Helke Sander: Aufräumen / Helke Sander: Cleaning House

“Cleaning house also has an inner meaning, something transcendent”, says the feminist, writer, and filmmaker Helke Sander. Now more than eighty years old, she’s standing amidst memorabilia from an eventful life – representational and cinematic, personal and political. Her biography and life are woven into the German women’s movement. She continues to get into good trouble to this day. Equitable childcare duties, recognition for care work, the right to abortion: as a reporter and director, Sander confronted society with uncomfortable issues. She countered the lack of funding for her artistic work, refused her by the mainly male-dominated funding committees, with the “Action Council for Women’s Liberation” and founding the feminist film magazine “Women and Film”. Claudia Richarz combines insights into Sander’s past and present life as an artist and activist with excerpts from her works and interviews, while also finding the space to allow her cinematic work to resonate.