Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return (1979)
Between the growing list of #MeToo perpetrators, the habitually all-male “best director” nominations at the Oscars and the underrepresentation of women in film as uncovered by the Bechdel Test, there’s lot of problematic patriarchy in the movie industry. Sometimes it is nice to have a program curated around feminist discourse and strong female-driven narratives, which is exactly what Berlin Feminist Film Week promotes. Running from 7 March to 13 March, BFFW platforms queer stories and films told from women’s perspectives. SLEEK spoke to Karin Fornander – who founded the festival five years ago to offer an English-speaking space for feminist topics in the German capital – to point us towards the events you don’t want to miss.
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post”
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)
“The Misseducation of Cameron Post is a good indie film that made it into the mainstream. The reason why we chose to screen this film is because there are many queer films with male protagonists, but less with female protagonists,” Fornader says. The film follows Cameron (Chloë Grace Mortez) as she is sent to gay conversion therapy after being discovered with a girl in the back seat of a car on prom night.
“A Better Man”
A Better Man (2017)
“A Better Man is a documentary co-directed by Attiya Kahn, which is about her own relationship with her ex-boyfriend many years ago, intimate partner violence and how she meets up with him 20 years after this,” Fornader tells SLEEK. “Its really interesting, because it offers a new perspective on how to talk to men.” Kahn will be at the screening of her autobiographical documentary to talk about her work.
Riot Parents: Perspectives on feminist motherhood
Photo courtesy of BFFW
Die discussion about parenting narratives that diverge from cisgender and heterosexual norms starts with a preview of the documentary (M)OTHER by Antonia Hungerland. It brings together voices in the arts and queer-feminist perspectives, like the author of the blog fuckersmother to talk about how to make parenthood a better experience for those who bring children into the world and take care of them. “This will be a great panel, because a lot of people will be able to relate to,” Kahn says.
“Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return”
Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return (1979)
For the first time, Berlin Feminist Film Week will be having a retrospective and they chose Ulrike Ottinger’s Berlin classic Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because Ottinger was one of the women honored in the Berlinale’s retrospective, which focused on German female storytellers. “Ulrike Ottinger has done a lot of movies and not gotten the recognition she deserves,” reveals Fornader. “We want to screen these films to remind people that women have been making these films for a while and that they have not gotten the same space or attention that male film makers have in film history.”
Berlin Feminist Film Week opens today and runs through to 13 March.