Many of the world's greatest cinematographers are also great directors. For an ethnographic documentarian with a keen eye for cinematic composition, it makes sense. And you'll hardly find a finer example of that than the Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter. His groundbreaking, quietly inquisitive, visually magnificent documentaries have constituted among the most exciting and idiosyncratic fare to emerge from the European arthouse circuit over the past 30 years. In my opinion, Geyrhalter's only getting better as his career progresses - 2016's Homo Sapiens might be one of the most profound and defining features of its era.
Geyrhalter's one of those rare DPs I'd simply rather not see working with other directors, as it'd mean I wouldn't get to see what he might have done with that project with himself occupying both roles. As an artistic process, it's an astonishingly successful one, as the above clip ought to demonstrate. Press play and take a tumble into the world through Maestro Geyrhalter's inimitable eyes...
Films featured
Angeschwemmt, 1994
The Year After Dayton, 1997
Pripyat, 1999
Elsewhere, 2001
Our Daily Bread, 2005
7915 Km, 2008
Abendland, 2011
Over the Years, 2015
Homo Sapiens, 2016
The Border Fence, 2018
Earth, 2019