Tula Roy, Peider A. Defilla
| What do Tula Roy and Peider A. Defilla have in common, apart from a Swiss passport? The answer is Christoph Wirsing. The cameraman has worked with the Swiss filmmakers, who live in and around Munich, time and again, as a constant companion. To mark the 90th birthday of Tula Roy and the 70th birthday of Peider A. Defilla, we invite you to a Swiss double bill of two different works that each bear the signature of their time of origin. We have given the programme the title “Gestures of the avant-garde”. Tula Roy is one of the most prominent women on the Swiss film scene, and she has made history with her milieu studies in the feminist underground. Peider A. Defilla is one of the outstanding video pioneers of the European avant-garde and composer and arranger of the “video opera”. In an experiment, we combine both personalities, connected by the Munich cameraman Christoph Wirsing. |
Tula Roy | Feminist underground
Tula Roy Born 1934 in Bueriis, Italy. Trained as a photographer in Basel. Freelance work for the press, architecture and industry. F+F film courses at Zurich University of Art and Design. Freelance filmmaker. Teaches at the Pestalozzianum in Zurich.
Films Lady Shiva 1975 | Lieber ledig als unverheiratet 1978 | Jugend und Sexualität 1979 | Ich möchte Bundesrat werden 1981 | Liebe – einfach kompliziert 1992 | Eine andere Geschichte 1993 | Mittendrin 2002 | Spiel mit dem Sand 2003 | Selbstbestimmt leben 2004 | Seiltänzer 2006 | Cesare Ferronato 2008
Lady Shiva or: “They only pay for my time”
D: Tula Roy | DOP: Christoph Wirsing | CH 1974 | 40 min | DCP of 16mm-Blow-up
With Irene Staub
To mark the International Year of Women in 1975, Zurich artists realised the exhibition “Women see women”. The only film portrays Irene Staub: sex worker, mother, model, singer, actress – in Ulrike Ottinger’s MADAME X – and a colourful figure in Protestant Zurich.
„Swiss filmmaker Tula Roy has long since been rediscovered as a key figure in Europe’s feminist and committed Marxist cinema. Initially working as a photographer, her first major film work was this portrait of Irene Staub, shot on Super 8, who staged herself as a high-class prostitute in an extravagant outfit under the stage name Lady Shiva. As Zurich’s Marilyn Monroe, she also enjoyed success as a model and in the art scene. The images in LADY SHIVA mainly depict everyday scenes, while the protagonist talks about herself in spontaneous interviews on the soundtrack. In between, the loneliness and hardships behind the art figure are revealed.“
(Christoph Huber, Österreichisches Filmmuseum)
Peider A. Defilla | Video-Opera
Peider A. Defilla Born in Zurich in 1954, grew up in the Engadin and completed his Matura in Vaduz. Studied music (organ, violin, composition) in Switzerland. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (painting and object art) and at the University of Munich (philosophy, theatre studies, phonetics and linguistic communication). Founded B.O.A. Videofilmkunst in 1987. His films and compositions have been shown at the Solothurn Film Festival, EXPRMNTL 5,
Leipzig Film Festival, Berlin Biennale, musica viva, Munich Documentary Film Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage.
Films of 70s (selection)
et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum 1974 | CO-INCIDENCE, PHANTASMA 1975 | Rauchen und Hantieren mit offenem Licht und Feuer verboten 1977 | Visual structure no. 1 1978 | Test-signale 1980
Further works (selection) Donausmusik 2001 | Kabel Deutschland – Alles aus einer Dose 2007 | musica viva – Forum der GegenwartsmusiK 2007-2010 | B.O.A. Videofilmkunst – Image ’09 (Internetfilm) 2009
Donaumusik
D + Composition: Peider A. Defilla | DE 2001 | 45 min
DOP: Bernd Meiners | Scene photos: Christoph Wirsing
With Michael Lentz, Ruth Geiersberger, Ulrich Müller, Zoro Babel, Friederika Riechert, Reza Memari, Lucas Linke, Peider A. Defilla
„Live connections to all studios around the world are welcome at any time.“ (Peider A. Defilla)
The video opera “Donaumusik” deals with the appreciation of individual composing in a society that is extremely stressed by acoustic and visual overstimulation, and answers this question with the means of collage. The performers, called “Players”, act as individuals with and against each other, lead lyrical and dramatic episodes into each other and emancipate themselves in the course of the performance to form a cohesive team that unfolds freely like a jazz ensemble on the keyboard of new experimental possibilities.