Frederick Douglas Stephan "Fred" Baker (26 January 1965 – 24 August 2020) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

, media scholar, and archaeologist. He was born in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and was brought up in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. After graduating from

Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet is a boys' grammar school in Barnet, northern Greater London, which was founded in 1573 by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and others, in the name of Queen Elizabeth I. It is consistently ranked as one o ...

, he studied

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

at St John’s College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

Universities, finishing with a Ph.D. from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. He was a Senior Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, specialising in Digital Humanities, Heritage, and Prehistoric Rock Art. He was a co-founder of the EU-funded 3D Pitoti digital heritage project and co-director of the Cambridge University Prehistoric Picture Project. He divided his time between

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, producing and directing films, as well as writing articles and books. In the book ''The Art of Projectionism'' (2007) he defined a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented "ambient film", a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed "ambient cinemas". His first narrative ambient short, ''Ruhetag'', was premiered in Vienna in 2007. ''Ring Road: A Viennese Odyssey'', the first ambient feature film, was premiered at the Biennale in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in 2008. His interview partners included

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, George H. W. Bush,The Independent (London), 06.09.1998
/ref> Mikhail Gorbachev,

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

, Shimon Peres,

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

, John Major,

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime min ...

, Amalia Rodrigues, Cardinal Franz König,

Lord Norman Foster Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

, Sir Ernst Gombrich,

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration ...

, Prince Louis Ferdinand of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

’s grandson and

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Westwood came to public notice when she m ...

. Baker taught film at the Donau University, Krems and St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria. He lectured on film, media and journalism at the

Bauhaus University, Weimar The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a university located in Weimar, Germany, and specializes in the artistic and technical fields. Established in 1860 as the Great Ducal Saxon Art School, it gained collegiate status on 3 June 1910. In 1919 the sc ...

, the

Universität der Künste The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

in Berlin and Middlesex University in London. He also taught film as part of the Screen Media and Culture Group at

. His specialties included

cinema of Austria Cinema of Austria refers to the film industry based in Austria. Austria has had an active cinema industry since the early 20th century when it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and that has continued to the present day. Producer Sascha Kolowrat-Kr ...

new media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D pri ...

and

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

. For the

Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts and design, the mu ...

he created 'Klimt's Magic Garden: A Virtual Reality Experience by Frederick Baker' (2018). Baker died on 25 August 2020, at the age of 55.

Filmography

*''Goodbye to Berlin's Big Brother'' ('' BBC Late Show'') (1994) *''Correspondent - 12 reports from Central Europe'' (''BBC Current Affairs'') (1995-2000) *''Killing Time - the 48 hour week'' (''BBC Assignment'') (1995) *''Right to Reply - Bloody Bosnia'' (''

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

'') (1995) *''Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood'' - ''

Eric Hobsbawn Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...

and Slovakian Nationalism'' (for ''

BBC Arena ''Arena'' is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC since 1 October 1975. Voted by TV executives in ''Broadcast'' magazine as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has produced over six hu ...

'') (1996)''Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood - Eric Hobsbawn and Slovakian Nationalism.''
Retrieved 29 April 2016. *''Austrian-Jewish Cultural Festival'' (''

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

Culture'') (1996) *''Shopping for King Arthur'' (''ORF Culture'') (1996) *''Women Priests in England'' (''ORF'') (1996) *''The First

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

'' (''

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...

'') (1997) *''Die erste Stille Nacht'' (''Media Europa/ORF'') (1997) *''Re-cycling Churches in England'' (''ORF Religion'') (1997) *''

Fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

: Religion und Music in Portugal'' (''ORF Religion'') (1997) *''The German Giant -

'' (''BBC Correspondent Special'') (1998) *''Viennese Jews on the Thames'' (''Austrian Cultural Institute, London'') (1998) *''Big Brother - The Stasi - East Germany's Secret Police'' (''BBC Correspondent Special'') (1999) *''Magic Lantern:

& Revolution'' (''BBC Correspondent Special'') (1999) *''Stille Nacht - Ein Lied geht um die Welt'' (''Media Europa/ORF'') (1999) *''

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

- der Rote Gott'' (''ORF/ Rainer Moritz Arts'') (1999) *''Rebuilding the Reichstag'' ('' BBC Omnibus'') (1999) *''The Haider Show'' (''BBC Correspondent'') (2000) *''Stalin: Red God'' (''BBC Arena'') (2000) *''The Kabbala Oratorio'' (''ORF - Bayern Alpha'') (2002) *''Deutschland Deutschland: Sigmund Nissels musikalische Reise'' (''ORF/3SAT'') (2002) *''Imagine IMAGINE'' (''BBC Arena/ORF'') (2003) *''Creme Bavaroise: obazt is Gerhard Polt & die Biermöslblosn'' (''Media Europa'') (2003) *''Shadowing the Third Man'' (''with Silverapples Media for BBC/ORF'') (2004) *''Anziehendes Österreich - Modische Inszenierungen von Kopf bis Fuss'' (''With Sandra Fasolt'') (2005) *''Testing Mozart'' (''BBC/ ORF/ Arte/ Euroarts'') (2006) *''Romy Schneider- Eine Frau in drei Noten'' (''ORF/ARTE'') (2008) *''Kultur des Widerstands'' (''ORF/ Filmbäckerei'') (2010) *''Widerstand in Haiderland'' (''Filmbäckerei/Polyfilm'') (2010) *''Und Äktschn'' (2014) *''Und Äktschn: Making of'' (TV movie documentary) (2014) *''Prometheus Pitoti'' (short film) (2016) *''Cinema Austria: Die ersten 112 Jahre'' (TV movie documentary) (2020)

