3rd. International Women's Film Festival 1991
Machine Wreckers Introduction:
The third femme totale festival was an overall look which dealed with the topic of women and new technologies
Both the Gulf War and the recent bloodshed in certain Soviet republics mean that the issues of war and power technologies have assumed a more than bitter actuality. What had initially been just one point on the festival's agenda now seemed to be the agenda itself.
Nearly all the parts of the programme - such as the ecological (ill)effects of modern technology and the effect of simulated realities (which led to a "harmless" war being fought on TV and radio) - became acutely relevant, either directly or indirectly, due to the course taken by power and military technologies. If, until that point, we had only created that connection dispersed throughout the programme structure, the various areas suddenly appeared on one and the same level.
These associations become most evident in that programme section where (women) filmmakers occupy themselves with the consequences of technological developments in their films. Nevertheless, other parts of the programme dealing with history considered the question of "technocult" and the relationship between the political development of the 1920s/1930s and their reflection in film. Similarly, the exhibition Signs and Mathematics by Rune Mields pointed art and technology back to their base science and, in that reduction of the possible dissolution of art, puts the writing on the wall.
In the third section of the programme, which was given over to art and the new media, thought had been provoked with particular reference to the concomitant effects.
Due mainly to advances in data processing and telecommunications, techno-science and art are moving closer together. The ability of computers to link up "intelligently" is beginning to displace human intelligence and to outdate the traditional definitions of reality and art.
That, because of technical possibilities, a "work of art" can be replicable has long since become an art genre in itself but it has not brought any "more" of the political into aesthetics than that which was already present. Film, video and TV have often transmitted and potentialised authoritarian, hierarchical structures. Indeed, these media have fashioned our perceptions of reality - as was all too obvious during coverage of the Gulf War - recreated them and/or mystified them.
Whether art is in a position to serve as an "encoder and decoder of cultural patterns" (Richard Kriesche) or whether our culture now only has a subordinate role to play "owing to the influence of technology on our existence" (Michael Langer) ... these are subjects for discussion which should not be left to men!
At this festival, there have been a great deal to see and hear of the producing aspects of art: films by women which, in both their aesthetics and in their content, cock a snook at male-dominated culture and which are intended to motivate other women to make their own culture. All the same, such factors can not be separated from a real analysis of the medium's techniques: to what extent do women collaborate, to what extent can women still be subversive?
Machine Wrecking 1991:
- as the overcoming of technology and the chains of its application by women, especially in the media;
- as a definition of rejection and wreckage from that moment when technology becomes no longer controllable in terms of its manufacture and application;
- as a positive reply when there is a free choice between the one or the other and when;
- what limits do we want to set?
Main topics of the festival:
Films on actuell technological topics
Historical Films
This programm sector, called "My Dream Prince Was The Cinematograph" after Alice Guy-Blaché, was presenting films which were produced during the early years of cinema i.e. films which do have a narrative structure but which also experiment with the technical possibilities available at that time. During this "flashback", an overview of the role that women played behind the camera in the dream factory should crystalise.
Films:
A Japanese Idyll
USA, 9 min. 17 sek., Louis Weber
Etudes Cinematographiques sur une Arabesque
F 1928, 5 min., Germaine Dulac
Fliegende Händler in Frankfurt Main
D 1932, 27 min., Ella Bergmann-Michel
K.SCH.E. (K.SCH.E. The Godfather of Electrification)
UdSSR 1932, 100 min., Esfir Shub
L'enfant de da Barricade
F, 3 min., stumm, R: Alice Guy Blaché
La Puce
F, 25 sek., stumm, Alice Guy Blaché
La Vie du Christ
F 1906, 1 min.25 sek., stumm, Alice Guy Blaché
Mable at the Wheel
USA 1914, 15 min., Mable Normand
Something New
USA 1920, 90 min., stumm, Nell Shipman
Steklijannyi Glas
UdSSR 1928, 50 min., Lilja Brik
Experimental Films
Highlighted were films by women on the American avantgarde and underground film scene of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s - women filmmakers who succeeded in drawing up a critical theory and who were prepared to apply it to their cinematography. The way they handled the varying technical means - such as camera, montage and animation - have since had a significant influence on the history of film.
Films:
Abstronics
USA 1952, 7 min., Mary Ellen Bute
Between
BRD 1989, 9 min., Claudia Schillinger
Blindman's Ball
BRD 1988, 34 min., Dore O.
