Films by Claudia von Alemann

3 pm, Lecture Hall
Aus eigener Kraft – Frauen in Vietnam
D: Claudia von Alemann, BRD 1971, 16 mm, 20 min, German OV with English subtitles

1. Internationale Antiimperialistische Frauenkonferenz Toronto 1971
D: Claudia von Alemann, Canada/BRD 1971, 16 mm, 14 min, German OV with English subtitles

Followed by a conversation in English between Claudia von Alemann, Madeleine Bernstorff and Olivier Hadouchi

A concern with interrogating the status of women in relation to imperialist violence and capitalist exploitation is prominent in the spate of short documentaries Claudia von Alemann directed in the early 1970s. Aus eigener Kraft – Frauen in Vietnam and 1. Antiimperialistischer Frauenkongress in Toronto are exemplary of the filmmaker’s interest in subjects related to leftist internationalism, particularly as they intersect with gender. Two years after making these films, von Alemann, together with Helke Sander, organized the First International Women’s Film Seminar held at the Arsenal cinema in West Berlin.

6 pm, Lecture Hall
Nuits claires
D: Claudia von Alemann, France/BRD 1988, U-matic, 61 min, French OV with English subtitles

Followed by a conversation in English and French between Claudia von Alemann, Madeleine Bernstorff and Danielle Jaeggi

In this personal film, Claudia von Alemann, Paule Baillargeon, and Danielle Jaeggi reflect on their experiences of being mothers and daughters. As the three women filmmakers spend time together at Easter, watching excerpts of their work and caring for their children, they discuss the struggle of balancing parenting with professional commitments and compare their lives to those of the generation before them. They frequently highlight the surprising pleasures of being mothers, while frankly assessing the inequality that shapes their existence.

9 pm, Westgarten
Die Reise nach Lyon
D: Claudia von Alemann, France/BRD 1981, 16 mm, 107 min, German OV with English subtitles

Introduction by Erika Balsom in English

Die Reise nach Lyon is the story of a woman who abruptly leaves her partner and young daughter in West Germany to travel to Lyon. There, she wanders near-empty streets in pursuit of Flora Tristan, the socialist feminist activist and writer who spent time in the French city in 1844, just months before her death. Although it is ostensibly a fictional narrative, Die Reise nach Lyon is also a metahistorical gambit, a cinematic search for a feminist approach to the feminist past. Claudia von Alemann emphasizes the necessity of bringing greater attention to women’s achievements, while pointing to the limits of any approach that would leave how history is written unchanged. Die Reise nach Lyon suggests that the way forward might reside in the adoption of unconventional, self-reflexive modes of confronting the past and claims filmmaking as a site where this can occur.

With Madeleine Bernstorff (film curator and author, Berlin), Olivier Hadouchi (independent film curator and researcher, Paris) and Danielle Jaeggi (filmmaker and writer, Paris)