Claudia von Alemann Programme 1
The centre piece of this two-day programme is the recent restoration of Claudia von Alemann’s first feature-length film, the remarkable
Blind Spot (
Die Reise nach Lyon/Le Voyage à Lyon, 1981). In this film, Elisabeth, a young German historian, roams the city of Lyon following in the footsteps of socialist and feminist writer Flora Tristan, and trying to reconstruct through sensations and sounds what Tristan might have felt and perceived in the past. The film is a reflection about alternative ways of telling and writing feminist history.
‘In
Die Reise nach Lyon (
Blind Spot), a woman historian, fascinated by the diary kept by Flora Tristan during the last few months of her life, refuses the traditional way of “looking” at history and gets caught up in a complex, multi-layered pattern of reverberations. History and “her” story become a network of resonances. One life/voice imprints in another. The process of social change, instead of being read by academic detectives in stuffy archives, resound in a space between a sound and its similar echoes. A visually fascinating film which is nevertheless one of the few real sound films ever made.’ Paul Willemen, Edinburgh Film Festival Catalogue, 1981.
This screening will be followed by a conversation between Claudia von Alemann and film theorist Laura Mulvey.
Blind Spot (Die Reise nach Lyon/Le Voyage à Lyon), West Germany, 1981, colour, 35mm transferred to digital, 107 mins, German, and French with English subtitles
Written, produced and directed by Claudia von Alemann, Cinematography: Hille Sagel, Editor: Monique Dartonne, Music: Frank Wolff, Sounddesign: Daniel Deshays. With Rebecca Pauly, Denise Péron, Jean Badin, Sarah Stern, Maurice Garden.
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