The Long Road to the Director's Chair
In 1973, the First International Women's Film Seminar, organized by Claudia von Alemann and Heike Sander, took place in Berlin and is considered one of the first feminist women's film festivals ever. Norwegian director Vibeke Løkkeberg was invited with her film ABORT (1971) and traveled with her film team to document this crucial networking event of the feminist media movement. She filmed the plenary discussions and conducted interviews. Due to a lack of funding, the footage was forgotten. Only 50 years later, the material was rediscovered in the Norwegian National Library, and Løkkeberg seized the opportunity. It is a time travel into the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Keywords from the discussions of that time remain relevant today: abortion, sexual education, wage discrimination, and health issues. The result is a fascinating portrait of women determined to make films on their terms