Jürgen Vsych made her first film at age 6. It was shot on Super-8, edited with her father’s toenail clippers and financed with money earned by baby-sitting. Jürgen’s films have screened at 41 film festivals in 28 countries. Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, her 27th featurette, was made in Glasgow and won the Prince Charles Trust Award. It was distributed in the U.S. and Canada, paired with Persuasion. $on for Sail, featurette #28, aired on Britain's Channel Four and on America's PBS. Her 35mm feature début is the cult comedy Ophelia Learns to Swim.

Jürgen is the author of The Woman Director, the first autobiography of an American female film director. In 1993, she had the distinction of being the least-famous person to have her journal included in the book World Cinema: Diary of a Day. She also wrote, directed, produced and starred in 38 plays and 110 one-act plays. She has written a feature-length screenplay of Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, as well as nine other feature comedies. Her latest book is What Was Ralph Nader Thinking? about her stint as Nader’s 2004 campaign filmmaker.

Jürgen financed her early films by working as a cellist - possibly the only person on earth whose day job was being a musician. Jürgen was also a professional bagpiper. As one of America’s top funeral pipers, she attended the funerals of more soldiers killed in Iraq than the entire Bush Administration. She also plays lead guitar, tenor sax, tuba, and harpsichord, and her films are known for their eclectic original soundtracks (see The Lady Piper for a history of Jürgen’s piping).

Although born in Hollywood, Jürgen never went Hollywood. Her films are not easily classifiable. An expert at mixing genres, Jürgen deftly blends comedy and tragedy. She has been called “...a cross between Buster Keaton and Ingmar Bergman. Watching her films is like having a great conversation with a friend who, out of the blue, smashes you over the head with a baseball bat.”

Jürgen graduated high school at 16 and apprenticed at the Old Vic, BBC-Scotland, and Scottish Opera with Dr. Jonathan Miller. She received informal instruction in cinematography with Oscar winners Conrad Hall and Guy Green, editing with Bob Bathgate, and sound editing with Cy Jack.

© Jürgen Vsych    All rights reserved

Jürgen and Conrad Hall

Very serious director

coen brothers wes anderson sam rockwell david strathairn john sayles laurence olivier film school girl paxton whitehead james cabell ludwig van beethoven michelle kwan rowan atkinson leonard nimoy star trek groucho harpo chico marx brothers buster keaton terry gilliam monty python john cleese eric idle terry jones beyond fringe alan bennett brian cox mrs dalloway truman capote nancy drew errol flynn bob fosse bride frankenstein amelia earhart katharine hepburn phyllis diller jane fonda comic vincent price boris karloff peter lorre alec guinness carl sagan bill nye science guy pat cashman almost live bob nelson nancy guppy patch of blue miller’s crossing fargo harriet the spy pirates adventure ahab russell crowe al pacino robert deniro rosa parks sofia coppola george clooney jew of malta christopher marlowe william shakespeare

Jürgen says she aims her films at “intelligent teenagers - impressionable young people who are in danger of tuning into mindless cogs in the system. They’re still questioning authority, daring, willing to take risks. I hope I corrupt the youth of the world and keep them thinking.” Jürgen’s favorite directors are John Huston, David Lean, George Cukor, Howard Hawkes, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz and The Coen Brothers. Favorite films include Lawrence of Arabia, My Man Godfrey, The Snake Pit, The Right Stuff, Ridicule, La Grande Illusion, Duck Soup, Tunes of Glory, Cold Comfort Farm, Man on Wire, and All That Jazz. And Casablanca, of course...

“How do you pronounce that?”

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