Helke Sander

A young German soldier named Paul goes AWOL and returns to his childhood home in the countryside. Over a few summer days, Paul evades the responsibilities of everyday life and falls in love with his brother’s girlfriend, disrupting the lives of everyone in his circle.

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A woman from a big city moves to a small village near the former border zone between East and West Germany. What is she looking for? What will she encounter? Rural life in the era of globa­li­sa­tion turns into an adven­ture. History lives in objects, stories and customs here since it was first recorded 800 years ago. Wars and famines have left their traces, just as churches, poli­tical parties and various forms of govern­ment. The change of the times, struc­tured by tele­vi­sion, has almost obscu­rely changed the old rhythms of life; super­market offers changed eating habits and food stock economy. Is it folk­lore nost­algia or a matter of preser­ving one’s way and quality of life to keep the old customs and habits, such as preser­ving old types of plants and boiling down cucum­bers? The village - a mutual exch­ange of expe­ri­ences and garden products. The village is like an onion: it shows ever new surpri­sing layers and leads us deep into unwritten pasts.

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Lucy, who is already human-like, claims that the first humans were mothers: The mother built a nest to secure the child when it became too heavy to carry. This is how she invented the house. She penetrated the dense branches with her voice to maintain contact with the child. That's how she invented language. Today, Lucy shakes her head and asks: "How did you let yourself be dragged down like that?".

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Based on years of research into the mass rapes committed by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. In the first part of the documentary Helke Sander interviews multiple German women who were raped in Berlin by Soviet soldiers in May 1945. Most women never spoke of their experience to anyone, after 46 years of silence they talk for the first time publicly about their violent experiences that have left such a mark.

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Based on years of research into the mass rapes committed by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. In the second part of the documentary Helke Sander interviews former Soviet soldiers, and children born from rape, splicing their statements with material from archives. While avoiding an emotional presentation of the subject matter to rule out revanchist interpretations.

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A documentary with fictious elements. Ms. Elisabeth (Lieschen) Müller from Austria comes to Bonn, Germany to find herself a man. During the search she investigates the connections between neckties, political power and prostitution, and tries to look for the influence the german feminist movement had on the men in Germany's capital.

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Story concerns two friends, Freya and Irmtraut and their relationships with the same man, Traugott, who finds it impossible to choose between the two women.

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Berlin Underground-star Ulrike S. went to the Toronto-Filmfestival and then to New York - to find out something about the film business and also about her own desires, daydreams and nightmares.

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At the end of the 1960s, a young woman laid the foundation of the women's movement. As well as political initiatives against male dominance, a detailed picture was drawn of society, which established the women’s motivation.

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Edda Chiemnyjewski, a freelance press photographer and single mother living in 1970s West Berlin, is confronted with the fact that "a cook has no time for affairs of state". She also fails to find a market for the project she has been working on with her women′s photography group that seeks to document the city. While from today′s perspective the city, which becomes one of the film′s protagonists, looks like post-war Berlin, little has actually changed as regards the precarious existence of free-lancers. With a heavy dose of self-irony Helke Sander, who also plays the leading role, tells of a divided life in a divided city.

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Set in contemporary Vienna, the film involves a photographer, Anna, who discovers that extraterrestrial beings are colonizing the minds of her fellow citizens by raising the human aggression quotient. The outer world immediately becomes disjointed, yet the inner world does too, as Anna and her lover, Peter, try to hang onto their deteriorating relationship.

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A look into the life of Holger Meins, the German cinematography student who became a revolutionary and a prominent voice in the Vietnam War protest movement. This film is comprised of interviews with his associates.

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Documentary about the situation of film students after graduation.

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A documentary about the events at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) in November 1968, which led to the termination of the training contracts of 18 students. While Director Heinz Rathsack dictates to his secretary Helene Schwarz the letter lifting the ban from the premises against 18 students, the students plan a general assembly inside the dffb despite the ban.

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The weaker sex must become stronger - but how can this be achieved? The central keyword of the six filmmakers Claudia von Alemann, Susanne Beyeler, Erika Runge, Helke Sander, Ula Stöckl and Hanna Laura Klar is: emancipation. Together, they will discuss the importance of films for feminist consciousness-raising and the role of female filmmakers in this process. A statement will be followed by an exemplary feature film scene. Claudia von Alemann talks about the unequal division of housework and advocates the remuneration of this work. How can the relationship between work and family be improved for working women? What about bringing up children? What steps are necessary to overcome the unequal gender order? One thing is clear: Film work is political practice.

