A student of Alexander Kluge, the German feminist filmmaker Claudia Von Alemann shot her first films amid the tumult of 1968, driven by a desire—shared with others—to make counter-information films (Ce n’est qu’un début, continuons le combat, 1968).
Over time, her films moved into more intimate and personal territory, without ever losing sight of political objectives (Le Voyage à Lyon, 1981; Nuits claires, 1988…).
Das ist nur der Anfang, der Kampf geht weiter
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1968-69 | Germany | 45′
May 1968. 8 million French people are on strike. The Sorbonne is occupied. Film school students, workers from Citroën plants and experienced filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard take part in the debates.
Exprmntl 4 knokke
co-directed with Reinhold E. Thiel
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1967-68 | Germany | 45′
Late 1967: the Belgian seaside resort of Knokke-le-Zoute is hosting the experimental film festival. A raft of side events, performances, happenings and protest actions are put on.
Kathleen und Eldridge Cleaver in Algier
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1970 | Germany | 24′
Claudia von Alemann filmed the co-founders of the Black Panther Party, Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver, in exile in Algiers, on her own. Their filmed statements were intended for a solidarity campaign in West Germany for the release of Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale, their Black Panther friends.
Aus eigener Kraft – Frauen in Vietnam
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1971 | Germany | 21′
Without a visa to film the war in Vietnam, Claudia von Alemann sets out to make an archive film about Vietnamese women. She manages to interview the Foreign Minister in exile, Mrs Nguyễn Thị Bình, filmed in Paris under difficult conditions.
…es kommt drauf an, sie zu verändern
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1972 | Germany | 55′
Women in the steel factories of Frankfurt, Wetzlar and Mannheim talk about their working conditions and the fact that factory work and domestic work are both places of exploitation that need not only to be studied but also fundamentally changed.
Die Reise nach Lyon
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1981 | Germany, France, Switzerland | 112′
Elisabeth, a young historian visits Lyon. In the footsteps of the 19th-century feminist socialist Flora Tristan, she roams the city with her tape recorder seeking to reconstruct the reality that Flora might have seen and perceived.
Das nächste Jahrhundert wird uns gehören
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion, Hessischen Rundfunks | 1987 | Germany | 89′
The history and writings of four forgotten women protagonists of the early women’s movement in nineteenth-century Germany (Luise Otto-Peters, Louise Aston, Kathinka Zitz and Mathilde Franziska Anneke). A woman from the present travels through historical periods and spaces to listen to these women.
Lichte Nächte
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1988 | Germany | 60′
Easter 1988 in Paris: Claudia von Alemann invited two friends, feminist filmmakers Danielle Jaeggi and Paule Baillargeon to take part in an artistic experiment. They looked closely at extraits of their own feature films and talked about their aesthetic impact and how they reflect their roles as mothers, film directors and feminists.
Wie nächtliche Schatten – Rückfahrt nach Thuringen
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion, Bremer Institut | 1991 | Germany | 43′
The filmmaker’s first visit to the Thuringian village of Seebach; the place where her mother’s family had a manor house and from where Claudia’s family fled in 1949 to cross to the West. She is faced with childhood memories as well as the fears of those who remember the epoch of the GDR.
A reflection on how she can identify with her family and its story, a confrontation with history and the stories of the inhabitants of a formerly inaccessible village, from the other side of the border.
War einst ein wilder Wassermann
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 2000 | Germany | 43′
The filmmaker’s 86-year-old mother returns with her daughter and granddaughter Noemi, back to her home village in Thuringia, in the ex-GDR.
She recounts how, from 1933 to 1945, she believed in the idea of national socialism and how, today, she deeply regrets it.
November
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 1992 | Germany | 29′
The second of four films by Claudia von Alemann about her childhood in Thuringia, in the ex-GDR, which she was only able to revisit after reunification. The manor where she was born is now a house for orphaned children. Excerpts from her mother’s diary, flashbacks of forgotten images from her childhood.
Denny, Ameise und die Anderen
Produced by Tele Potsdam, ZDF | 1994 | Germany | 29′
In Claudia von Alemann’s former childhood home, now converted into an orphanage, two 13-year-olds, Denny and “Ant”, who have always lived there, tell their stories and talk about their worries, dreams and hopes.
Die Frau mit der Kamera
Produced by Alemann Filmproduktion | 2016 | Germany | 92′
Claudia von Alemann’s tribute to her friend and famous photographer, Abisag Tüllmann (1935-1996). A biography, a document on an exceptional friendship and the portrait of an age in which over 500 black and white photographs depict her life and work as well as the temporal context of the 1960s through to the 1990s.