Directing

Péter Lichter

Born

1984-11-20 (41)

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Péter Lichter is a hungarian experimental filmmaker and writer. He studied film history and film theory at the ELTE University, Budapest. Péter makes found footage films and experimental features since 2002. His films were screened at festivals and venues like: Berlin Critics' Week; Rotterdam IFF; Tribeca Film Festival - New York; Jihlava IDFF; Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; Torino Film Festival; goEast - Wiesbaden; Cottbus Film Festival; EXiS - Seoul; CROSSROADS - San Francisco; VideoEX - Zurich; Festival of (In)appropriation - Los Angeles; Antimatter - Victoria, Canada; and La Cinémathèque Française, Paris and The Kitchen, New York. He is also one of the editors of the Prizma film-per…

Known for

Empty Horses poster
4.3

If this is heaven, bring on the afterlife! The spirits of legendary Hungarian filmmakers Michael Curtiz and Gábor Bódy meet in a metaphysical screening room, while on the screen footage plays of classic twentieth-century films.

Empty Horses

2019

Memory Hole poster
NR

The film approaches Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a speculative archaeology: the visual markers of consumer society and political propaganda emerge through damaged advertisements and printed political materials.

Memory Hole

2026

Dr. Moreau poster
7.0

Dr. Moreau is an abstract horror short, adapted from H.G.Wells' classic novel, that will invite the viewer to board on a tangible journey to the borders of science, where the differences between nature and humanity are blurred.

Dr. Moreau

2022

The Thing in the Coffin poster
NR

An experimental reinterpretation of Dracula, this film fuses analog and digital decay-from Super 8 to 35mm-into a glitch-infused vision that transforms the novel's gothic eroticism into a haunting new audiovisual experience.

The Thing in the Coffin

2026

Fourteen variations on the intimate poster
NR

In early 2020, MUTA - International Festival of Audiovisual Appropriation and Cine Íntimo rescued and digitised a Peruvian archive of orphaned 8mm and Super 8 home movies. With the aim of restoring these lost memories, we sent the images around the world. This omnibus film is the result of the intervention of this material, by 14 experimental filmmakers. Fourteen perspectives and ways of experiencing appropriation. Fourteen variations on the intimate.

Fourteen variations on the intimate

2023

Slow Midnight Show poster
NR

The film attempts to stimulate without dialogue and with not too exciting storyline, using only images, sounds, film-noir and usual horror elements.

Slow Midnight Show

2004

Behind the camera

Empty Horses poster
4.3

If this is heaven, bring on the afterlife! The spirits of legendary Hungarian filmmakers Michael Curtiz and Gábor Bódy meet in a metaphysical screening room, while on the screen footage plays of classic twentieth-century films.

Empty Horses

2019

Empty Horses poster
4.3

If this is heaven, bring on the afterlife! The spirits of legendary Hungarian filmmakers Michael Curtiz and Gábor Bódy meet in a metaphysical screening room, while on the screen footage plays of classic twentieth-century films.

Empty Horses

2019

Memory Hole poster
NR

The film approaches Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a speculative archaeology: the visual markers of consumer society and political propaganda emerge through damaged advertisements and printed political materials.

Memory Hole

2026

Memory Hole poster
NR

The film approaches Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a speculative archaeology: the visual markers of consumer society and political propaganda emerge through damaged advertisements and printed political materials.

Memory Hole

2026

Dr. Moreau poster
7.0

Dr. Moreau is an abstract horror short, adapted from H.G.Wells' classic novel, that will invite the viewer to board on a tangible journey to the borders of science, where the differences between nature and humanity are blurred.

Dr. Moreau

2022

The Thing in the Coffin poster
NR

An experimental reinterpretation of Dracula, this film fuses analog and digital decay-from Super 8 to 35mm-into a glitch-infused vision that transforms the novel's gothic eroticism into a haunting new audiovisual experience.

The Thing in the Coffin

2026

Fourteen variations on the intimate poster
NR

In early 2020, MUTA - International Festival of Audiovisual Appropriation and Cine Íntimo rescued and digitised a Peruvian archive of orphaned 8mm and Super 8 home movies. With the aim of restoring these lost memories, we sent the images around the world. This omnibus film is the result of the intervention of this material, by 14 experimental filmmakers. Fourteen perspectives and ways of experiencing appropriation. Fourteen variations on the intimate.

