Paths Crossing

The three female filmmakers featured in this program arrived in Germany in the early 1970s via very different paths and went on to study together at the DFFB. Their graduation films are among the many treasures in the film school's archive that have remained largely overlooked. The images in TRANSIT (Irén Biró, FRG 1985) emerge from the radically subjective perspective of a body confined to a hospital bed. The camera’s eye scans the limited field of vision, finds the window, and through it, a path into remembering people from the past and other places. The starting point for Biró’s graduation film was a bike accident that left her with permanent injuries and forced her to give up her newly discovered vocation as a cinematographer. In SCHWARZ-WEISS MALEREI (FRG, 1984), Sophie Kotanyi depicts a Cape Verdean woman who married a German, with whom she lives in West Berlin. Teresa’s daily life is a balancing act between the pros and cons of now having material prosperity and the fear of no longer being welcome, whether here or there. Chantal Laventure shot her FUGE STACCATO (FRG, 1984) during the time of short days and long shadows at the turn of 1983/1984, depicting a never seen before Berlin, with every shot becoming a lived moment of great photographic beauty. Curated by Karina Griffith and Tobias Hering. 

Films:
Transit Irén Biró FRG 1985 16 mm German OV 20 min.
Schwarz-Weiß Malerei Sophie Kotanyi Camera: Irén Biró
FRG 1984 16 mm German and Portuguese OV/French ST 38 min.
Fuge Staccato Chantal Laventure Sound: Irén Biró FRG 1985 16 mm German OV 40 min