Since 1978 he has made over 30 films and several media installations. He was best known for his films and installations in the Private Hungary series. In 2007 he received the Erasmus Prize for extraordinarily important contributions in the cultural, social or sociological field. He lives in Budapest . At the Biennale in Venice in 2009, he was involved in the Hungarian pavilion with a video installation.
Filmography (selection)
Forgács was involved as a director or screenwriter :
1978: I See That I Look
1985: Golden Age video
1985: Iron Age
1985: Spinoza Rückwertz
1986: The Portrait of Leopold Szondi
1987: Episodes from the Life of Professor MF
1988: The Bartos Family - Private Hungary 1
1989: Dusi & Jenõ - Private Hungary 2
1989: Either - Or - Private Hungary 3
1990: The Diary of Mr. N. - Private Hungary 4
1991: Márai Herbal - INTERLUDE series
1991: D-FILM - Private Hungary 5
1991: Photographed by László Dudás - Private Hungary 6
1991: Arizona diary - with poet György Petri
1992: Wittgenstein Tractatus - INTERLUDE series
1992: Bourgeoisie Dictionary - Private Hungary 7
1993: Culture Shavings
1993: Simply Happy - with Albert Wulffers
1993: Conversations on Psychoanalysis - documentary series 5/5
1. Freud & Vienna
2. Sándor Ferenczi & the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis
3. The Psychoanalytic View of Man
4. Psychoanalysis & Society
5. Psychoanalysis as Therapy
1994: Hungarian Totem (video - 26min)
1994: The Notes of a Lady - Private Hungary 8
1994: Meanwhile Somewhere 1940-43 ...
1996: The Land of Nothing - Private Hungary 9
1996: Pauer pseudo
1996: Free Fall - Private Hungary 10
1997: Class Lot - Private Hungary 11
1997: Kádár's Kiss - Private Hungary 12
1997: The Maelstrom - A Family Chronic
1998: The Danube Exodus
1999: Angelos' film
2001: A Bibó Reader - Private Hungary 13
2002: The Bishop's Garden - Private Hungary 14
2003: The Kaiser on the walk - light & image project
2003: Do you really love me? The HungAryan installation
2008: I am von Höfler - Variation on Werther 160 min. - Private Hungary 14
2008: Your own death film. 118 min
2011: German Unity @ Balaton. Honey land
Works in collections
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, USA
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
literature
Cinema's Alchemist. The Films of Péter Forgács , ed. by Bill Nichols and Michael Renov, Minneapolis, Minn. [u. a.]: University of Minnesota Press, 2011