Chapter 3: Kamtschatka and Beringinsel

Introduction: Ulrike Ottinger;
followed by a discussion between Ulrike Ottinger und Bert Rebhandl

Ulrike Ottinger is a multiple award-winning filmmaker, artist, photographer, writer, theater and radio director. Born in Konstanz in 1942, at the age of twenty she moved to Paris, where she lived for six years as a freelance artist and attended lectures by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu in art history, religious studies and anthropology. In 1966 she wrote her first screenplay entitled Die mongolische Doppelschublade. It was followed by a variety of experimental documentaries and feature films (including Madame X, 1977; Freak Orlando, 1981; Südostpassage, 2002; Under Snow, 2011) covering a wide range of mythological and ethno-poetic works as well as photographic works exploring the cultures of various East Asian and Southeast European countries, but also the society of her own country. Her films have been screened at international festivals from Cannes to Toronto and have received many awards, including the audience award in Montréal and the German Film Prize (Gold, for Johanna D’Arc of Mongolia) in 1989 and the German Film Critics’ Award in 1986 (for China. Die Künste – Der Alltag) and 2008 (for Prater). In 2011 she was conferred the Hannah Höch Prize of the State of Berlin for her life’s work.

Bert Rebhandl studied German, philosophy and Catholic theology and is a freelance journalist, writer and translator based in Berlin. He is a film journalist at the tip Berlin and a lecturer at the FU Berlin and writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the taz and other publications. He is co-founder and co-editor of the film magazine Cargo. In addition, he is the author of various essays and of the two books Orson Welles. Genie im Labyrinth (2005) and Seinfeld (2012).