Karin Berger
Retrospective and Carte Blanche
January 19 to 24, 2024
Karin Berger is one of Austria's most important documentary filmmakers. Like Ruth Beckermann, with whom she is linked by her informed examination of history, National Socialism, the Holocaust and survival, her earliest works were made at the intersection of political activism and collective cultural work. But rather than mainly devoting herself to auteurist documentaries, Berger's work has always been interdisciplinary: She worked as a teacher (at Vienna's Allgemeine Sonderschule) and journalist for the newspaper of Socialist Youth Austria, did research on unemployment in Austria and approaches to historical scholarship, published on women's biographies and the persecution of the Roma, and has taught for decades at the universities of Vienna and Linz. And above all, alone or in collaboration with others, she makes fantastic documentaries.
We are pleased to present six programs in Karin Berger's presence that highlight the breadth of her work. The programs range from the groundbreaking video projects by the Project Group Women in Anti-Fascist Resistance to theatrical documentaries about and with Ceija and Karl Stojka and Herzausreißer, her ethnographic-informed portrait of the Wienerlied scene. Alongside documentary "classics" like Küchengespräche mit Rebellinnen (1984) and Ceija Stojka (1999), the programs also feature rare and newly restored works such as Tränen statt Gewehre (1983). In collaboration with Medienwerkstatt Wien, there will also be an opportunity to take a "leap into the material," as Berger puts it, as part of a workshop talk discussing history, archival footage, and filmmaking. (Michael Loebenstein / Translation: Ted Fendt)
With Karin Berger in attendance
Karin Berger is one of Austria's most important documentary filmmakers. Like Ruth Beckermann, with whom she is linked by her informed examination of history, National Socialism, the Holocaust and survival, her earliest works were made at the intersection of political activism and collective cultural work. But rather than mainly devoting herself to auteurist documentaries, Berger's work has always been interdisciplinary: She worked as a teacher (at Vienna's Allgemeine Sonderschule) and journalist for the newspaper of Socialist Youth Austria, did research on unemployment in Austria and approaches to historical scholarship, published on women's biographies and the persecution of the Roma, and has taught for decades at the universities of Vienna and Linz. And above all, alone or in collaboration with others, she makes fantastic documentaries.
We are pleased to present six programs in Karin Berger's presence that highlight the breadth of her work. The programs range from the groundbreaking video projects by the Project Group Women in Anti-Fascist Resistance to theatrical documentaries about and with Ceija and Karl Stojka and Herzausreißer, her ethnographic-informed portrait of the Wienerlied scene. Alongside documentary "classics" like Küchengespräche mit Rebellinnen (1984) and Ceija Stojka (1999), the programs also feature rare and newly restored works such as Tränen statt Gewehre (1983). In collaboration with Medienwerkstatt Wien, there will also be an opportunity to take a "leap into the material," as Berger puts it, as part of a workshop talk discussing history, archival footage, and filmmaking. (Michael Loebenstein / Translation: Ted Fendt)
With Karin Berger in attendance
