Ute Aurand has been a central figure of Berlin’s experimental film scene since the 1980s and is one the most significant filmmakers active in the diary and portrait tradition today. In making her 16mm portraits, she often films her subjects over many years, thereby stressing the inseparability between living and filming for the avant-garde filmmaker. Aurand’s work celebrates the here and now, the people she meets, the places she visits, the very fact of being alive. Hers is an honest, energetic and vibrant cinema, one in which joy can even be found in sadness. “The diaristic form develops out of an inner dialogue with my surroundings, a silent visual conversation. The source of inspiration is daily life, the fountain which never stops and offers itself to everyone. It is a great joy and challenge to transform my inner dialogue into film.” Her films propose a courageous filmmaking which is as radical as it is poetic.
Rather than providing a comprehensive retrospective of Aurand’s work, these 3 Artist in Focus programs offer insight into key motifs of her practice, with an emphasis on films made during the past 10 years.
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In the presence of Ute Aurand.
Three Portrait Sketches, één van Taits vroegste films, is gemaakt in Rome toen ze er studeerde aan het Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia tijdens de hoogdagen van de neo-realistische beweging. De personen in deze drie experimentele portretten zijn Claudia Donzelli, Saulat Rahman en Fernando Birri.
“In Susan I’ve filmed the Canadian artist Susan Turcot between 1993 and 2011. In Lisbeth I’ve filmed the Swiss artist Lisbeth Burri in her garden outside of Zürich. Filming portraits allows me to emphasize private gestures and moments beyond narration and documentation. Sometimes I collect footage for years before deciding to edit a portrait, like Paulina, Franz or Susan; then again a portrait like Lisbeth was filmed only on two occasions and edited shortly afterwards.” (Ute Aurand)
“Maria Lang is my very close filmmaker friend who lives in the Southern German countryside. We see her gardening and visiting an exhibition of female impressionist painters.” (Ute Aurand)
“SAKURA, SAKURA is a two minute film about two Japanese ladies, whom I met in Nara and Roppongi while filming for YOUNG PINES in Japan 2010.” (Ute Aurand)
“To Be Here: filmed in New England, New York and the Southwest of the US in 2012/2013. It is the last part of my trilogy with INDIA (2005) filmed in Pune and JUNGE KIEFERN / YOUNG PINES (2011) filmed in Japan.”(Ute Aurand)
To Be Here was initially titled America The Beautiful after the patriotic song that originates in a poem by Katherine Lee Bates. Early in the film, a series of close-ups of the hand written poem are combined with portraits of its author. Later on, and throughout the film, Aurand intersects images of landscapes and interiors in New England, New York and Arizona with photographs of exceptional American women, including the African-American activists Hester C. Whitehurst Jeffrey, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. A visit to Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, constitutes the central point of the film.
“Two memories from a longer visit to New England in Autumn 2012: A group of elderly ladies playing bridge followed by the stormy ocean at Cape Cod in Winter while listening to Etienne Grenier’s music practice.” (Ute Autand)
