Robert Kirchhoff is an independent film director, producer cinematographer, and scriptwriter.
Between 1995 - 2000 he studied film directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he graduated as M.A. (2000) and later as Art. Dr. (2006) in documentary film. In his professional carrier he filmed and produced many feature documentaries, many of which achieved a significant recognition at numerous festivals domestically and internationally. His filmmaking focuses on current social topics that cope with "traumatic" heritage of historical events in Central Europe in 20th century. To name the few, he provides a critical insight into current situation of minorities at the edge of society in post-communistic Slovakia (Black Word/Calo Lav, 1999), or explores the social and moral identity in the wake of the "capitalism" in former eastern block (Hey you Slovaks, 2002). In his current film Through the Forest (planned for completion 2013) he reveals the intertwined fates of survivors of romany holocaust and his most recent
documentary deals with the juridicial crime (Normalization, 2013).
Most notably, the screenings and retrospective of his work include such prominent venues as Anthology of Film Archives, New York, USA (2006), Columbia University, New York (2004) or New School University New York (USA), (1999).
Since 2002 he is a founder and CEO of atelier.doc Ltd., which was established as an independent production organization focusing primarily on production of documentary films and TV movies (www.atelierdoc.sk).
Since 2003 he also participated as a producer or a co-producer on some of the most significant and awarded Slovak and Czech documentaries that gained national and international recognition. These include such titles as Disease of the Third power (dir. Zuzana Piussi), Made in Ash (dir. Iveta Grofova), Obscurantist and his lineage (dir. Karel Vachek). He also coproduced a documentary Blind Love (dir. Juraj Lehotsky), which was awarded by CICAE award at Cannes 2008.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Robert Kirchhoff holds an academic appointment of Assistant professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava where he leads the course: the Directing of documentary film and Auteur documentary film. He also works as a lecturer of film courses at Summer Film School in his native Slovakia or in neighboring countries of Central Europe.
www.atelierdoc.sk
