Petra Seeger Explained

Petra Seeger is a German documentary film director and producer. Her 2008 documentary film, explores the life of Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize winning Austrian-born Jewish-American neuroscientist whose research focused on learning and memory.

Career

Seeger has worked as a director since 1979. Creating documentaries for the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, she covered the life of filmmaker Christoph Schlingensief, director Peter Zadek, and filmmaker/playwright Wim Wenders. In 1999, she founded a production company named Petra Seeger Film. Her 2008 documentary film In Search of Memory engages with the life of Nobel Prize winning Austrian neuroscientist Eric Kandel.^[1] The film includes interviews with Kandel, his family, and friends, as well as archival footage and recreations of his childhood, and his recollections of witnessing Kristallnacht and his emigration to New York in 1939.

Critical reception

In Search of Memory has been reviewed in Nature,^[2] the New York Times,^[3] The Boston Globe,^[4] Variety,^[5] The Christian Science Monitor,^[6] The Chicago Reader,^[7] and the Chicago Tribune.^[8] In Search of Memory received the "Best Documentary" award at the 2010 Bavarian Film Awards.^{[9] [10]} In Search of Memory is included in the permanent collection of the U.S. Holocaust Museum.^[11]

Partial filmography

Director

Television

• Gsellmanns Augenfutter (1979)
• Der Bund Deutscher Mädel (1980)
• Schule im 3. Reich (1980)
• Turin - Santo Stefano Belbo, film on Cesare Pavese (1984)
• Abschied vom Drehbuch, film on "Zweite Heimat" by Edgar Reitz (1990)
• Ein Film kommt auf die Welt (1992)
• Zwischen allen Stühlen, Christoph Schlingensief makes theater (1993)
• Nikolaikirche Leipzig (1995)
• Peter Zadek inszeniert Mondlicht von Harold Pinter (1996)
• Film is a battleground, film on director Rudolf Thome (1997/1998)
• 380° Afrika (1999)
• Die Schiller-Gang (2000/2001)
• Wim Wenders, BAP und der Oscar (2002)
• Bis zu der großen Ewigkeit (2006)

Cinema

• In Search of Memory, documentary of Eric Kandel (2008)^[12]
• Vatersland (2020)^[13]

Actress

• Gratwanderung (1984)
• Zwei Bilder (1984)

Screenplay

• Zwei Bilder (1984)
• Vatersland (2003)

External links

• Web site: Petra Seeger. FilmForm Köln. 2009-06-16.
• Petra Seeger's Filmography
• Web site: Auf der Suche nach dem Gedächtnis (In search of Memory) . 2009-06-16.
• In Search of Memory: Documentary by Petra Seeger, Question and Answer Session, Carnegie Institution for Science, January 27, 2009
• Petra Seeger at IMDb.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Petra Seeger. 2021-04-10. filmportal.de.
2. Abbott . Alison . Memories revisited . Nature . 2008 . 453 . 985 . 985 . 10.1038/453985a . free .
3. News: Scott . A.O. . Total Recall: A Journey From Vienna to Brooklyn and the Center of the Brain . 10 April 2021 . New York Times . 7 January 2010.
4. News: Feeney . Mark . In Search of Memory . 10 April 2021 . The Boston Globe . April 23, 2010.
5. News: In Search of Memory . 10 April 2021 . Variety . January 7, 2010.
6. News: Rainer . Peter . In Search of Memory: movie review . 10 April 2021 . The Christian Science Monitor . January 15, 2010.
7. News: Jones . J.R. . In Search of Memory . 2010 . 11 April 2021 . The Chicago Reader.
8. News: Phillips . Michael . Hart . Maureen M. . Roundup . 10 April 2021 . Chicago Tribune . 16 October 2009.
9. Web site: Blaney . Martin . Producers share top prize at 31st Bavarian Film Awards . Screen Daily . 10 April 2021.
10. Web site: Kassel . Dieter . Seeger . Petra . "Irgendwann gehörte ich zur Familie" . Deutschlandfunk Kultur . 10 April 2021.
11. Web site: Auf der Suche nach dem Gedächtnis Der Hirnforscher Eric Kandel / Buch & Regie, Petra Seeger ; Produzentin, Petra Seeger ; eine Produktion von FilmForm Köln ; eine Koproduktion von ARTE und WDR. . U.S. Holocaust Museum . 10 April 2021.
12. Web site: In search of memory : the neuroscientist Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize . NLM Catalog . NCBI . 11 April 2021.
13. Web site: VATERSLAND . Film Festival Cologne . 10 April 2021.