Frederick Douglas Stephan "Fred" Baker (26 January 1965 – 24 August 2020) was an Austrian-British filmmaker, media scholar, and archaeologist.
He was born in Salzburg and was brought up in London. After graduating from Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys, he studied Anthropology and Archaeology at St John’s College, Cambridge, Tübingen and Sheffield Universities, finishing with a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.
He was a Senior Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, specialising in Digital Humanities, Heritage, and Prehistoric Rock Art. He was a co-founder of the EU-funded 3D Pitoti digital heritage project and co-director of the Cambridge University Prehistoric Picture Project.
He divided his time between London, Berlin and Vienna, producing and directing films, as well as writing articles and books. In the book The Art of Projectionism (2007) he defined a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented "ambient film", a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed "ambient cinemas". His first narrative ambient short, Ruhetag, was premiered in Vienna in 2007. Ring Road: A Viennese Odyssey, the first ambient feature film, was premiered at the Biennale in Seville in 2008.
His interview partners included Yoko Ono, George H. W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, Václav Havel, Shimon Peres, Helmut Kohl, John Major, Michel Rocard, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Amalia Rodrigues, Cardinal Franz König, Lord Norman Foster, Sir Ernst Gombrich, Simon Wiesenthal, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Joseph Stalin’s grandson and Vivienne Westwood.
Baker taught film at the Donau University, Krems and St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria. He lectured on film, media and journalism at the Bauhaus University, Weimar, the Universität der Künste in Berlin and Middlesex University in London. He also taught film as part of the Screen Media and Culture Group at Cambridge University. His specialties included cinema of Austria, new media art and television documentary. For the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna he created 'Klimt's Magic Garden: A Virtual Reality Experience by Frederick Baker' (2018).
Baker died on 25 August 2020, at the age of 55.
Awards
Golden Halo, Best Virtual Reality Documentary, Amsterdam European VR days
VR Days Amsterdam, September 2017
Award for 360 VR film "Pitoti Prometheus" with Marcel Karnapke, Produced at Cambridge University and the Bauhaus University Weimar for the EU project 3D Pitoti.
Best 3D Animation
World 3D Guild, Liege, Belgium
December 2016
Award for "Pitoti Prometheus" 360 VR film with Marcel Karnapke. Produced with McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University & Bauhaus University Weimar, as part of the EU Project "3D Pitoti".
Europa Nostra European Union Digital Research Prize 2016
Europa Nostra & European Union
2008: Homosexuell und dennoch Christ (ORF, Kreuz & Quer): Leopold Ungar Preis. Fredrick Baker wurde gemeinsam mit Sandra Fasolt für den Beitrag "Homosexuell und dennoch Christ" (ORF, Kreuz & Quer) mit dem Anerkennungspreis in der Kategorie TV ausgezeichnet. Der Bericht kratze massiv an Vorurteilen und stelle festgefahrene Haltungen der Kirche in Frage, so die Begründung der Jury -> Caritas Wien
2007: Shadowing the Third Man: Finalist, Hollywood Film Festival and Belgrade International Film Festival; Finalist, URTI International Film Festival, Monte Carlo.
2006: Shadowing the Third Man won 1st Overall Prize for best documentary at the Festival di Palazzo Venezia_Arte 2006 in Rome.
2005: Shadowing the Third Man was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Imagine IMAGINE was awarded the World Gold Medal for feature documentaries in the category Film and Video at the New York Festivals 2005. Deutschland, Deutschland was awarded the Silver Remi at the Worldfest in the Houston International film festival.