The history of cinema has been created by a group of outstanding filmmakers who “infect" everyone around with their innovativeness, creativity and passion, inspiring their co-workers to work intensively. Each masterpiece, no matter if it's an epic cinema or an intimate drama, has been shot by people with artistic vision. Haskell Wexler, two time Academy Award winner, recipient of American Society of Ci-
nematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award and a recipient of Plus Camerimage's Golden Frog Lifetime Achievement Award, definitely belongs to this distinguished group of filmmakers.

Haskell Wexler
Haskell Wexler's career in the film industry has spanned over six decades and he proved himself in many different occupations: producer, screenwriter, feature and documentary director. And throughout his whole life he has been a political activist. To this day his feature debut “Medium Cool" (1969), in which TV news cameraman becomes increasingly aware of the political ramifications of his work, is acknowledged as one of the most important political film manifestos. It also fascinates due to another reason - Wexler explores the now-slightly-forgotten, though still current division into “hot" and “cool" media, made by Canadian theoretician and writer Marshall McLuhan. The medium is the message, and Haskell Wexler was always fully aware of his responsibility as a film artist.

Nevertheless, Wexler is mostly known for his amazing achievements as a cinematographer. Not only did he receive two Academy Awards (for “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by Mike Nichols, “Bound for Glory" by Hal Ashby), but he also is the author of artistically and compositionally refined visuals for some of the great films of 20th century: “Coming Home" by Hal Ashby, “In the Heat of the Night" by Norman Jewison, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Milos Forman, “America, America" by Elia Kazan, “Colors" by Dennis Hopper or “Matewan" by John Sayles. Even Terrence Malick owes much to Wexler, as he finished shooting “Days of Heaven" when the legendary cinematographer Nestor Almendros started having problems with his sight. After all, Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an Inter-
national Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership.

Still from "Medium Cool"
Since the inception of his career Wexler admired the expressiveness and power of documentary films, that is why he quite often joined different politically and socially engaged documentaries, enriching them with his visual mastery. He even directed a few himself, like “Who Needs Sleep?", a film about long Hollywood working hours that affect the film crews' health. And last year Daniel Raim's “Something's Gotta Live" had its premiere. It's a documentary about the legendary production designers Robert Boyle, Henry Bumstead, Harold Michelson and Alberto Nozaki. Having worked with some of them throughout his prominent career, Haskell Wexler gladly helped this documentary to be made.

Despite achieving everything in the film industry, Haskell Wexler does not intend to slow down. He is still professionally active, works on the sets of new films, and this June he was elected a member of the board of the International Cinematographers Guild. Haskell Wexler had already been a guest of the International Festival of the Art of Cinematography PLUS CAMERIMAGE. We consider it a great honor that he will visit our festival once again, this time to chair the Jury of the Short Documentary Films Competition "IMAGE OF THE WORLD - WORLD IN IMAGES" under the patronage of DISCOVERY NETWORKS CEEMEA.