PAUL POET works as a director and writer for cinema, TV and theatre, equally helming features as well as documentaries, commercials and music videos. He also works as a print and TV journalist in the areas of culture, politics and pop. Born in 1971 in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, with Styrian descent. Childhood in Graz, London, Lagos (Nigeria), Paris. Today he lives in Vienna and Veitsch and divides his time between making movies, journalism, and media science. After a long history in the musical subculture and punk-scene of Vienna, he turns to directing in 1996, his debut short film “HOCH ZEIT” cast with international independent rock celebrities. Various international music videos and TV-productions follow. 1999 he receives the first prize at the “DUEL VIDECLIP” in Faenza for directing the music video “TripHopping in the Planet Drug”. After innovative pioneer projects in the realm of the internet at the turn of the century, such as heading the first European Online –Filmfestival, he finishes his first full-length cinema movie in 2002: “AUSLÄNDER RAUS! SCHLINGENSIEFS CONTAINER”. The internationally successful and award-winning documentary on Christoph Schlingensiefs notorious Viennese shock installation in 2000, which was a Big Brother-styled interactive modern concentration camp, scathingly attacking modern European xenophobia, whose online-appearance Poet had already directed. The film receives a successful cinema release in Germany and Austria and is celebrated in the worldwide film festival circuit (Rotterdam, Brisbane, Mar del Plata, Rhode Island, Headliner at PopKomm Cologne, Ars Electronica, Spielbergs Jewish Filmfestival Tel Aviv) as well as winning the GOLDEN REMI AWARD at WORLDFEST HOUSTON and the BEST INTERNATIONAL MOVIE AWARD at the IMAGES FESTIVAL TORONTO against well-known directors like Harun Farocki or the Bothers Quay. After years of TV-Productions for ORF, 3Sat, Spiegel TV and ATV as well as theatre work and musicvideos, Poet in 2011 finished his first major budget cinema documentary “EMPIRE ME” after eight years of working on it, a one million Euro co-production of Austria, Germany and Luxembourg in co-production with ORF, ZDF and ARTE. This epic anarchist portrait of counterworlds, neo-communities and micronations, all forms of anti-global modern utopias, will receive a major cinema release in the end of 2011. Besides preparing the feature film debut of DER MINUSMANN with FILMHAUS, he also works on a big documentary on the Western Countries breaking out in revolts and unrest regarding the economic crisis for Austrian Allegro Film as well as the Political Slapstick Satire meets Horror-SciFI-Thriller feature film project BLAUE SONNE.
