Filmclub 813, Köln: 
British Feminisms

The 1970s was the heyday of experimental and avant-garde film in Great Britain: the British Film Institute's Production Board, which was in charge of low-budget and independent films, received much more funding and began sharing responsibility for the art of film with the Arts Council. The flourishing conditions, under which directors such as Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway were able to launch their careers also led to the presence of more female directors and feminist positions, which hitherto had only really been hinted at in British cinema (including, for example, in Muriel Box's Rattle of a Simple Man, which Filmclub 813 is showing ahead of Arsenal's program). These films made by women in the late 1970s and early 1980s combine intellectual acuity and theoretical sophistication with a great desire to play with film history and genre. Often developed in group structures, with numerous cross-connections to music and art, some diverse and always surprising Gesamtkunstwerke arise. (Felix Mende)