Afterimage: Ulrike Ottinger

March 1–May 17, 2019

The German filmmaker joins us for a weeklong residency. From fantastical feminist fictions to ethnographic explorations, her films reflect a keen and wide-ranging eye for the marvelous.

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Chamisso's Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters
Ticket of No Return
Freak Orlando
The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press

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Tuesday, March 12, 6:30 PM
Mosse Lecture: Ulrike Ottinger

The filmmaker in residence presents an illustrated lecture discussing her approach to the visual design of her films, as well as her research methods for nonfiction projects.

BAMPFA

Past Films

Ulrike Ottinger: Nomad from the Lake
Brigitte Kramer
Germany, 2012
Friday, March 1 4 PM
This personal portrait of the idiosyncratic German artist, filmmaker, and feminist traces her artistic development and offers insights into her singular body of work.

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Ticket of No Return
Ulrike Ottinger
West Germany, 1979
Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 7 7 PM
Ulrike Ottinger and B. Ruby Rich in Conversation
A dive into Berlin’s seedy underside, courtesy of two women drinking themselves into oblivion. With appearances by Magdalena Montezuma, Nina Hagen, Eddie Constantine, and other cult stars.
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Prater
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, Austria, 2007
Friday, March 8 3 PM
Ulrike Ottinger in Person
Ottinger’s award-winning documentary on the Prater amusement park in Vienna draws a parallel between the illusionary business of carnival freak shows and the bygone era of a cinema of attractions.
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The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press
Ulrike Ottinger
West Germany, 1984
Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Friday, March 8 7 PM
Ulrike Ottinger in Person
Delphine Seyrig plays Dr. Mabuse, the unscrupulous president of a multinational press conglomerate scheming up a new plan for world domination, in Ottinger’s Langian exploration of media manipulation.
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Exile Shanghai
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 1997
Digital Restoration
Sunday, March 10 12 PM
Ulrike Ottinger in Person
Fascinating and rich with wry humor, Exile Shanghai is an extraordinary cultural odyssey that affectionately conjures up the lost Jewish world of 1930s Shanghai.
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Mosse Lecture: Ulrike Ottinger
Tuesday, March 12 6:30 PM
The filmmaker in residence presents an illustrated lecture discussing her approach to the visual design of her films, as well as her research methods for nonfiction projects.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 1: Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, March 15 6:30 PM
Ottinger traces the paths of past explorers in a multipart exploration of the peoples, landscapes, and legends of the Bering Sea. This extraordinarily beautiful work is perhaps Ottinger’s magnum opus.
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Freak Orlando
Ulrike Ottinger
West Germany, 1981
Digital Restoration
Saturday, March 16 7:30 PM
“Virginia Woolf meets the German camp underground in this extravaganza of performance art and oddity” (Jonathan Rosenbaum). Ottinger’s gender-bending, boundary-breaking fantasy of world history features Magdalena Montezuma, Delphine Seyrig, and Eddie Constantine.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 1: Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Sunday, March 17 3 PM
Ottinger traces the paths of past explorers in a multipart exploration of the peoples, landscapes, and legends of the Bering Sea. This extraordinarily beautiful work is perhaps Ottinger’s magnum opus.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 1: Chukotka
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, March 22 6:30 PM
The second chapter in Ottinger’s Arctic exploration takes her to Chukotka in the Russian Far East.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 1: Chukotka
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Sunday, March 24 3 PM
The second chapter in Ottinger’s Arctic exploration takes her to Chukotka in the Russian Far East.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 2: Chukotka and Wrangel Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, March 29 6:30 PM
Ottinger travels from Chukotka to the remote outpost of Wrangel Island as her journey continues.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 2: Chukotka and Wrangel Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Sunday, March 31 3 PM
Ottinger travels from Chukotka to the remote outpost of Wrangel Island as her journey continues.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 3: Kamchatka and Bering Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, April 5 6:30 PM
Ottinger’s Bering Sea voyage concludes with the peninsula of Kamchatka and Bering Island.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 3: Kamchatka and Bering Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Sunday, April 7 3 PM
Ottinger’s Bering Sea voyage concludes with the peninsula of Kamchatka and Bering Island.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 1: Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, April 26 6:30 PM
Ottinger traces the paths of past explorers in a multipart exploration of the peoples, landscapes, and legends of the Bering Sea. This extraordinarily beautiful work is perhaps Ottinger’s magnum opus.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 1: Chukotka
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, May 3 6:30 PM
The second chapter in Ottinger’s Arctic exploration takes her to Chukotka in the Russian Far East.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 2, Part 2: Chukotka and Wrangel Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, May 10 6:30 PM
Ottinger travels from Chukotka to the remote outpost of Wrangel Island as her journey continues.
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Chamisso’s Shadow: A Journey to the Bering Sea in Three Chapters. Chapter 3: Kamchatka and Bering Island
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, 2016
Friday, May 17 6:30 PM
Ottinger’s Bering Sea voyage concludes with the peninsula of Kamchatka and Bering Island.
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Afterimage: Ulrike Ottinger

March 1–May 17, 2019

German artist Ulrike Ottinger (born 1942) works in film, photography, and the visual arts and has been associated with movements including the New German Cinema, feminism, and ethnographic film over the course of her prestigious career. As a filmmaker, she has always directed from behind the lens of the camera, bringing her talents as a cinematographer to the fore and uniting her directorial vision with the way she witnesses the world. Her films are distinguished by their marvelous subjects and sense of wonder in all things. This series features her Berlin trilogy made between 1979 and 1984—Ticket of No Return, Freak Orlando, and The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press—as examples of her work in the narrative form, for which she has often created fantastical images. Also included are several nonfiction works that reveal her fascination with history: the award-winning Prater, about the amusement park in Vienna; Exile Shanghai, which traces the experiences of members of the Jewish diaspora who made their way to Shanghai in the 1930s; and the monumental Chamisso’s Shadow, a work of remarkable beauty filmed on her journey to the remote reaches of the Bering Sea, tracing the paths of past explorers. We are honored that Ulrike Ottinger will be our filmmaker in residence for a week coinciding with her Mosse Lecture on March 12, presented in partnership with the Department of German at UC Berkeley.

Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator

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Series organized by Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby. Afterimage: Filmmakers and Critics in Conversation is made possible by generous funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association^®. Ulrike Ottinger’s Mosse Lecture is supported by the Department of German at UC Berkeley; our thanks to Deniz Göktürk, professor and chair of the German department, for her assistance with this residency.