Sebastian Ugovsky-Strassburger
- Director
- Composer
- Writer
Sebastián Ugovsky-Strassburger is a German novelist, essayist, writer, screenwriter, dramatist, play wright, theater and film director, cinematographer, composer, music producer and conductor with notable stations and stopovers of work in Paris, London, Naples, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and many other places in the world. He is the son of the German theater and film actress Karin Ugowski and the recently died theater and film director Helmut Straßburger. His primary fields of work are writing and staging of film, stage and music art works by concerning and referring issues addressed to the society. His work as a film and theater maker can be assigned to a new generation of independent "film d'auteur" and social drama.
Being certified with perfect pitch (absolute hearing) in the age of 4 led to a classical music education in an extraordinary out of school program for highly gifted resulting in him becoming a virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist in his early years. And this led to him becoming the score composer for his own theater and film works with additional contributions to worldwide Hollywood, Blockbuster film scores. His Jazz, Orchestral and Choir compositions have been found its way into many different productions over the decades in the world.
Known for his stance against careerism and his critical examination of the paradigm of success and fame while strongly rejecting the social and medial cult of personalities and adulation of celebrities, many of his art works remain unsigned and not identified out there. "An artist is not automatically good if famous, should not be there for self-promotion, self-preservation, and self-creation mechanism to be relevant, and even less so to be applauded, but rather to inspire civilization and advance humanity. At best and less corrupted if not even known by the artist's name." (quote from a 1996 interview)
Back in the days, the very young and enthusiastic writer of early words and composer of first pieces of classical music grew up like a circus child, in the side wings of an old well-known Berlin theater, where his parents were playing and staging. Novels, prose, screenplays, stage plays, lyrics, treatises, essays: Writing became an early way of run-in, examination, analysis and involvement at surroundings in his young life long before being grown. Early reviewers of his writings like Peter Brasch (brother of director and author Thomas Brasch ("The Passenger", Tony Curtis) and brother-in-law of Katharina Thalbach who was co-acting with his father in the film "Das Blaue Licht" (_The Blue Light (1976)_), and step-uncle of Anna Thalbach) encouraged him to go on with his way of looking at the world and describing of things with a pen, leading to an intransigent court jester of current affairs and human nature. Brasch encouraged his writing and realized the urgency in his fiction writing and the impressiveness regarding his descriptions of observations and his sense for subtle meta-messaging, leading the reader to rethink common sense or prejudices in the human culture. The same with his staging's. Strongest motivation seems to be an unstoppable child-like inner asking of the big "why", and contributing to it with craft, keeping up diversity and public dialogue while wrapping it all with compelling stories.
His first stage writing "The Triangle" about a young boy living in the late 1930's streets of Berlin, written with only 14 years, was translated in French, premiered and performed in the Banlieues of Paris as a street performance when he was only 15. In this young age he shows already his diversity and complex disposition for issues in the human society. He early got sense for humanity, philosophical, political and social issues, matters, milieu studies and disaffection, what lead to his very involved writing series of treatises and essays over decades. His empathy "for others" and his idea of a better world is always retrievable in all of his work and in his uncompromising stand against mono cultural thinking, against career thinking and against the believe in the "survival of the fittest" principle, especially in its purest and most imprudent simplicity without reflection and lack of careful and thoughtful consideration often shown as excuse for threads of inhumanity. A repeating topic in his writings is the human misconception and unawareness of the finite nature of life and the final death and the unawareness of the all involving responsibility for the future.
From first virtuoso classical stage performances as solo instrumentalist in front of large audiences already as a young kid up to his first poetry written with 12, his first stage play written with 14 up to his first performances as a Blues/Soul-Jazz vocalist and songwriter with 15, his first screen appearance as an actor with 16, his early contribution to the later 1990's Soul-Jazz & Funk music scene in London and Berlin, his work stations as a writer in Paris and his appearance in the music production scene in London (UK) and in L.A. (US) in the 2000's in his 20's - he's gone a long way spreading over many artistic works, countries and milieu studies before he came back to Europe building multiple recording studios, writing multiple screen plays and stage plays and producing multiple social engaged documentary films. His music (as a producer and composer) can be found all over the world, even in motion pictures and feature films in Europe and US (f.e. Transformers 3 : La Face cachée de la Lune (2011) or Equalizer (2014), a film with Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz), in theatre staging's, in church choir performances, orchestra works, computer games and Urban music artist releases all over the next decades (often credited as "Gilmano", a pseudonym Spanish musicians gave him in the 2000's in his recording studios watching him by loop recording all parts of a band in one recording take by switching the instruments he plays and singing all choir voices in one shot).
Based on his personal background his work spreads over a comprehensive spanning variety of artistic expressions, what he commonly combines in his art works, mostly motivated by his questions and issues addressed to the human society. For his work as a film maker in the way of independent film d'auteur, screenplay development, directing, cinematography, music scoring and film editing coalesces and is implemented by the same single person showing a unique handwriting in his works. A concept, which was finally only a matter of continuity and time in his development. And it is based on what he calls "the re-traceable liability for a far-reaching statement" and files this as an issue with our society nowadays, where we often can't really backtrack when something goes wrong because of the disseminated liability and irresponsibility between each other and multiple departments.