Dwighitana
USA 1961, 3 min. 30 sek., Marie Menken
Fuses
USA 1964-67, 22 min., stumm, Corolee Schneemann
Introspection
USA 1946, 6 min., Sara Kathrin Arledge
King Kong
BRD 1984, 8 min.30 sek., Hille Köhne
Kugelkopf
A 1985, 5 min., Mara Mattuschka
Light Reading
GB 1978, 20 min., Lis Rhodes
Mona Luna
USA 1990, 7 min., Emily Breer
Negative Man
BRD/USA 1985, 3 min., Cathy Joritz
Notebook
USA 1961, 10 min., stumm, Marie Menken
Ritual In Transfigured Time
USA 1947, 15 min., stumm, Maya Deren
Schweineschnitzel
BRD 1971, 8 min., stumm, Margaret Raspé
Souterrain
BRD 1978, 25 min., Rotraut Pape
Still Life
GB 1978, 8 min., Jenny Okun
Films on actual technological topics
The films we had have selected highlighted the whole spectrum of technology: its deployment at times of war, in research and in manufacturing right through to its use in the manipulation of biological life in the branches of genetic and medical engineering.
Above all, these women filmmakers show what they are confronted with, something alien to them, something they perceive as coerced on them, a menacing system.
Films:
Abkratzen und Teetrinken
BRD 1986, 6 min. 10 sek., Susanne Fränzel
Amor, Mujeres y Flores
COL 1989, 52 min., Martha Rodriguez
Arbeit macht Spass
DDR 1989, 3 min., Sieglinde Hamacher
Au Clair de L'ovule
CAN 1987, 51 min. 35 sek., Louise Mondoux
Aus heiterem Himmel
BRD 1982, 110 min.
Bhopal: Beyond Genozid
IND 1985, 80 min., Suhasini Mulay
Biloacija
YUG 1990, Marina Grizinic & Aina Smid
Bravo Papa 2040
BRD 1989, 5 min. 47 sek., Susanne Fränzel
Coalmining Women
USA 1982, 40 min., Elizabeth Barret
Daedalus
BRD 1990, 95 min., Mirjam Quinte
Der Kreator
BRD 1989, 6 min., Josy Meier
Dukovany; Vrouci Kotel
(Brodelnde Kessel)
CSSR 1987, 90 min., Drahom'ra Vihanov
Exercises
BRD 1976, 19 min., Anke Oehme
Femme Dans La Guerre 1939-1945
F 1989, 5x55 min., Guylaine Guidez
Frankensteins Divorce
BRD 1984, 50 min., Monika Funke-Stern
The Spiral of Fortune
BRD/Thailand 1985, 50 min., Marie-L. Buchczik, Ulrike Schaz
HöRst Du Die Erde Weinen?
PL 1985, 20 min., Tamara Soloniewicz
La Belle Et Labor
BRD 1991, 21 min., Claudia Prietzel, Angela Holtschmidt
Landslides
AUS 1986, 75 min., Susan Lambert
Maschinensturm
(Machine Wrecking)
BRD 1987, 45 min., Maria Hemmleb
Ö-Norm-Al
A 1989, 47 min., Anna Steiniger
On Guard
AUS 1983, 51 min., Susan Lambert
Panelstory
CSSR 1975, 90 min., Vera Chytilova
Plody Zhelanij Ili Lovlja Jashtscheric Na Fone Gory Ararat
UdSSR 1988, 30 min., Tatjana Tschivikovo
Plutonium Blonde
GB 1987, 15 min., Sandra Lahire
Pretend you'll survive
GB 1981, 9 min., Leeds Animation Workshop - Women's Collective
Soldier Girls
USA 1981, 87 min., Joan Churchill
Strahlende Zukunft
BRD 1977-79, 115 min., Susanne Beyerle
The Star Tschernobyl
UdSSR 1990, 90 min., Valentina Gurkalenka
Through the Wire
USA 1989, 85 min., Nina Rosenblum
To hurt and to heal
CAN 1986, 45 min. + 60 min., Laura Sky
U Wojny ne Shenskoe Litzo
(War does not have a female Face)
UdSSR 1986, 7x20 min., Swetlana Aleksiewitsch (script)
Umwelt
BRD 1985, 6 min. 30 sek., Bettina Bayerl
With Strength of Mind I can do Wonders too
BRD 1990, 90 min., Gerda Breuer & Petra Valentin
Verriegelte Zeit
D 1990, 94 min., Sybille Schönemann
Wenn d Maschin' lauft
BRD 1990, 44 min., Tamara Staudt
New Media
The Digital Everyday shows the effects of the new media on our society. Electronic networks determine forms of communication, manipulating the masses in such way that extrication hardly seems feasible. The electronic media of the 1970s, the media of the 1970s, have had a briefer history in terms of production and reception than the established media -- terms governed by male criteria.
