Paul Poet is a creative and talented individual with a diverse range of skills and accomplishments. As a subcultural media scientist, he has been a long-time member of the Vienna Underground music-scene, where he has worked as an artist, DJ, music and film critic, underground gig manager, and hardcore singer. He is also one of the founding members of the legendary Flex-club.
Poet is a DIY-believer who taught himself directing movies while working in film McJobs, including TV broadcasts and pornography. He made his 35mm debut short film "Hoch Zeit" in 1996, which starred international noise rockstars from bands like the Melvins and Neurosis as actors and soundtrack contributors. The film was presented at the renowned Sitges Festival and toured all over Europe, earning comparisons to Kenneth Anger and Derek Jarman.
Since 1996, Poet has produced music documentaries and video clips for Austrian Television and various companies, including Major-label Eurodance La La, Indiedom Noise Rock, and avant-garde dancefloor stylings. His biggest success was the music video "TripHopping in the Planet Drug" for Sardinian TripPosters MUCCA MACCA, which gained international success despite its DV-origin and a boycott by distributor Warner.
Poet has also won several awards for his work, including a Best Music Video Directors Award at Italy's Premio Duel Videoclip in Faenza 1999 and a nomination for the European Film Award. He has also been presented in RAI prime time as an innovator of music video stylings alongside stars like Cunningham and Szigismondi.
In 2000, Poet created and curated the Austrian-German Internet TV-Site www.webfreetv.com, where he directed the first European online film festival and the Webfreetv.com Internet Film Award. He also designed and curated the Indie-Art program The Indie Channel, a mixture of ARTE and MTV-contents, high and pop culture designed for youth looking for brains again.
Poet's work has also included directing the online version of the politicised Big Brother-satire "Please love Austria!" by renowned shock director and actionism revivalist Christoph Schlingensief, which developed to the most successful internet art event in Europe so far with over 800,000 unique visitors in a sole week.
After leaving webfreetv.com, Poet worked with new film company Bonus Film GmbH, a sidestep for arty projects by an established Viennese ad-film producer. His feature work there is Foreigners out! Schlingensiefs Container (2002),the feature documentary and film version of "Please love Austria!", which received rave reviews and played to a wide festival range of Rotterdam, Max Ophüls Festival Saarbrücken, Rhode Island IFF, Diagobale Graz, Berlinale/German Film Market, Fipatel Biarritz, Ars Electronica Linz, PopKomm Cologne, and Roma Independent Film Festival.
Currently, Poet is working on a crosscultural internet platform for dark-themed arts called Dark Asylum TV as well as a feature doc (Empire Sabotage) and a feature film (Dolorosa).