He is founder of the German music label "reqqord music" (formally Slo' Jam) supporting artists with worldwide success, is founder and project lead of the German film and theater production company "mauregler film, stage & documentary" and the founder of the VFX/GFX/Post department "maroqqo" digital media studios in Berlin. He is active supporter and board member of several Open Source movements, supporter of the Green Hosting movement to decrease emission by the grow of the internet, is activist for gender equality and emancipation of Third World countries and actively supports environmental protection projects, supporter of people in need and contributor to several aid campaigns.
Being certified with perfect pitch (absolute hearing) in the age of 4 led to a classical music education in an extraordinary out of school program for highly gifted resulting in him becoming a virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist in his early years. And this led to him becoming the score composer for his own theater and film works with additional contributions to worldwide Hollywood, Blockbuster film scores. His Jazz, Orchestral and Choir compositions have been found its way into many different productions over the decades in the world.
Known for his stance against careerism and his critical examination of the paradigm of success and fame while strongly rejecting the social and medial cult of personalities and adulation of celebrities, many of his art works remain unsigned and not identified out there. "An artist is not automatically good if famous, should not be there for self-promotion, self-preservation, and self-creation mechanism to be relevant, and even less so to be applauded, but rather to inspire civilization and advance humanity. At best and less corrupted if not even known by the artist's name." (quote from a 1996 interview)
Back in the days, the very young and enthusiastic writer of early words and composer of first pieces of classical music grew up like a circus child, in the side wings of an old well-known Berlin theater, where his parents were playing and staging. Novels, prose, screenplays, stage plays, lyrics, treatises, essays: Writing became an early way of run-in, examination, analysis and involvement at surroundings in his young life long before being grown. Early reviewers of his writings like Peter Brasch (brother of director and author Thomas Brasch ("The Passenger", Tony Curtis) and brother-in-law of Katharina Thalbach who was co-acting with his father in the film "Das Blaue Licht" (_The Blue Light (1976)_), and step-uncle of Anna Thalbach) encouraged him to go on with his way of looking at the world and describing of things with a pen, leading to an intransigent court jester of current affairs and human nature. Brasch encouraged his writing and realized the urgency in his fiction writing and the impressiveness regarding his descriptions of observations and his sense for subtle meta-messaging, leading the reader to rethink common sense or prejudices in the human culture. The same with his staging's. Strongest motivation seems to be an unstoppable child-like inner asking of the big "why", and contributing to it with craft, keeping up diversity and public dialogue while wrapping it all with compelling stories.
His first stage writing "The Triangle" about a young boy living in the late 1930's streets of Berlin, written with only 14 years, was translated in French, premiered and performed in the Banlieues of Paris as a street performance when he was only 15. In this young age he shows already his diversity and complex disposition for issues in the human society. He early got sense for humanity, philosophical, political and social issues, matters, milieu studies and disaffection, what lead to his very involved writing series of treatises and essays over decades. His empathy "for others" and his idea of a better world is always retrievable in all of his work and in his uncompromising stand against mono cultural thinking, against career thinking and against the believe in the "survival of the fittest" principle, especially in its purest and most imprudent simplicity without reflection and lack of careful and thoughtful consideration often shown as excuse for threads of inhumanity. A repeating topic in his writings is the human misconception and unawareness of the finite nature of life and the final death and the unawareness of the all involving responsibility for the future.
From first virtuoso classical stage performances as solo instrumentalist in front of large audiences already as a young kid up to his first poetry written with 12, his first stage play written with 14 up to his first performances as a Blues/Soul-Jazz vocalist and songwriter with 15, his first screen appearance as an actor with 16, his early contribution to the later 1990's Soul-Jazz & Funk music scene in London and Berlin, his work stations as a writer in Paris and his appearance in the music production scene in London (UK) and in L.A. (US) in the 2000's in his 20's - he's gone a long way spreading over many artistic works, countries and milieu studies before he came back to Europe building multiple recording studios, writing multiple screen plays and stage plays and producing multiple social engaged documentary films. His music (as a producer and composer) can be found all over the world, even in motion pictures and feature films in Europe and US (f.e. Transformers 3 : La Face cachée de la Lune (2011) or Equalizer (2014), a film with Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz), in theatre staging's, in church choir performances, orchestra works, computer games and Urban music artist releases all over the next decades (often credited as "Gilmano", a pseudonym Spanish musicians gave him in the 2000's in his recording studios watching him by loop recording all parts of a band in one recording take by switching the instruments he plays and singing all choir voices in one shot).
Based on his personal background his work spreads over a comprehensive spanning variety of artistic expressions, what he commonly combines in his art works, mostly motivated by his questions and issues addressed to the human society. For his work as a film maker in the way of independent film d'auteur, screenplay development, directing, cinematography, music scoring and film editing coalesces and is implemented by the same single person showing a unique handwriting in his works. A concept, which was finally only a matter of continuity and time in his development. And it is based on what he calls "the re-traceable liability for a far-reaching statement" and files this as an issue with our society nowadays, where we often can't really backtrack when something goes wrong because of the disseminated liability and irresponsibility between each other and multiple departments.
He is founder of the German music label "reqqord music" (formally Slo' Jam) supporting artists with worldwide success, is founder and project lead of the German film and theater production company "mauregler film, stage & documentary" and the founder of the VFX/GFX/Post department "maroqqo" digital media studios in Berlin. He is active supporter and board member of several Open Source movements, supporter of the Green Hosting movement to decrease emission by the grow of the internet, is activist for gender equality and emancipation of Third World countries and actively supports environmental protection projects, supporter of people in need and contributor to several aid campaigns.