With the linkage possible between video and computer, a new juncture has been reached so that the debate concerning art and technology is just as imperative as ever, primarily from the point of view of women.
Films:
00 Time as Centrifuge
USA 1990, 2 min. 30 sek., Mechthild Schmidt
Automaten
A 1990, 10 min., Heidemarie Seblatnig
Buntwäsche
BRD 1985, 6 min., Birgit Durbahn
Canale Grande
BRD/ A 1980-83, 95 min., Friederike Petzold
Cricket
SF 1988, 7 min. 10 sek., Marikki Hakola
De Blickvanger
NL 1989, 10 min., Friederike Jochems
Desire Inc.
USA 1990, 26 min., Lynn Hershman
Die Evidenz des Kalküls
A 1987, 8 min., ILSE GASSINGER, ANNA STEINIGER
Disinformation
USA 1985, 17 min., Martha Rosler
Eurythmy
NL/USA 1989, 4 min., Susan Armkraut
Gasoline Tango
A 1989, 5 min., GOTO MP - Margot Pilz
In the Original colorful
A 1986, 5 min., Ursula Pürrer, Angela H. Scheirl
Message from the Cave
D 1990, 14 min., Birgit Durbahn
Monolog Digital
BRD 1989, 60 min., Sabine Fröhlich
Off the Record
D 1990, 2 min., Christina Perincioli
Puzzle Museum
I 1989, 3 min., Flavia Alman
Quel Numero - What Number?
CAN 1985, 81 min., Sophie Bissonette
Rendez-Vous in Montreal
CH 1987, 2 min., Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann
Sete
A 1989/90, GOTO MP - Margot Pilz
Staubsaugen
BRD 1985, 6 min., Claudia Richarz, Andrea van der Staeten
Still Catastrophe
BRD 1986, 5 min., Astrid Heibach
The Art of losing Memory
GB 1990, 8 min. 20 sek., Kathleen Rogers
The drift of juicy
A 1989, 10 min., Ursula Pürrer
The eye-catcher
NL 1989, 10 min., Friederike Jochems
Watch out: Black Ice
D 1990, 5 min. 30 sek., Claudia Richarz
Special Effects/ Fantasy Film
They've been around since the beginning of film history. Whenever you see someone catapulted through the air, a building going up in flames or an entire army of skeletons fighting sword battles -- it is almost a foregone conclusion that special effects created these cinema sensations. The fantastic, horror, science fiction or fairy tale film was the preferred place for the showing off of all this wizardry.
Only few women have been active in this field of employment. Despite this fact we were proud to present the work of some of the (female) experts in this field of special effects: those directors who have developed new techniques within the world of film trickery, the stuntpersons and pyrotechnicians, the screenplay writers who dreamt up the fantastic stories and the filmmakers who combined politics with science fiction. Women, all of them.
Films:
Aelita - Der Flug zum Mars
UdSSR 1924, 45 min. stumm, Costume/ Special Effects: Alexandra Exter
Aufstand der Spielzeuge
(Vzpoura hracek The Revolt of Toys)
CSSR 1947, 15 min., Hermina Tyrlov
Der einbeinige Kranich
A, Animation Films, Sylvia Nesher
The new Gulliver
(Nowy Gulliwer)
UdSSR 1933, 77 min., Puppets: Sara Mokil, Puppenaufnahmen: S. Olga Taezshnaya
Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed
D 1923/24, 71 min., Lotte Reiniger
Die Frau im Mond
(The Woman in the Moon)
D 1929, 150 min., Buch: Thea von Harbou
Die Letzten Tage von Gomorrah
BRD 1974, 100 min., Helma Sanders
Sleepwalk
USA 1985, 80 min., Sara Driver