Lady Shiva oder: „Die bezahlen nur meine Zeit“

On the occasion of the International Women’s Year 1975, a group of Zurich women artists organized the exhibition Frauen sehen Frauen – featuring only one cinematic contribution. The film portrays Irene Staub: sex worker, mother, model, singer, actress – in Ulrike Ottinger’s Madame X – and to this day a dazzling figure in Protestant Zurich. In the archives of the Cinémathèque suisse we find cinematic and non-cinematic traces of LADY SHIVA ODER: „DIE BEZAHLEN NUR MEINE ZEIT“. Following these, we approach the feminist film history of Switzerland around 1975 from an archival, historical, and academic perspective. LADY SHIVA ODER: „DIE BEZAHLEN NUR MEINE ZEIT“ is a testament to the courage of what was then the first generation of Swiss women directors, whose works – mostly ‘social’ documentaries shot on 8mm film and circulating outside the cinemas – remain marginalized up until today. It is the only work in the collection that addresses the controversial topic of sex work. Considering the historical distance that contemporary perspectives allow, we are concerned with both the emancipatory and problematic aspects of the film – such as its racist components – as well as the possibilities still to be explored, which are hinted at in LADY SHIVA ODER: „DIE BEZAHLEN NUR MEINE ZEIT“ in the discrepancy between sound and image. (Caroline Schöbi, Linda Waack und Seraina Winzeler)