SÁNDOR SÁRA

#3: [Left] - 1970

SÁNDOR SÁRA

Born: 28 November 1933, Tura, Hungary.

Died: 22 September 2019, Budapest, Hungary.

Education: Színház- és Filmmûvészeti Fõiskola/Academy of Drama and Film, Faculty of Film and Television [SFF], Budapest [graduated in 1957].

Career: His diploma work as doph, 'Pályamunkások' [1957], won an international award. Helped founding the Béla Balázs Studio [intended to give graduates and young filmmakers practical experience] in Budapest in 1959. Stayed with the studio until 1961. Was president [1992-2000] of Duna Television, the Hungarian satellite channel, which won an UNESCO award [1999] for its cultural coverage.

Ph commercials.

Was a member of the HSC.

Was also active as still ph and director of shorts, doc's and features [see below].

Was married to actress Erika Szegedi; his son Balázs is a doph; his daughter Júlia is a dir.

Appeared in the doc 'Történetek a magyar filmröl' [1982, László Nádasy; ph: Lóránd Mertz & Gábor Szabó; 87m], 'Eiben István fényudvara - Az utolsó tekercs' [2002, Gabriella Medgyesi; 40m] & 'Egy képíró a Varázsvölgyböl - Gaál István életútja' [2008, Timor Shah; 62m].

Awards: Leipzig FF 'Bronze Pigeon' [1963; as dir] for 'Cigányok'; National Association of Hungarian Journalists Award [1965] for 'Sodrásban'; Mannheim FF [196?; as dir] & Oberhausen FF Documentary Award [1968; as dir] for 'Vízkereszt'; Balázs Bela-díj/Béla Balázs Prize [1968]; Érdemes Müvész/Artist of Merit [1974]; Kossuth-díj/Kossuth Prize [1978]; Kiváló Müvész/Honored Artist [1987]; 'Middle Cross' of the Hungarian Republic [1994]; Arpád-pajzs/Arpád Shield [2011].

"It is not still photography that has made Sándor Sára famous. However, besides his many duties, Sára, who has spent most of his time behind movie cameras, in director’s chairs and later behind the presidential desk of Duna Television, has accumulated a remarkable life work as a still photographer. His oeuvre has not yet been reviewed by anyone as a whole. Sándor Sára has taken still photos mostly for himself in the past decades. Although still photography has always been present, it has never acquired a main role in his life. His vision as a filmmaker or cinematographer, however, has greatly been influenced by the order and method of composition and image construction he has learnt as a still photographer.

[...] The members of the entrance examination committee of the one-time College of Film and Theatre well remember Sára's photos which opened the way for him to start his studies as a future cinematographer in 1953. György Illés remembers the period as follows: 'In 1949 I was commissioned to establish the department of cinematography at the College of Film and Theatre. I managed to get through my ideas according to which there was nothing but still photography in the first semester and, in fact, part of the entrance examination was that we were shown the photos the candidates had brought along. The students who managed to get into the second round of exams were taken to a location chosen by us, where they had to make a photo etude consisting of 10-12 pictures... I remember that a young man came up to the capital city from the country with an incredibly interesting series of photos. He had made fascinatingly beautiful things. His name was Sándor Sára.' [...]

Still photography definitely preceded his career as a film maker, accompanied it in a hardly visible manner and in some form or another even survives it. […] For decades pre-production of a feature film involved the director, the director of photography and some other members of the crew going on location scouting during which they visited all the people and locations that could inspire or help the making of the film. They collected faces and characters. [...] Among Sára's surviving photos there are many motive pictures which have independent artistic value that has long been separated from the films. Farms and villages, tenement buildings in big cities, children's faces and portraits of adults but even objects, trees and natural formations, can be seen in those pictures. Some of his photos are simply working pictures which, after having completed their task, were not needed any more. The majority of them, however, are independent works of art of excellent composition and brilliant lighting, which often carry some kind of social message as well. He photographed a great number of portraits and faces for each of his films. Even though it may not have been consciously formulated and declared as a program, it was a logical station on the road along which, using more and more close-ups of faces, he arrived from socio-photography to the films he made in the second half of his life, showing credible faces for hours telling the story about how the 2nd Hungarian Army perished. he was the cinematographer and director who made the so called 'talking head' documentaries accepted in Hungary.

The other pillar of Sára's oeuvre as a still photographer is made up of his photos taken in India [1998]. He has said the following about his experiences: 'It is a fascinatingly interesting and rich world. Basically everything happens in the streets. You just have to reach for your camera and take pictures. I walked the streets from morning till night in the various neighborhoods because they are all very different... The incredible bustle of India brings forth these virtues in me. To comprise all movements, the resultant of movements into one moment! I am living in space and strangely enough I can sense the moment when, amidst the events unfolding around me, I should press the button. And it is impossible to hesitate.'" [From article by Károly Kincses.]

