Akademie der Künste:
 Claudia von Alemann – New Restorations

As part of Arsenal on Location, Arsenal and Deutsche Kinemathek are jointly screening several new restorations of films by the director Claudia von Alemann. Arsenal is presenting three world premieres, while Deutsche Kinemathek is hosting a Berlin premiere. Before the screenings, Markus Ruff (Arsenal) and Elisa Jochum (Deutsche Kinemathek) will talk about the context of the restorations. Afterwards, Claudia von Alemann will talk with artistic directors Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal) and Heleen Gerritsen (Deutsche Kinemathek).

The screenings will take place at the Academy of Arts on Hanseatenweg, where the first Arsenal (called “Friends of the German Cinematheque” at the time) events were held in the 1960s. Claudia von Alemann has been a member of its Film and Media Arts section since 2019.

Claudia von Alemann is one of the most important protagonists of feminist cinema. After studying art history and sociology in Berlin, she completed a second degree in the Institute for Film Design at the Ulm School of Design from 1964 to 1968. Working with Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz, she was able to develop her cinematic language in an environment that saw no contradiction between political engagement and aesthetic form. Through her early interest in poetics and surrealism, she explored the potential of cinema by creating cinematic counter-narratives about the role of women both in front of the camera and behind it. To this day, von Aleman confronts male-dominated narratives and linear historiography by turning to personal memories and collective experiences. Her feminist practice is characterized by everyday observations, historical research, and meticulous investigation, which all flow into one another and open spaces for thought.

After her studies, von Alemann made a short trip to Paris where she witnessed the civil unrest of May 1968 and decided to stay on for a year to explore the role of art and film in political debate. During this time, she made DAS IST NUR DER ANFANG, DER KAMPF GEHT WEITER (<meta charset="UTF-8">This Is Only the Beginning, the Struggle Continues). She then made KATHLEEN AND ELDRIDGE CLEAVER IN ALGIERS (1970) in Algiers.

Back in Germany, von Alemann joined the autonomous women's movement and co-founded the second Frankfurt Women's Council with fellow activists. She made Arsenal history with the First International Women's Film Seminar, which she and Helke Sander co-organized in Berlin. The event took place in November 1973 on Welserstraße in Schöneberg, where Arsenal was located from 1970 to 2000. It was not called a festival due to funding issues, but it was one of the first events to screen and discuss films from the European and US women's movements. The event and its consequences had a major influence on subsequent generations: in 1997, Arsenal and Blickpilotin e.V. organized a first retrospective called “... es kommt drauf an, sie zu verändern”, and in 2023 feminist elsewheres organized a second one. In 2025, Vibeke Løkkeberg'sThe Long Road to the Director's Chair, which was based on material the Norwegian director had shot as a participant in Berlin in 1973, premiered as part of the Berlinale Forum.

In addition to von Alemann's film DAS IST NUR DER ANFANG, DER KAMPF GEHT WEITER, her film ES KOMMT DRAUF AN, SIE ZU VERÄNDERN (The Point is to Change it), which she shot in 1973 under cover at the Adlerwerke in Frankfurt, Leitz-Optik in Wetzlar and a factory in Mannheim before she moved to Paris for another six years, was also screened as part of the women's seminar. Her best-known feature film Die Reise nach Lyon (1981) emerged after this period, as did NEBELLAND (1982). Von Alemann made numerous other works, including on the history of the German women's movement (Das nächste Jahrhundert wird uns gehören, 1987), her own family's history during the Nazi era (War einst ein wilder Wassermann, 2001), and Die Frau mit der Kamera – Porträt der Fotografin Abisag Tüllmann (2011). From 1982 to 2006, she was a professor of film at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund.(Stefanie Schulte Strathaus)

At Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, Berlin-Hansaviertel