Bernhard Braunstein (Austria)

Bernhard Braunstein (b.1979, Salzburg, Austria), documentarist, editor, and camera operator, graduated in communication sciences from the University of Salzburg and now resides in both Austria and France. Since 2003, when he and Martin Hasenöhrl shot the student documentary Kopfbahnhof, he has co-directed several short and mid-length movies: Reisen im eigenen Zimmer (2006), Pharao Bipolar (2008), Sleeping Image (2013), and The Benevolent Dictator (2016). After moving to Paris in 2009, he soon realized that without conquering the language he could never truly integrate into French society. For this reason he began visiting the library at the Centre Pompidou where they taught French at one of the work stations. Later he joined a free French conversation course – Atelier gratuit de conversation – and it became the inspiration for his feature-length documentary debut. KVIFF