FILMS
1957	Pályamunkások/Surfacemen/Plate-Layers [István Gaál] b&w; doc/4m; prod SFF
1959	Busójárás/The Time of the Busó Parade [Anna Raffay & János Lestár] c; doc/17m
1959	Festenek a gyerekek/Children Painting [Róbert Bán] b&w; doc/10m
1959	Szorongó varázs [Gyula Rémiás] b&w; short/480mtr
1960	Virágát a napnak/Sunflower [Sándor Sára] c; exp short/8m
1961	Ki bírja tovább?/Who Will Win? [Judit Vas] b&w; short/10m
1961	Hajnal után sötétség/Darkness After Dawn [Róbert Bán] c; doc/10m
1962	Asszony a telepen/Woman at the Helm [Imre Fehér] b&w
1962	Oda-vissza/To and Fro/There and Back [István Gaál] b&w; doc/14m
1962	Tisza-öszi vázlatok/Ösz a Tiszán/Tisza - Autumn Sketches/Autumn at River Tisza [István Gaál] c; doc/16m
1963	Férfiarckép/Portrait of a Man [Imre Gyöngyössy] b&w; doc/9m; cph: István Gaál
1963	Éva a-5116/Eva Is Clever [László Nádasy] b&w; doc/70m
1963	Egyedül [Sándor Sára] b&w; doc/21m
1963	Sodrásban/Current [István Gaál] b&w
1963	Groteszk [Zoltán Huszárik] b&w; short/11m
1964	Együtt [József Kis] c; doc/21m; cph: István Zöldi
1964	Tízezer nap/Ten Thousand Suns [Ferenc Kósa] as/b&w; released in 1967
1965	Gyerekbetegségek/Grimace/Children's Sicknesses [Ferenc Kardos & János Rózsa] c
1966	Apa [- egy hit naplója]/Father [: Diary of One Week] [István Szabó] b&w
1967	Kegyelet/Piety/Reverence [István Szabó] ?; doc/12m; 3 seg; cph: József Lörinc
1967	Vízkereszt/Twelfth Night [Sándor Sára] b&w; doc/12m
1967	Ünnepnapok/Red Letter Days [Ferenc Kardos] b&w
1967	Öngyilkosság/Suicide [Ferenc Kósa] b&w; short/24m
1968	Feldobott kö/The Upthrown Stone/The Thrown-up Stone [Sándor Sára] as/b&w
1969	Pro patria [Sándor Sára] b&w; doc/10m
1970	Ítélet/Judgement [Ferenc Kósa] b&w
1971	Szindbád/Sindbad [Zoltán Huszárik] c; cph: József Gujdár
1972	Nincs idö/Beyond Time [Ferenc Kósa] b&w-c
1973	Tüzoltó utca 25. - álmok a házról/25, Fireman's Street [István Szabó] c
1974	Hószakadás/Snowfall [Ferenc Kósa] c
1974	Holnap lesz fácán/Tomorrow Pheasant [Sándor Sára] c; cph: Péter Jankura
1975	Árvácska/Nobody’s Daughter [László Ranódy & Gyula Mészáros] c
1976	Erdei Ferenc [Gábor Hanák] b&w; doc/?m; prod 1976-80
1976	Budapesti mesék/Budapest Tales [István Szabó] c
1977	Szeretném, ha szeretnének [Ferenc Kósa] ?; doc/?m
1978	80 huszár/80 Hussars [Sándor Sára] c
1980	A mérközés/The Match [Ferenc Kósa] c
1980	Cirkusz Maximus/Circus Maximus [Géza (von) Radványi & Tamás Almási] c
1984	Kiralygyilkossag - Egy merenylet anatomiaja/Regicide - Anatomy of an Assassination [Péter Bokor] b&w-c
1991	Könyörtelen idök [Sándor Sára] b&w; uncred ph; cph: Balázs Sára
1993	Vigyázók/The Watchers [Sándor Sára] c; cph: Balázs Sára
1996	In memoriam Gyöngyössy Imre [Barna Kabay & Katalin Petényi] b&w-c; dram doc/84m; cph: Péter Jankura, János Kende, Michael Teutsch, László Szalay, a.o.
1999	Sára Sándor - Tájak, borok, városok [Sándor Sára] c; educational doc/19m

