Talks with Women Film Pioneers:
Monika Maruschko
May 9, 2024
Women directors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, costume designers, set designers, and many other women active in the film industry have left their mark on Austrian film and TV. And yet each generation of filmgoers, for lack of an ongoing canonization, must rediscover their names as well as their radical works. While revolutionary women from the film industry long taught elsewhere, the expertise – in addition to the position – of women in the Austrian film industry has seldom been institutionalized and has been (even actively) denied to students. We will bring to the stage women film pioneers – previous guests include Hilde Berger, Susanne Zanke, Käthe Kratz, Elfi Mikesch, Uli Fessler, Lisl Ponger, and Angela Hareiter – for a series of in-depth talks, screen individual films, shed light on their work through film clips, and talk in detail about their life and work over the course of the evening. The talks will be moderated by the next generation of industry insiders. The goal: the exchange of experiences, networking, the passing on of the flame, world revolution – you name it. (Wilbirg Brainin-Donnenberg, Julia Pühringer / Translation: Ted Fendt)
Production Manager Monika Maruschko
Born in 1944, Monika Maruschko wanted her independence immediately after finishing school: She began working in Kodak's motion picture department, where cinematographers and film productions ordered film stock for film and TV – the start of "on the job" training. After five years, Maruschko was lured away by Sascha Film and expanded her skills. Her professional contacts led to her first experiences on film sets, for instance, on the TV series Omer Pascha (1971, Christian-Jaque) in Mostar, Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, where she did not work as continuity person as planned, but was active in multiple roles on set. Maruschka then joined Schönbrunn Film, where she gained experience in every department, from second camera to sound and editing assistant – the perfect basis for her later activities as production manager, in which she was responsible to the production financially and to the director artistically. This allowed her to understand the needs of each department: "I always wanted the best for the film to be possible, since that is something one sees," said Maruschko. "This is why I was not always the most popular with producers."
In 1984, she founded her own production company, Marwo, whose first film, Wolfram Paulus' Heidenlöcher (1986), gained attention at the Venice International Film Festival. In this leading role, she left her mark on important productions of the Austrian film and television landscape, was production manager on Stefan Ruzowitzky's Oscar-winning film Die Fälscher, Sabine Derflinger's cult movie Vollgas, and Marie Kreutzer's Gruber geht. Her latest production was David Schalko's TV series adaptation of M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder.
Women directors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, costume designers, set designers, and many other women active in the film industry have left their mark on Austrian film and TV. And yet each generation of filmgoers, for lack of an ongoing canonization, must rediscover their names as well as their radical works. While revolutionary women from the film industry long taught elsewhere, the expertise – in addition to the position – of women in the Austrian film industry has seldom been institutionalized and has been (even actively) denied to students. We will bring to the stage women film pioneers – previous guests include Hilde Berger, Susanne Zanke, Käthe Kratz, Elfi Mikesch, Uli Fessler, Lisl Ponger, and Angela Hareiter – for a series of in-depth talks, screen individual films, shed light on their work through film clips, and talk in detail about their life and work over the course of the evening. The talks will be moderated by the next generation of industry insiders. The goal: the exchange of experiences, networking, the passing on of the flame, world revolution – you name it. (Wilbirg Brainin-Donnenberg, Julia Pühringer / Translation: Ted Fendt)
Production Manager Monika Maruschko
Born in 1944, Monika Maruschko wanted her independence immediately after finishing school: She began working in Kodak's motion picture department, where cinematographers and film productions ordered film stock for film and TV – the start of "on the job" training. After five years, Maruschko was lured away by Sascha Film and expanded her skills. Her professional contacts led to her first experiences on film sets, for instance, on the TV series Omer Pascha (1971, Christian-Jaque) in Mostar, Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, where she did not work as continuity person as planned, but was active in multiple roles on set. Maruschka then joined Schönbrunn Film, where she gained experience in every department, from second camera to sound and editing assistant – the perfect basis for her later activities as production manager, in which she was responsible to the production financially and to the director artistically. This allowed her to understand the needs of each department: "I always wanted the best for the film to be possible, since that is something one sees," said Maruschko. "This is why I was not always the most popular with producers."
In 1984, she founded her own production company, Marwo, whose first film, Wolfram Paulus' Heidenlöcher (1986), gained attention at the Venice International Film Festival. In this leading role, she left her mark on important productions of the Austrian film and television landscape, was production manager on Stefan Ruzowitzky's Oscar-winning film Die Fälscher, Sabine Derflinger's cult movie Vollgas, and Marie Kreutzer's Gruber geht. Her latest production was David Schalko's TV series adaptation of M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder.
After the screening of the film Zechmeister (1981, Angela Summereder), Hanne Lassl and Julia Pühringer will moderate the talk with Monika Maruschko.
Idea: Julia Pühringer. Concept and realization: Wilbirg Brainin-Donnenberg and Julia Pühringer in collaboration with FC GLORIA – Feminismus Vernetzung Film.
For each series, films are listed in screening order.
