Jürgen Vsych
(pronounced Yurgen VY-zick [rhymes with "Isaac"])
Writer-director-producer
Author:
What Was Ralph
Nader Thinking? How Ralph Tried to Save the World by Running for
President and How I Tried, Tried to Help Him Forthcoming
book about my experiences as Ralph Nader’s 2004 Presidential
Photographer and Videographer
The Woman
Director: The Adventures of a Really Independent Filmmaker Ages 6-36
First autobiography of an American female film director. Wroughten
Books 2005
Writer-director-producer Filmography:
Ralph Nader
Crashes the Two Parties 25 min. miniDV
Ophelia Learns
to Swim 88 min 35mm
$on for Sail
20 min. 35mm
Pay Your Rent,
Beethoven 5 min. 16mm
Lost films: (partial list. The
following Super-8 films below went up in a housefire. No known copies
exist)
The Music Scholarship - 12
minutes (1989)
Tyrannosaurus Tex (1974)
Go To Your Tomb, Young Lady
(1973)
The Rocks Go On A Picnic
(1973) Synopses available upon request)
Feature Screenplays: (synopses
available upon request)
Ralph Nader: Unsafe at Any Speed
The Bagpipers
The Root of All Evil
Pay Your Rent, Beethoven
Curl Up and Dye
Arch
The Expedition
and 2 stinkers best left in a drawer
Lecturer:
The Woman Director Medicine Show.
I play bagpipes to wake up the audience and lure people off the streets
and into the store/auditorium. I lecture about my films, read
selections from The
Woman Director, and show clips: the opening scenes of $on for Sail
and Ophelia
Learns to Swim, the first five minutes of Ralph Nader Crashes
the Two Parties. The evening concludes with a booksigning. I
put on different shows for school groups and adults. 30-90 minutes.
Awards:
The Princes Trust for Pay Your Rent,
Beethoven
Bronze Medal Duisburger Film Festival
Fort Worth Film Festival - “Best Marketing” (proof that playing
bagpipes outside the theatre puts butts in seats)
Numerous of Audience Awards
Directing/writing specialties:
Comedy (black, satire, slapstick, parody)
Drama
Horror
Suspense
Tragedy
Historical
Comical-tragical-historical-pastoral
Skilled at mixing genres
Influences: (also see Favorites)
Howard Hawks, George Cukor, Alfred Hitchcock,
Ingmar Bergman,
Buster Keaton,
The Marx Brothers,
David Lean, Michael Curtiz,
James Whale,
Education:
Made 29 short films and one feature all financed with my own money
(earned by toiling as a professional bagpiper and cellist, babysitting,
manual labor, bookseller, cashier, etc.)
baby-sat every night from age 6-17, newborns to 14-year-olds (the best
training for dealing with actors to d.p.s)
Dropped out of school at 15 (Los Angeles Unified School District. Need
I say more). Received G.E.D. at age 16
Directing Apprenticeships:
Dr. Jonathan
Miller (of Beyond the Fringe,
The Body in Question) Old Vic Theatre, Royal Shakespeare
Company, Scottish Opera, LA Opera 1988
Old Globe Theatre 1986
Informal training (lectures,
private tea-time):
Directing - John
Houseman
Cinematography - Guy Green
Editing - Bob Bathgate (BBC Scotland)
Makeup and wigs - Frank Bower, Old Globe Theatre
Art direction - Old Vic
Costume design - L.A. Opera, Scottish Opera, Citizens Theatre
Writing - Ray Bradbury
Film festivals and markets: 41
in 28 countries, including Sydney, Cannes 1994 and 2002, Palm Springs,
Edinburgh, IFP
Languages:
American English
Queens English
Glaswegian
Some German
Beginning Spanish (currently studying with “The Rosetta Stone”)
finger-spelling, good at miming handy things like, “Can we film in your
swimming pool?”
Knowledge of:
Classical Music (esp. Beethoven)
WWII history
British History
NASA and the Space Industry
Science - quantum physics
History of consumerism and corporate crime
Cinema History: Silents, 1930-50 gangster, Universal Horror classics,
Corman Poe, Bogart, Hepburn, Ingmar Bergman, Howard Hawks, Michael
Curtiz, etc.
Miscellaneous useless knowledge at the Jeopardy! level
Special Talents:
Will work with kids and animals (even snakes and spiders)
Able to dub actors, saving thousands of dollars in airfare and
headaches. Can also do voiceovers
Can carry four 1000' film reels up a flight of stairs
Excellent driver, never had an accident. Just ask Ralph
Nader!
Music:
Professional bagpiper and cellist. Proficient in piano, organ, tuba,
tenor saxophone, oboe, bassoon, bugle, drums, etc.
Knowledge of all music forms, esp. classical, baroque, Ragtime,
Broadway musicals, jazz, Celtic...
Dance:
Bellydance, Tap, Ballet, Modern
Sports:
competed in long distance running, swimming, figure skating,
gymnastics, Karate (Kenpo, Akido), fencing (foil, sabre)
Resident of:
San Francisco, Los Angeles (native), San Diego, Seattle, Portland OR,
New York City, Washington DC, Glasgow, London, Amsterdam
Traveled: (if no city
specified, I’m familiar with many parts of that state)
Alabama (Birmingham), Arizona, California (native) Colorado (Colorado
Springs), Connecticut, Illinois (Chicago), Iowa, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Mexico (Santa Fe), New York, New Jersey, Nebraska,
Ohio, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), South Carolina (Charleston), Utah
(SLC, Park City) Virginia, West Virginia (Wheeling), Nevada, Oregon,
Vermont, Washington, Wyoming
Overseas: Canada (Toronto),
Mexico (Tijuana), England (everywhere)
Wales (Northern), Germany (Western half), Austria (Vienna), France
(Cannes & Nice), Sweden (Southern), Denmark (Copenhagen), Amsterdam
(The Hague, Rottersdam, Haarlem)
Former Professional affiliations
(and why I quit them):
BAFTA (food was bad)
Women in Film (too much bitching)
Independent Feature Project (flaky party animals)
Cinewomen (couldn't stay awake during committee meetings)
Personal:
Will travel. Rarely sick. Non-smoking teetotaling drug-free vegetarian.
Will work with carnivorous chain-smoking alcoholic drug addicts if
they are punctual.
Hobbies:
Writing and directing intelligent, entertaining films. Not the same old
rot.