TELEVISION
1972	Teszt [Sándor Sára] doc/?m
1972	Csudavilág [János Rózsa] tvm/b&w/?m
1972	Tûz vagyok [Ferenc Kósa] doc/b&w/?m
1975	Suomi [István Szintai] ?
1980	Égi kökényfák alatt [Sándor Sára] tvm
1984	Bábolna/Bábolna múltja és Fuga [Sándor Sára] 6-part doc/b&w-c; cph: Sándor Kurucz
1985	Orfeusz és Eurydiké/Orfeo e Euridice [István Gaál] tvm; cph: Sándor Kurucz & József Lörincz
1996	Szervátiusz Múzeum Kolozsvárott [Sándor Sára] doc/11m
1997	Indiai képsorok [Sándor Sára] 5-part doc: 'Város a lét peremén: Kalkutta', 'Sír a világ tetején', 'A béke hajléka', 'Szabadon, mint a madár' & 'A milliónyi isten országa'
1997	Bangkok, a kelet Velencéje [Sándor Sára] doc/54m
1999	Amrita Sher-Gil [Sándor Sára] doc/b&w-c/53m/v; cph: Rezsö Wonke
2010	Ünnep az ezeréves határon - Gyimesbükk [Tamás Horváth] doc/210m

FILMS AS CAMERA ASSISTANT
1960	Három csillag/Three Stars [Miklós Jancsó, a.o.] ph: István Hildebrand

FILMS & TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR
1960	Virágát a napnak/Sunflower [+ ph] see Films

1961	Cigányok/Gypsies [+ scrpl; doc/17m/b&w] ph: István Gaál
1963	Egyedül [+ ph] see Films
1967	Vízkereszt/Twelfth Night [+ scrpl/co-prod/ph] see Films
1968	Feldobott kö/The Upthrown Stone/The Thrown-up Stone [+ co-scrpl/ph] see Films
1969	Pro patria [+ scrpl/ph] see Films
1972	Teszt [+ ph] see Television
1974	Holnap lesz fácán/Tomorrow Pheasant [+ scrpl/cph] see Films
1977	Portré Csoóri Sándorról [tv-doc/b&w/?m] ph: ?
1978	80 huszár/80 Hussars [+ co-scrpl/ph] see Films
1980	Égi kökényfák alatt [+ ph] see Television
1981	Néptanítók/The Teachers [doc/113m; + scrpl] ph: Sándor Kurucz
1982	Elátkozva a hatodik napot [tv-doc] ph: Sándor Kurucz
1982	Pergötüz - A 2 magyar hadsereg a Donnál/Crossfire/Drum Fire [5-part doc/b&w/16mm] ph: Sándor Kurucz; a 25-part tv-version was titled 'Krónika/Chronicle'
1982	Fúga/Fugue [tv-doc/81m/16mm] ph: ?
1984	Bábolna/Bábolna múltja és Fuga [+ scrpl/cph] see Television
1985	Dózsa György [tv-doc] ph: Ferenc Káplár
1986	Sír az út elöttem.../The Road Is Crying in Front of Me [4-part tv-doc/16mm: 1. 'Hazátlanok/Without Country' (108m), 2. 'Hadak útján' (96m), 3. 'Keresztúton/At the Crossroads' (79m) & 4. 'Hazatértek/Homecomers' (?m); + scrpl] ph: Sándor Kurucz
1987	Jeles napok [3-part doc] ph: ?
1987	Tüske a köröm alatt/A Thorn Under the Fingernail [feature; + co-scrpl] ph: Sándor Kurucz
1988	Csonka Berg [2-part doc/b&w] ph: ?
1990	Te még élsz?/Are You Still Alive? [doc/87m/c] ph: Sándor Kurucz & Ferenc Pap
1990	Magyar nök a gulágon [3-part tv-doc/299m/16mm] ph: Sándor Kurucz; prod 1990-92
1991	Könyörtelen idök [+ uncred cph] see Films
1991	Lefegyverzett ellenséges erôk [2-part doc] ph: Sándor Kurucz & Ferenc Pap
1993	Vigyázók/The Watchers [+ scrpl/cph] see Films
1994	Aki magyar, velünk tart [2-part doc] ph: Balázs Sára
1995	A vád/Prosecution [feature; + co-scrpl] ph: Balázs Sára
1996	Szervátiusz Múzeum Kolozsvárott [+ ph] see Television
1997	Indiai képsorok [+ ph] see Television
1997	Bangkok, a kelet Velencéje [+ ph] see Television
1999	Amrita Sher-Gil [+ cph] see Television
1999	Sára Sándor - Tájak, borok, városok [+ ph] see Films
2003	Európából Európába/From Europe Into Europe [seg #5 'A harang értünk szól/The Bell Tolls for Us'] c; doc/36m; 10 seg; ph: Balázs Sára; about the entry of Hungary into the European Union
2004	Nehézsorsúak [tv-doc/b&w/46m] ph: Sándor Kurucz
2006	Memento [tv-doc/55m] ph: Balázs Sára