Life on tape
In "Life on tape" director Melanie Lischker reconstructs the life of her mother, whom she barely remembers, from over 100 hours of family video footage.
In her diaries she finds the tragic story of a young woman who, driven by the idea of freedom in the 1970s, tried in vain to free herself from the old thought patterns of her authoritarian parents' home. Her conflict between the desire for freedom and the desire for a regulated family life extends into the 90s and rubs off on the director's childhood.
In both the private and the political spheres, the film travels through the decades and shows a woman in conflict with the ponderous patriarchal structures of her time.
-
Melanie LischkerDirector
-
Melanie LischkerWriter
-
Maria WischnewskiProducer
-
Mechthild BarthEditing
-
Melanie LischkerEditing
-
Melanie LischkerKey Cast
-
Gabi LischkerKey Cast
-
Project Title (Original Language):Bilder (m)einer Mutter
-
Project Type:Documentary
-
Runtime:1 hour 19 minutes
-
Completion Date:February 14, 2021
-
Country of Origin:Germany
-
Country of Filming:Germany
-
Language:German
-
Shooting Format:Super8, Hi8,
-
Aspect Ratio:16:9
-
Film Color:Color
-
First-time Filmmaker:Yes
-
Student Project:No
-
Dokfest MunichMünich
Germany
May 6, 2021
Shortlist German competition Documentary -
Filmfestival KitzbühelKitzbühel
Austria
August 27, 2021
Winner Documentary Competition -
Achtung BerlinBerlin
Germany
September 8, 2021
Berlin Premier
Documentary Competition -
Dokka Dokfest KarsruheKarlsruhe
Germany
September 15, 2021
Documentary Competition -
Filmfestival KasselKassel
Germany
November 18, 2021 -
Mujer DocSoria
Spain
March 6, 2022 -
SEVIFF Indie Filmfestival SevillaSevilla
Spain
March 17, 2022
Winner Documentary Competition -
SEVIFF Indie Filmfestival Sevillasevilla
Spain
March 17, 2022
Winner Best Editing -
Preselection "Lola" - German film awardsBerlin
Germany
Preselection -
German Film Fest MadridMadrid
Spain
June 9, 2022
Official Selection -
Neisse Film FestivalDreiländereck
Germany
May 20, 2022
Fokus: Family Affairs
Distribution Information
-
KOBERSTEIN FILM GmbHCountry: GermanyRights: All Rights
MELANIE LISCHKER,
Idea, Director, DOP and Editor of „Life on tape“
Melanie Lischker was born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1983 and started filmmaking
when she was nine years old.
Later she got her diploma in editing in 2014 at HFF Konrad-Wolf Potsdam Babelsberg and worked as an freelance editor for experimental and documentary films. Her focus is in bulding stories from archive and found footage material.
She started her debut "Life on Tape" in 2015 and it was under the three best documentaries on Dokfest munich 2021 in the category german docs.
I began working on „A Life on Tape“ in 2015. At that point in time feminism had little relevance to me. Contrary to my mother Gabi, I felt that I had grown up without anything standing in between me and my professional goals.
Only by reconstructing the world she lived in, I gained insight into the political and societal realities shaping women from the 60s onwards. I realized for how long learned norms could be carried on in families and how hard it was even for the feminist movement, to rid themselves from ideas of role allocations. How absurd, that up until the 90s, women were considered the weak sex. Even more absurd, that some tend to believe today that we have reached the goal of emancipation.
Maybe I am part of a generation in which a real kind of „clean up work“ is happening. To deal with one‘s roots and free oneself from family behavioral patterns seems to be an urgent matter at the moment. And oftentimes in therapeutic settings as well, we focus on missing or passive fathers and unfulfilled and overly conformist mothers.
But back in the 80s this kind of reflection wasn‘t very popular yet. My mother brought her unresolved childhood experiences into our family and began searching for the causes of her problems only late in life.
Though work on „A Life on Tape“ was not my first time dealing with and processing the past, I was surprised by the outcome: Fragments of my own memories, the texts from my mother‘s diaries and the moments captured in the videos created a version of our shared history, in which my mother came back to life for me in a strange way.
I distanced myself from the needs I had as a child and saw Gabi – as her own person – who was more than just my mother. This experience brought me closer to her and changed my views on motherhood. We still judge women by how well they work and don‘t allow them any mistakes despite their double role in family and the professional life. This, however, now seems most natural to me: To take on responsibility for one‘s own well-being means viewing even parents in the context of their times.