Fourteen variations on the intimate

2023

Slow Midnight Show poster
NR

The film attempts to stimulate without dialogue and with not too exciting storyline, using only images, sounds, film-noir and usual horror elements.

Slow Midnight Show

2004

Cassette poster
NR

This short experimental documentary, shot on super 8, contains a soundtrack that was recorded by the film’s authors during a primary school class trip 24 years earlier.

Cassette

2011

War of the Worlds poster
NR

Collage film built upon the audio of The War of the Worlds, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. Originally broadcast in October 1938 as a Halloween prank, the program famously triggered mass panic across the United States, as its format—presented as a series of live news bulletins—proved uncannily convincing. Absorbing the visual language of the contemporary media environment, W:A:R:O:F:T:H:E:W:O:R:L:D:S constructs a peculiar media-archaeological artifact. AI-generated videos, drone footage, feature films, video games, and online fragments converge with the original radio broadcast, creating a layered and unstable field of perception.

War of the Worlds

2026

The Mysterious Affair at Styles poster
5.0

A collage crime movie from the first novel of Agatha Christie.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

2022

The Rub poster
NR

A retelling of Shakespeare's play from within the mind of the protagonist. The psychedelic appeal of the film was created with hand painted and rotten 35 mm and 16 mm celluloid strips.

The Rub

2018

The Rub poster
NR

A retelling of Shakespeare's play from within the mind of the protagonist. The psychedelic appeal of the film was created with hand painted and rotten 35 mm and 16 mm celluloid strips.

The Rub

2018

Light-Sleep poster
5.5

A boy's sleep is disturbed.

Light-Sleep

2010

Polaroids poster
8.0

510 On a sleepy morning Eduardo Kac, Professor of Biology, cross-fertilized his own DNA with that of the petunia. From the poetry book of Márton Simon.

Polaroids

2015

Nutrition Fugue poster
NR

"Közért" (translation: "for the public") was a government owned chain of stores in Hungary, during the communist era (1948-1989). The word Közért is still used in the Hungarian language. Our film was made from the 35 mm celluloid raw footage of its advertisement: the film strips were digged in the soil, rotten with food and cut up in pieces.

Nutrition Fugue

2018

Frozen May poster
4.8

1990, after the fall. A man struggles to survive in the forest, living alone in a small cabin. One day he spots a mysterious child in an abandoned summer camp.

Frozen May

2017

Frozen May poster
4.8

1990, after the fall. A man struggles to survive in the forest, living alone in a small cabin. One day he spots a mysterious child in an abandoned summer camp.

Frozen May

2017

Negative history of Hungarian cinema poster
10.0

Reconstructions of unrealized Hungarian films in cooperation with the greatest Hungarian film directors.

Negative history of Hungarian cinema

2010

The Philosophy of Horror: A Symphony of Film Theory poster
NR

The Philosophy of Horror – A Symphony of Film Theory is an abstract adaptation of Noël Carroll’s influential film theoretical book of the same title (published in 1990), which is a close examination of the horror genre. Our film uses hand painted and decayed 35 mm film strips of the classic slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) and its sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985).

The Philosophy of Horror: A Symphony of Film Theory

2020

Rimbaud poster
5.0

Arthur Rimbaud's adventures are still the greatest mysteries of the history of literature. This film, which was written by three Hungarian poet, attempts to reconstruct the journeys of the French poet. Rimbaud is an experimental road movie, edited from 30 reels of super 8 film, shot by unknown families in the past century.

Rimbaud

2014

Non-Places: Beyond the Infinite poster
NR

Marc Augé's essay "Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity" meets with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in some Hungarian highway rest areas.

Non-Places: Beyond the Infinite

2016

No artwork available
NR

the second part of "The Philosophy of Horror" series

The Philosophy of Horror (Part II): Emotion

—

The Philosophy of Horror (Part I): Etymology poster
NR

The Philosophy of Horror is a seven-part abstract adaptation of Noël Carroll’s influential film theoretical book of the same title (published in 1990), which is a close examination of the horror genre. The film uses hand painted and decayed 35mm film strips of the classic slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) and its sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985).

