Experiencing Interruptions?

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 Lischker
    Director
  • Melanie Lischker
    Writer
  • Maria Wischnewski
    Producer
  • Mechthild Barth
    Editing
  • Melanie Lischker
    Editing
  • Melanie Lischker
    Key Cast
  • Gabi Lischker
    Key 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 Munich
    Münich
    Germany
    May 6, 2021
    Shortlist German competition Documentary
  • Filmfestival Kitzbühel
    Kitzbühel
    Austria
    August 27, 2021
    Winner Documentary Competition
  • Achtung Berlin
    Berlin
    Germany
    September 8, 2021
    Berlin Premier
    Documentary Competition
  • Dokka Dokfest Karsruhe
    Karlsruhe
    Germany
    September 15, 2021
    Documentary Competition
  • Filmfestival Kassel
    Kassel
    Germany
    November 18, 2021
  • Mujer Doc
    Soria
    Spain
    March 6, 2022
  • SEVIFF Indie Filmfestival Sevilla
    Sevilla
    Spain
    March 17, 2022
    Winner Documentary Competition
  • SEVIFF Indie Filmfestival Sevilla
    sevilla
    Spain
    March 17, 2022
    Winner Best Editing
  • Preselection "Lola" - German film awards
    Berlin
    Germany
    Preselection
  • German Film Fest Madrid
    Madrid
    Spain
    June 9, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Neisse Film Festival
    Dreiländereck
    Germany
    May 20, 2022
    Fokus: Family Affairs
Distribution Information
  • KOBERSTEIN FILM GmbH
    Country: Germany
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Melanie Lischker

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.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

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.