Awards

* Golden Halo, Best Virtual Reality Documentary, Amsterdam European VR days VR Days Amsterdam, September 2017 Award for 360 VR film "Pitoti Prometheus" with Marcel Karnapke, Produced at Cambridge University and the Bauhaus University Weimar for the EU project 3D Pitoti. * Best 3D Animation World 3D Guild, Liege, Belgium December 2016 Award for "Pitoti Prometheus" 360 VR film with Marcel Karnapke. Produced with McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University & Bauhaus University Weimar, as part of the EU Project "3D Pitoti". * Europa Nostra European Union Digital Research Prize 2016 Europa Nostra & European Union *2008: ''Homosexuell und dennoch Christ (ORF, Kreuz & Quer)'': Leopold Ungar Preis. Fredrick Baker wurde gemeinsam mit Sandra Fasolt für den Beitrag "Homosexuell und dennoch Christ" (ORF, Kreuz & Quer) mit dem Anerkennungspreis in der Kategorie TV ausgezeichnet. Der Bericht kratze massiv an Vorurteilen und stelle festgefahrene Haltungen der Kirche in Frage, so die Begründung der Jury -
Caritas Wien
*2007: ''Shadowing the Third Man'': Finalist, Hollywood Film Festival and Belgrade International Film Festival; Finalist, URTI International Film Festival, Monte Carlo. *2006: ''Shadowing the Third Man'' won 1st Overall Prize for best documentary at the Festival di Palazzo Venezia_Arte 2006 in Rome. *2005: ''Shadowing the Third Man'' was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
/ref> ''Imagine IMAGINE'' was awarded the World Gold Medal for feature documentaries in the category Film and Video at the New York Festivals 2005. ''Deutschland, Deutschland'' was awarded the Silver Remi at the Worldfest in the Houston International film festival. *2004: ''Stalin: Red God'' won a Bronze Remi at the Worldfest Houston - category History and Archaeology films. ''Imagine IMAGINE'' was awarded a Golden Prague award (Special Mention) in the documentary category at the 41st Golden Prague International Film Festival in the documentary category. Jury statement:"Through an iconic song, this film paints a colourful portrait of a global generation." *2003: ''Deutschland, Deutschland'' was selected as a finalist in the Hollywood Film Festival and showcased at the Arclight Theater on Sunset Boulevard. It also made the finals of the PRIX EUROPA in Berlin, as one of the top ten in Europe in the multi-cultural documentary category - "Iris". The film was shortlisted for the Golden Prague Music documentary award in Prague. It was selected for the Academia festival in Olomouc and the Hradec Kralovy in the Czech Republic, and for the Golden Chest award in Bulgaria. *2002: ''Rebuilding the Reichstag'' won the Architectural Education award at 26th Festival International du Film d'Art et Pedagogique (FIFAP) Paris. ''Stalin: Red God'' was awarded the Golden Gate Award in the category History film at the 45th San Francisco International Film festival 2002. It was also a Finalist at the Banff film festival, the New York TV festival 2002. *2001: ''Stalin: Red God'' was jointly awarded the prize for best documentary at the 36th International Academia film festival in Olomouc, Czech Republic. It made the finals of the UNESCO festival in Paris, Maremma Doc, in Italy, and DocumentArt festival in Germany, Mediawave in Hungary, Palic in Yugoslavia & Booz,Allen Hamilton Award, Diagonale, Graz, Austria. *2001: The Correspondent series 2000 (including ''The Haider Show'', ''Dr. Gross'' and ''Lojze Wieser'') was awarded the prize for best TV Programme by the Royal Television society in London. *2001: ''The Haider Show'' was nominated for the Diagonale Documentary Prize, Graz. *2000: ''Rebuilding the Reichstag'': Grand Prix at Techfilm 2000 - the 38th International Arts and Technology Film Festival, Czech Republic. *1997: ''Stories My Country Told Me: The Meaning of Nationhood'' - ''

and Slovakian Nationalism'': “Gold Hugo” – the top award in the category Social/ Political Documentary, INTERCOM film festival, Chicago. Also selected for and shown at the Jewish Film Festival, Vienna 1998.

Bibliography

* ''Die beschämte Republik. Österreich 10 jahre nach Schwarz-Blau'' (Ed. with Petra Herczeg), Czernin Verlag, Vienna, 2010. * ''The Art of Projectionism'', Czernin Verlag, Vienna, 2007 * ''Salzburg Erlesen'' (edited by Frederick Baker), Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2007 * ''The Reichstag Graffiti / Die Reichstag Graffiti'' (with Norman Foster and Deborah Lipstadt), Jovis Verlag, Berlin, 2003 * "The Red Army graffiti in the Reichstag, Berlin: politics of rock-art in a contemporary European urban landscape" in ''European Landscapes of Rock-Art'', edited by George Nash and Christopher Chippindale, Routledge, London, 2002 *''Der dritte Mann: Auf den Spuren eines Filmklassikers'' (with Brigitte Timmermann), Czernin Verlag, Vienna, 2002 *''Wiener Wandertage: eine Dokumentation'' (edited by Frederick Baker & Elisabeth Boyer), Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2002

References

External links

*
Home of Media EuropaThe Third Man''The Art of Projectionism''The Haider Show (BBC)Austria's New Resistance (BBC)Publisher Fights for Small Languages (BBC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Frederick Film people from Salzburg British film directors Austrian film directors German-language film directors Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 1965 births 2020 deaths British documentary film directors People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys