Bildnis einer Trinkerin

“It always feels like the first time” - Lady Windermere’s description of how the encounter between imagination and reality is new every time in Ulrike Ottingers Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia can easily be applied to seeing the films of Ulrike Ottinger, which are equally surprising each time they are seen. The fact that every viewing of her films allows them to grasped anew, with discoveries, impressions and visual experiences unfolding as if for the very first time, is not least down to the her unique combination of precise documentary observation and brilliant crafting of imaginary visual and aural spaces. We would like to invite audiences to a “rediscovery” of BILDNIS EINER TRINKERIN (1979) to coincide with Ulrike Ottinger’s birthday. The film is at once a topography of the city of Berlin as well as a high-contrast portrait of the people who live here or who are visiting; rock singers, writers, artists, experts, fictitious characters. (Milena Gregor)