Arthur the actor. Finally, the third group, a cross-section of Americans: teenie boppers, suburbanites, Green Berets, an artist and a Spanish American War vet. The final solution is brought about by bringing the non-Americans together in an auditorium, showing them all the previously shot footage and asking them to vote on what they think Arthur should do.

Walter Ungerer's A Warm Day Comes After A Cold Winter is among a series of experimental films the filmmaker created in the 90s that utilize computer animation and assorted "lo-fi" video artifacts.

Shot in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Montreal; the film follows filmmaker Guido Gruczeck as he begins to piece together his newest project. A film within a film. Leaving The Harbor illustrates how art immitates life, how everyday occurrences and conversations in Ungerer's life become scenes and dialogue for Gruczeck's film.

A man meets a woman at a deserted railroad station somewhere in northern New England. It is the middle of winter; snow is falling. The two drive to a remote farmhouse. Two strange children, who never speak, appear at the window; an old woman calls them away.

UNTITLED 2.1.2 uses abstract, hardly recognizable shapes and colors to create a person's emotions as they experience tension and chaos.

Meditations on human destruction composed at land's end.

This work is an exploration of digital still camera motion clips I recorded while visiting the downtown art district of Los Angeles. In retrospect one can say the end result is very different from the beginning, as is so often the case. Initially, material shot with a digital still camera of a visit through the art district of downtown LA during “art walk” day, was the starting point. Once it was transferred into a computer editing system, the realistic imagery of people, places and things, was transformed into explorations of shapes, patterns, colors, text, rhythms and sounds. It was stretched, squeezed, turned upside down, continuously repeated and otherwise distorted both in picture and sound…with playful intentions. Some obscured somewhat recognizable images do remain: a face, eyes, sunglasses, a street corner, a police car, a woman singer and an outdoor concert, another woman eating a piece of cherry pie at a restaurant.

The film begins with abstract images of continuously changing in color, shape and texture. Slowly it reveals the source and real identity of the original subject-matter, and in so doing has transcended the abstract world for reality. Yet, they co-exist. Time lapse video clips form the basis of this work.

The film is an observation of activities in Maine. One Town, Portland is celebrating "First Friday Art Walk" where people go to the museum and art galleries. The second town, Belfast is celebrating the boat launching of three rebuilt sailboats. By using a small digital camera, people are canidly recorded talking and eating at a restaurant, viewing artwork, and just walking about town.

The film title is an abbreviation for no comment. With all due respects I find this to be an appropriate description of this film, which is based on abstract drawings, obscure images, and distorted sounds.

It is a film in four parts: underground, city, rural countryside, fog and ocean. Though the parts are separate, they are bound by the film; as earth, air, fire and water were separate are bound by the concept of universe for ancient Greece.