The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

In November of 1973, the first International Women’s Film Seminar brought filmmakers from various countries together at Berlin’s Arsenal Cinema. The event was organised by Claudia von Alemann and Helke Sander. It was the height of the Women’s Liberation movement and the participants not only screened their films, they held intense discussions about their lives and the reality of working in a man’s world. Norwegian director Vibeke Løkkeberg came to show her film $Abort” and documented the festival with her 16mm camera. She interviewed the women about their work and a range of feminist subjects, filmed them leaving the cinema, and during lively discussions in the foyer. But the raw material was never looked at again and was considered lost for 50 years. Now, Løkkeberg has turned the footage into a formally adventuresome film that captures the sense of new beginnings, the openness, and the fighting spirit of the women. The film bears witness to what remains of that spirit and what has changed in the last 50 years.