FELIX AUSTRIA!
(Unknown)

English

Title from title frames.

In Process Record.

Film

Originally produced by Christine Beebe in 2015.

At the heart of the film is Brian Pfeifle, a young man from Modesto, California who, by education, inclination, force of will, and – perhaps – a sense of fate, assumes the mantle of Felix Pfeifle, spiritual heir to the Habsburg Empire. Moving boldly between Felix’s life in Los Angeles as a gay man, scholar and designer, his family life in Modesto (where his father suffers from advanced Huntington’s Disease, a fatal and hereditary illness Felix himself stands a fifty percent chance of contracting), and his burgeoning relationship with Archduke Otto Habsburg, the last living heir of the Habsburg Empire, FELIX AUSTRIA! examines its themes of heredity, identity and transformation in ways that are both nuanced and profound...Felix’s journey, which takes him from the barrio of Los Angeles to Vienna itself, with an unlikely detour to upstate New York, allows him, and viewers, to explore matters that are exceptionally timely within the context of contemporary academia – questions of identity, sexuality, appropriation and use – but also issues that resonate within the lives of the students themselves. What does it take to construct, and become, an independent self? To what degree are our identities inherited, and to what degree invented? Ideas like this, so urgent within the academy and so meaningful within the lives of young (and not-so-young) people, resound throughout the film. ..FELIX AUSTRIA! premiered at HotDocs and was nominated for the Best Documentary, Best Director, and Best Editing awards at the International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema Milan 2015...Festivals.* St. Tropez International Film Festival.* Indie Spirit Film Festival - Winner of Spotlight Award.* Madrid International Film Festival

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In English