Jürgen Vsych made her first film at age 6. It was shot on Super-8, edited with her dad’s toenail clippers and financed with money earned by baby-sitting. Jürgen’s films have been shown at 41 film festivals in 28 countries. Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, her 27th featurette, was made in Glasgow and won the Prince Charles Trust Award. It was distributed in Scotland, paired with Slacker and Delicatessen. $on for Sail, featurette #28, aired on Britain's Channel Four and on America's PBS. Her 35mm feature début, Ophelia Learns to Swim is now available on DVD - call (415) 839-5185 or order here.

Jürgen is the author of The Woman Director, the first autobiography of an American female film director. She was the least-famous person to have her journal included in the book World Cinema: Diary of a Day. She also wrote, directed, produced and starred in 38 plays and 110 one-act plays. She has written a feature-length screenplay of Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, as well as nine other feature comedies.

Jürgen financed her early films by working as a cellist - possibly the only person on earth whose day job was being a musician. She also plays lead guitar, tenor sax, tuba, and harpsichord, and her films are known for their eclectic original soundtracks. She has also worked as a bodyguard, detective, and butler. Since 9/11, Jürgen has worked as a professional bagpiper. As one of the country’s top funeral pipers, she has attended the funerals of more soldiers killed in Iraq than the entire Bush Administration. Her bagpipe website is TheLadyPiper.com.

Jürgen Vsych (pronounced “Yurgen VY-zick” [rhymes with “Isaac”]

Jürgen’s films are not easily classifiable. An expert at mixing genres (Pay Your Rent Beethoven was a historically accurate “musical comedy” about a composer going deaf), Jürgen deftly blends comedy and drama. She has been called “A cross between Buster Keaton and Ingmar Bergman. Watching her films is like having a great conversation with a friend, who out of the blue smashes you over the head with a baseball bat.”

Jürgen says she aims her films at “intelligent teenagers - impressionable young people who are in danger of tuning into mindless clogs in the system. They’re still questioning authority, daring, a bit wild. I hope I corrupt the youth of America and keep them thinking.” Jürgen’s favorite directors are Michael Powell, David Lean, John Huston, George Cukor, Howard Hawkes, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and The Coen Brothers. Favorite films include Lawrence of Arabia, The Seventh Seal, Ridicule, La Grande Illusion, Duck Soup, Tunes of Glory, My Man Godfrey, The Snake Pit, Cold Comfort Farm, and All That Jazz. And Casablanca, of course...

See Jürgen’s résumé for more information.

Vsych left school at 15 to apprentice at the Old Vic, BBC-Scotland, and Scottish Opera with Dr. Jonathan Miller. Jürgen continued her film education by making films financed with her own hard-earned cash, and received informal instruction in cinematography with Oscar winners Conrad Hall and Guy Green, editing with Bob Bathgate, and sound design with Cy Jack and Keith Bilderbeck.

© Jürgen Vsych    All rights reserved

Jürgen and Conrad Hall

Very serious director

coen brothers wes anderson sam rockwell david strathairn john sayles laurence olivier film school girl paxton whitehead james cabell ludwig van beethoven michelle kwan rowan atkinson leonard nimoy star trek groucho harpo chico marx brothers buster keaton terry gilliam monty python john cleese eric idle terry jones beyond fringe alan bennett brian cox mrs dalloway truman capote nancy drew errol flynn bob fosse bride frankenstein amelia earhart katharine hepburn phyllis diller jane fonda comic vincent price boris karloff peter lorre alec guinness carl sagan bill nye science guy pat cashman almost live bob nelson nancy guppy patch of blue miller’s crossing fargo harriet the spy pirates adventure ahab russell crowe al pacino robert deniro rosa parks sofia coppola george clooney jew of malta christopher marlowe william shakespeare