
Walter Ungerer has been working as a filmmaker and media artist for over forty-five years.
His presence as an experimental filmmaker was first established with his short 16mm film Meet Me, Jesus (1965), which gained national attention at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. In 1969 Ungerer began a project called The Oobieland Series. Part two of the series, Ubi Est Terram Oobiae? (1969) was included in a Museum of Modern Art collection of experimental films which toured the world in 1970.
In 1977 The Animal (1976) won first prize in the feature narrative category at the Athens International Film Festival, and Ungerer’s reputation as a leading experimental narrative filmmaker was established. That followed with The House Without Steps (1978), awarded an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Grant; The Winter There Was Very Little Snow (1984), awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Individual Artist Grant; and Leaving The Harbor (1991), awarded a 1992 New England Film and Video Festival Outstanding Narrative prize.
In 1992 Ungerer began working with the computer and animation software, producing Birds 2/93 (1993), A Warm Day Comes After A Cold Winter (1995), and Relatives In X, Y, & Z (1996). In recognition of these accomplishments in 1997 Ungerer was awarded a Vermont “Bessie” award.
In 2002 Ungerer turned to the documentary form to produce and all this madness, a film about the September 11th terrorist attack on the NYC World Trade Center buildings. It was shot in part on location at the “Ground Zero” site; and in part in Vermont (Ungerer was still living in Vermont at the time), recording people’s responses to the disaster. The style of interview documentary used for the film was subsequently used to produce his next film, the autobiographical down the road.
In the last few years Ungerer has begun to use an inexpensive digital still camera to create his projects: Random Bits Of Unknown Significance, A Week In Northern Germany, The Old Man In This World Of Magic And Such As It Is. Today Ungerer remains a prominent figure in the avant garde/experimental media scene.