Ute Aurand’s diary films, film portraits, and travelogues belong to the lineage of Jonas Mekas, Marie Menken and Margaret Tait. A key figure in Berlin’s film scene since the 1980s, Aurand records life’s small, ephemeral details on a handheld Bolex camera, later reworking them in a style that is at once energetic, rhythmic, playful and — unusually for experimental cinema — tender. She has described her approach as “a brief touch” — “like a swing, to go away and come back and go away and come back again.” Her films explore the lives of friends and strangers, the atmosphere of local and foreign places, and “the absolutely singular, exquisite textures of daily life around her” (Michael Sicinski).
Im Park/A Walk/Zuoz. Germany, 2008. 6 min, 4.5 min, 7.5 min. 16mm. Silent.
Kopfüber im Geäst (Hanging Upside Down in the Branches). Germany, 2009. 15 min. 16mm. Silent.
To Be Here. Germany, 2013. 38 min. 16mm. Sound.
Zu Hause (At Home). Germany, 1998. 2.5 min. 16mm. Silent.
Programmed by Michèle Smith
Please note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Terzen (Thirds), will no longer screen. In its place, a collection of silent works by Aurand will accompany her latest film, To Be Here.
Ute Aurand is a filmmaker, curator and educator who has been making experimental films since graduating from the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin in 1985. During the 1990s, she presented the series "Filmarbeiterinnen-Abend" at the Arsenal Cinema, which featured films, mostly experimental, made by women; she also co-founded "FilmSamstag" (Film Saturday), a monthly film programme at Kino Filmkunsthaus Babylon Mitte that ran until 2007. In 1991, she co-authored, with filmmaker Maria Lang, "Frauen machen Geschichte – 25 Jahre Studentinnen an der dffb“ (Women make History-25 Years of Women Students at the dffb). Her films, which have toured internationally, were the subject of a recent retrospective at Tate Modern.
Image: Im Park, 2008. Courtesy of the artist