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Ihre Zeitungen is a political film rooted in the 1968 student campaign against the Springer press group, which controlled popular dailies such as the Berliner Zeitung and the Bild Zeitung. Claiming the latter were manipulating public opinion, the students laid siege to the publisher's offices. These events made a strong impression on the German collective conscience, and it's in this context that Farocki made this "agit-prop" film.

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“Six young people move through a city in order to establish the starting point of their joint action. But they can’t agree on the topic. In the end everybody goes their own way and leaves the city.” - Hartmut Bitomsky

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Documentary showing the daily routine of Sander’s seven year old son, Silvo.

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Analysis of an incident in Nazi Germany involving a man and a jewish woman.

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Based on years of research into the mass rapes committed by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. In the second part of the documentary Helke Sander interviews former Soviet soldiers, and children born from rape, splicing their statements with material from archives. While avoiding an emotional presentation of the subject matter to rule out revanchist interpretations.

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A documentary with fictious elements. Ms. Elisabeth (Lieschen) Müller from Austria comes to Bonn, Germany to find herself a man. During the search she investigates the connections between neckties, political power and prostitution, and tries to look for the influence the german feminist movement had on the men in Germany's capital.

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Within four episodes ("Er am Ende", "Muss ich aufpassen", "Eva" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" ) are being told adventures of love sick Felix. On Sylt he meets two nymphomaniac women, in Hamburg he meets Eva, a girl who is even more love sick and later he meets Luci who gives him an indecent proposal. Thus he flees again...

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A sexual assault and its consequences. The 2nd of three self-contained shorts from Helke Sander's series of shorts entitled From the Reports of Security Guards & Patrol Services.

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When an ordinary-looking man tries to buy a mirror in an upscale shop, class conflicts arise. The third part of the short film series.

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Seven Women, Seven Sins (1986) represents a quintessential moment in film history. The women filmmakers invited to direct for the seven sins were amongst the world's most renown: Helke Sander (Gluttony), Bette Gordon (Greed), Maxi Cohen (Anger), Chantal Akerman (Sloth), Valie Export (Lust), Laurence Gavron (Envy), and Ulrike Ottinger (Pride). Each filmmaker had the liberty of choosing a sin to interpret as they wished. The final film reflected this diversity, including traditional narrative fiction, experimental video, a musical, a radical documentary, and was delivered in multiple formats from 16, super 16, video and 35mm.

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A woman threatens to jump off a crane with her two young children in order to secure affordable housing.

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Story concerns two friends, Freya and Irmtraut and their relationships with the same man, Traugott, who finds it impossible to choose between the two women.

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Omnibus film about everyday handling of poison made by film students and produced by Helke Sander.

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At the end of the 1960s, a young woman laid the foundation of the women's movement. As well as political initiatives against male dominance, a detailed picture was drawn of society, which established the women’s motivation.

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Edda Chiemnyjewski, a freelance press photographer and single mother living in 1970s West Berlin, is confronted with the fact that "a cook has no time for affairs of state". She also fails to find a market for the project she has been working on with her women′s photography group that seeks to document the city. While from today′s perspective the city, which becomes one of the film′s protagonists, looks like post-war Berlin, little has actually changed as regards the precarious existence of free-lancers. With a heavy dose of self-irony Helke Sander, who also plays the leading role, tells of a divided life in a divided city.

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Seven young women from Berlin discuss their experiences with the pill in a studio setting and react to the ideas that young men of the same age have about this contraceptive. The film is based on the work of the women's group "Brot und Rosen" and their book "Frauenhandbuch Nr.1 Abtreibung und Verhütung".

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In a critique to the Berliner films that depicted labour problems always through masculine lens, Sander changes the point of view. Irene, single mother, works in a washing machine factory and has to deal with discrimination, sexual harassment and lack of solidarity.

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The film documents the work of an anti-authoritarian and self-organized school store in Witzlebenstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which emerged as a critique of the development of children's stores. The film shows how the teachers discuss the conversion of open spaces into playgrounds with the children and how the children jointly prepare the publication of their newspaper "Radau". The concept of the children's stores was developed by the Action Council for the Liberation of Women, which emerged from the Socialist German Student Union (SDS), at the Free University of Berlin (FU) and was organized as self-help from January 1968. Helke Sander was one of the co-founders of the Action Council.

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Documentary by Helke Sander, in collaboration with Harun Farocki (among others), about the campaign of the West German New Left against the publishing house Springer, particularly its control and manipulation of the news.

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Documentary showing the daily routine of Sander’s seven year old son, Silvo.

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A concise blast of feminist film making, Sander's first film is a tense yet playful four minute short that dissects a typical urban scene at a bus stop on a busy street in Berlin.

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