Paper Bridge
Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling
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1h 36m
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1987 - Austria
Ruth Beckermann’s exploration of her own family past is both the story of the Central European Jews and a history of the region. Her journey takes her from Vienna, where her grandmother lived in hiding during the war amongst the Nazis by posing as a deaf-mute, to the landscapes of Eastern Europe, a place that witnessed the extermination of Jews and yet is still pervaded by the humour of the few remaining survivors. The homecoming ends on the streets of Vienna in the midst of Kurt Waldheim’s election campaign, where anti-Semitism once again reveals its ugly face.
"No, this is not a documentary film. This is a vital work that elevates the art of film beyond its similarities with poetry, narrative storytelling, and introspection by placing the most subtle means of conveying metaphor and metonymy in the service of the desire to preserve." - Hélène Cixous, 2006
"shows the relationship between history and memory...reveals, for a few minutes at a time, fascism at work" - Alexander Horwath, Falter
Up Next in Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling
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Towards Jerusalem
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1990 - Austria
What became of the dream of the Jewish homeland? A still relevant documentary road movie shot along the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Trucks, gas stations, construction workers, soldiers, Russian immigrants, taxi drivers, security guards: encounter...
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East of War
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1996 - Austria
White-tiled rooms, neon lighting, on the walls the black and white photographs of the exhibition “War of Extermination”, which documents the atrocities committed by the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Against this background, Ruth Beckermann films for...
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A Fleeting Passage to the Orient
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1999 - Austria
An essay film about Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s attempts to vanish from the picture. A film about Orientalism and of a woman on the road. Shot in Egypt, the film features a text written by the filmmaker and music from the Kronos-Quartet. The camera slips ...
