UNDERDOX halftime | 5 june 2025
filmmuseum münchen 7pm | guest: Elfi Mikesch
Elfi Mikesch
Cinematographer and director, who has received several awards for her visual visions, is an
early pioneer of feminist-queer film.
Born on May 31, 1940 in Judenburg, Styria, she started out as a photographer and painter. In the early 1960s, she met Rosa von Praunheim in Frankfurt am Main and went with him to West Berlin and went with him to West Berlin. She worked closely with Praunheim, and soon after with Werner Schroeter (camera for MALINA) and Monika Treut, with whom she founded Hyäne-Filmproduktion in 1984. Her first own works were photo films, which she continues to this day as a chronicler of the hidden.
To mark the 85th birthday of this exceptional camerawoman, UNDERDOX is showing an excerpt of Elfi Mikesch’s work and talks to her about the importance of memory and the imaginary in the space between the images.
“I can say I am a floating particle … To be born as a floating particle means to be multiform, during a time that is not necessarily measurable.” – Elfi Mikesch
programme:
DANGEROUS PLACES
dangerous place
A boy tells his story. He lives with his mother and father on the outskirts of a village, near a factory. It is the “dangerous place” where chemical warfare agents were developed during the Second World War. On a hot summer’s day, the family is haunted. Of danger, jealousy, madness and the past.
Elfi Mikesch
DE 1994 | 35mm | 14 min
With Leo Wittrien, Annalisa Adami, Benno Ifland, Christoph Schlingensief, Alice Treff
soldiers soldiers
A barracks site, military presence has shaped the landscape here. The abandoned site is reminiscent of an invisible museum. Nature is slowly regaining the upper hand. The buildings are decaying.
Elfi Mikesch
DE 1994 | 35mm | 14 min
With Benno Ifland, Klaus Behnken
PHOTO-MOVIES
execution: a story of mary
A study of Mary Stuart. Images of passion, power, love, pain and death. Trivialization of the royal story, the contradictions and diversity of the Mary material.
“Drama of a woman who attempted a kind of liberal emancipation in a time of upheaval, but got caught in the snares of men.” (Elfi Mikesch)
Elfi Mikesch
BRD 1979 | 35mm | 28 min | German Film Award
With La Milli, Magdalena Montezuma, Berryt Bohlen, Polo Espinoza
smells like teen spirit – mona mur
“Music permeates Mona Mur with every fiber, every breath, every rhythm, every voice. Her body and her movements. Accentuated by her smile and her sensuality. She is magnetic.” (Elfi Mikesch)
Elfi Mikesch
Nirvana Cover Version | 6 min
the street as a narrative
A homage to the art of graffiti, documentary and experimental at the same time.
Elfi Mikesch
DE 2022 | 6 min
love’s debris – exhibition layout
2018, exhibition “Love’s Debris” based on Werner Schroeter’s film essay POUSSIÈRES D’AMOUR. Three artists united by an intense friendship: the photographer, camerawoman and director Elfi Mikesch, the filmmaker and activist Rosa von Praunheim and the theater, opera and film director Werner Schroeter. They were driven by the search for “other films, other images and other ways of life” (Elfi Mikesch).
Elfi Mikesch
DE 2018 | 17 min