feminist elsewheres takes the question of an elsewhere of feminist film history as a foundation of its engagement with two events that took place at the Arsenal cinema in Berlin: the First International Women’s Film Seminar in 1973, which is considered the starting point of the feminist film movement in West Germany, as well as its 1997 revisitation titled…the point is to change it. Films, Festivals, Feminism. In 2023, feminist elsewheres celebrated over fifty years of feminist film work with a film program, workshops, and an exhibition. This text is collectively authored by feminist elsewheres and its objective is twofold: introducing the historical present of these events while at the same time reflecting on feminist modes of collaborations as central strategies in shaping film history. No film stands alone, No history is stable, feminist elsewheres is many.
feminist elsewheres. A Making(-)Of Three Festivals in the Making Available to Purchase
Elena Baumeister is a film researcher. She conceptualizes film programs, most recently with films by Helke Misselwitz at Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of the exhibition No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image and the film series I’ve Seen the Wall in cooperation with MINSK Kunsthaus Potsdam. She is cofounder of the cinema collective Top Girl and lives in Berlin.
Fiona Berg researches and writes on film. Most recently, she was in charge of managing the film prints at Zeughauskino and co-curated retrospectives on Gisela Tuchtenhagen’s and Claudia von Alemann’s films. Her current research interests include infrastructures of feminist film work, collaborative forms of film mediation and activism, and nonfictional filmmaking.
Charlotte Eitelbach is an artist. In her work, she engages with music culture and architectural history. She works in formats such as guided tours, lecture performances, as well as sound and video projects. She is also involved in curatorial and publishing activities.
Sophie Holzberger is a PhD student at the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Their PhD project examines the politics of collaboration in feminist film history and is specifically interested in films and videos from activist contexts. Next to their academic work, they also curate.
Arisa Purkpong is an artist working with film collages, photography, installation, and publications. Based on research on the First International Women’s Film Seminar, Arisa Purkpong organized several film programs, for example, at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westphalen in Duüsseldorf. Arisa Purkpong currently lives and works in Düsseldorf and Oslo.
Elena Baumeister, Fiona Berg, Charlotte S. Eitelbach, Sophie Holzberger, Arisa Purkpong; feminist elsewheres. A Making(-)Of Three Festivals in the Making. Feminist Media Histories 1 April 2024; 10 (2-3): 180–197. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2024.10.2-3.180
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