PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY AND THE WRITING OF THE SELF. ENCOUNTER WITH CATERINA KLUSEMANN

Daughter of a Hebrew mother and German father, the author, through these personal documentaries, digs into the past of her grandmother, Ima, who managed to escape Nazi persecution, and in Georg sets out to follow the footprints of her father,a painter, who died while she was still a child.

The films, rich in different languages and “roots” and heterogeneous materials, weave a story that succeeds in achieving a universal significance: the tragedy of the Nineteen Hundreds, the relations between three generations of women, the utopias of the ‘70s, the wreck of dreams, identity, nostalgia, grief: and the need to remember. The author will be presenting a preview
from the third video in the trilogy: «... my three daughters coming and going… Around the kitchen table the relationships between mothers, grandmothers and daughters become visible… The microcosm between the divan and the kitchen expands to form a matrilineal present of traumas handed down, of illusions and disappointments and new hopes for the future». (Caterina Klusemann)

[from Invideo 2013 catalogue]

Caterina Klusemann (1973, Lucca, Italy) grew up between Italy, Germany, Venezuela and Switzerland. She studied filmmaking at New York’s Columbia University and makes personal films, documentaries, TV programmes. She lives between Italy and Germany.


Ima, USA-Germany-Italy, 2001, 58’; direction, production: Caterina Klusemann; coproduction: ZDF/ARTE

FRIDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 05.15 P.M. SPAZIO OBERDAN

Georg, GGermany-Italy, 2007, 72’; direction, production: Caterina Klusemann; coproduzione/coproduction: Ma.ja.de. filmproduktion, ZDF/ARTE

SATURDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 09.45 P.M. SPAZIO OBERDAN > the author will be present