Schwarz-weiß-Szenenfoto: Junge frauen sitzen auf einer Bank in der Natur, sie machen Tipp-Bewegungen mit den Händen, als würden sie Schreibmaschine schreiben. Um den Hals haben hängen Schilder auf denen das Wort Arbeitnehmer steht.

‘Helfen können wir uns nur selbst’, FRG 1974, directed by Gardi Deppe
© Deutsche Kinemathek

Health and Happiness

60 Jahre DFFB
Talk
Film
Fri 13.11.26, 20:30

Kinemathek – Hall

What links the films is the question of what role community plays within a capitalist-patriarchal order, and how change, happiness, or health are possible at all. In Helfen können wir nur uns selbst (1974), Gardi Deppe accompanies young women at a West German health clinic and stages a role-play with them in which they give expression to their experiences of exploitation. The conversations with the doctors reveal that the treatment is aimed less at recovery than at reintegrating the women into working life and family life. For Die fünfblättrige Fliederblüte (1993), Yingli Ma visits her home city of Beijing and meets four friends from her school days. In conversations about their working and private lives, the film draws a picture of China after the suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy movement and before the economic opening to the West: the young adults describe mounting pressure to perform, while the blossom, believed to bring good luck, becomes a sign of hope and their friendship.

Helfen können wir uns nur selbst (We Can Only Help Ourselves)

FRG 1974, directed by Gardi Deppe,  DCP, 48 min, German original version with English subtitles

Die fünfblättrige Fliederblüte (The Five-Petaled Lilac Blossom)

Germany 1993,, directed by Yingli Ma, DCP, 30 min, German and Mandarin original version with German subtitles

Guest: Yingli Ma
Curated by Fiona Berg, Sophie Holzberger and Arisa Purkpong
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60 years of the DFFB: to mark the anniversary, Sinema Transtopia, Deutsche Kinemathek and Arsenal present nine curated programs drawn from the academy’s past and present, from late October to late November. Three focal points – feminist, migrant, queer – bring attention to perspectives that still have to fight for visibility: women who campaigned for equality, students with migrant and international backgrounds, and a queer cinema that is redefining what the term means.