Thursday October 2, 7pm
Ulrike Ottinger’s Shadows
Screening & Conversation
With Ulrike Ottinger and Nora Alter
Presented with Fordham University
Microscope is very pleased to co-present in collaboration with Fordham University a screening and conversation with German director and artist Ulrike Ottinger. The event will take place in person only.
A unique voice in the New German Cinema, Ottinger started making films in the early 1970s — after founding the “filmclub visuell” and a gallery in her native Konstanz in southern Germany — completing twenty-seven films to date. She is described by The New Yorker’s critic Richard Brody as “one of the crucial modern filmmakers… For Ottinger, the play of imagination is an essential realm of freedom, a way for women to defy and liberate themselves from the misogyny that’s embedded as deeply in consensus styles as in consensus politics.”
In conjunction with her film program at Metrograph, Ulrike Ottinger will screen a 53 minute excerpt of her 12-hour long film, Chamissos Schatten (Chamisso’s Shadow, 2016) and then take part in a short conversation with scholar Dr. Nora Alter, who has written extensively about Ottinger’s work.
Free entry for Fordham Students with ID. This event co-presented by Microscope Gallery is conceived and organized by Catalina Alvarez, and co-organized by Jennifer Moorman. Made possible by funding from the Center for Community Engaged Learning and the Departments of Theatre and Visual Arts, Communication and Media Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fordham University. Film excerpt is provided by the Arsenal – Institute for Film & Video Art. The program concludes at 8:45pm.
General Admission $10
Member Admission $8
Free for Fordham Students w/ ID
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Ulrike Ottinger grew up in the city of Constance on Lake Constance where she set up her own studio at an early age. From 1962 until the beginning of 1969 she worked as an independent artist in Paris, while learning the technique of etching from Johnny Friedlaender. In the early 70s, her interest in painting, photography and performance lead her into making films.
After her return to West Germany she founded, in association with Constance University, the ‘filmclub visuell’ in 1969 in Constance in which international Independent Films, the New German Cinema (Neuer Deutscher Film) and historical films were shown. At the same time, she set up the gallery and the edition “galeriepress,” in which she presented Wolf Vostell, Allan Kaprow, Fernand Teyssier, Peter Klasen and English pop artists such as R. B. Kitaj, Joe Tilson, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney. Her first film, “Laocoon and Sons” (Laokoon und Söhne), made in collaboration with Tabea Blumenschein, was shot in 1971-1973 and celebrated its world premiere at the Arsenal in Berlin. In 1973 she moved to Berlin and filmed the Happening-documentary “Berlinfever – Wolf Vostell” (Berlinfieber – Wolf Vostell). This was followed by “The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors” (Die Betörung der Blauen Matrosen) in 1975 with Valeska Gert and “Madame X – An Absolute Ruler” (Madame X – Eine absolute Herrscherin) in 1977, co-produced by the ZDF, which caused a great sensation and was an international success.
From 1979 Ulrike Ottinger started working on her ‘Berlin Trilogy’: ‘Ticket of No Return’ (Bildnis einer Trinkerin, 1979), ‘Freak Orlando’ (1981) and ‘Dorian Grey in the Yellow Press’ (Dorian Grey im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse, 1984).
In addition to fictional films, Ulrike Ottinger also devoted herself to the genre of documentary film. For her film “Chamisso’s Shadow” (Chamissos Schatten, 2016) Ottinger traveled for three months along the remote coasts of the Bering Sea, tracing the paths taken by the great 18th and 19th explorers. This is her longest documentary to date (12 hours). Ottinger’s most recent work “Paris Calligrammes” intertwines her personal memories of the Bohème in Paris with the grave social, political and cultural upheavals of our times, creating a cinematic figural poem (calligram). Filming took place from 2017 to 2019 and the premiere was in spring of 2020.
Ulrike Ottinger’s films have been shown among others at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Cinémathèque Française and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, the Biennale di Venezia, Italy, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), California. From the very beginning, Ulrike Ottinger also devoted herself to photography. Her pictures are generally taken during preparation work for her films, but they unfold their own individual visual impact. Her photographic and cinematic work has been shown at the Biennale di Venezia, the Documenta and the Berlin Biennale. She had solo exhibitions at Witte de With – Centre for Contemporary Art Rotterdam, at the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Kunst-Werken Berlin, and David Zwirner Gallery in New York, among others.