The Philosophy of Horror (Part I): Etymology

2019

Love Is A Piece of Paper Torn to Bits poster
NR

This film was made during the second hungarian abstract film workshop: the students created a free association adaptation of the poem of Charles Bukowski. The film was made with direct animation technique, on 35 mm and 16 mm filmstrips. Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest.

Love Is A Piece of Paper Torn to Bits

2018

No artwork available
NR

the third part of "The Philosophy of Horror" series

The Philosophy of Horror (Part III): Geography

—

Being Here, Dreaming There poster
NR

In this experimental film, Peruvian Super 8 safari reels are reimagined as immersive VR imagery, exploring the lingering specters of colonialism and the eeriness of tourism.

Being Here, Dreaming There

2025

Pure Virtual Function poster
NR

Pure Virtual Function is an abstract meditation on the representation of violence, the connection of virtual and real aggression. The film was made from painted 35 mm film strips and sound recording from Iraq war.

Pure Virtual Function

2015

Pure Virtual Function poster
NR

Pure Virtual Function is an abstract meditation on the representation of violence, the connection of virtual and real aggression. The film was made from painted 35 mm film strips and sound recording from Iraq war.

Pure Virtual Function

2015

S/T/N/T/N/G poster
NR

Seventy-seven seconds from Sátántangó (1994), Béla Tarr's legendary seven-hour film, were buried for seven days. After purification, the celluloid was transformed into seven minutes: earth, water, and winter sunlight woven into the filmstrip.

S/T/N/T/N/G

—

Some of the Sensations poster
NR

This film examines the relationship between the 1950's movie gimmicks and the contemporary blockbusters through the synesthesia of the classical abstract cinema.

Some of the Sensations

2017

The Grey Machine poster
7.0

In 1921, an untitled text reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's writings was discovered in Boston. It was made by unknown creators, perhaps a techno-spiritualist cult of enthusiasts, for an automaton, that would attempt to model Poe's mind.

The Grey Machine

2025

No Signal Detected poster
NR

Rhytmical combat of digital and chemical decay. (Brakhage and Sharits meet with Bruce Lee.)

No Signal Detected

—

Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11) poster
NR

Documentary footage, Hollywood cinema and video games collide, overlap and submerge into each other in a Dadaist collage inspired by the poetry of Hungarian poet Mário Z. Nemes. The hypermedia nature of the present is emphasised by fragments that are free of a clear narrative backbone.

Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11)

2020

Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11) poster
NR

Documentary footage, Hollywood cinema and video games collide, overlap and submerge into each other in a Dadaist collage inspired by the poetry of Hungarian poet Mário Z. Nemes. The hypermedia nature of the present is emphasised by fragments that are free of a clear narrative backbone.

Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11)

2020

8th October 2016 poster
NR

The title of the film is the date on which the editorial staff of Hungary’s largest opposition newspaper, Népszabadság, was fired. The filmmaker tore up copies of that day’s issue, layered them, and then turned them into an urgent collage expressing his yearning for the free expression of opposition viewpoints. The visible edges of the film emphasize the impossibility of presenting information in a complete context.

8th October 2016

2016

8th October 2016 poster
NR

The title of the film is the date on which the editorial staff of Hungary’s largest opposition newspaper, Népszabadság, was fired. The filmmaker tore up copies of that day’s issue, layered them, and then turned them into an urgent collage expressing his yearning for the free expression of opposition viewpoints. The visible edges of the film emphasize the impossibility of presenting information in a complete context.

8th October 2016

2016

The Geneva Mechanism: A Ghost Movie poster
NR

The long dead ghosts of celluloid are coming back to haunt the digital space.

The Geneva Mechanism: A Ghost Movie

2024

No artwork available
NR

The early avant-garde filmmakers believed that the cinema had the function of a machine, made to generate pure feelings.

Look Inside the Ghost Machine

2012

Arnheim in Anaheim poster
NR

The impression of the work of philosopher Rudolf Arnheim, woven into a desktop collage, is based on a visit to Disneyland, an iconic cultural product reflected in Arnheim’s texts, photographs, and audio compositions, with a central consideration of the ways in which film distances itself from reality or the impression of realism.

Arnheim in Anaheim

2021