frankfurt forms: milena gierke's new york films

For our series frankfurt forms, which deals with the history of the film scene in Frankfurt, we are building a bridge to the first edition of the festival and are delighted to welcome Milena Gierke, whose films were part of our festival in 2021, to Frankfurt. Gierke studied experimental film at the Städelschule with Peter Kubelka, as well as sculpture and film at the Cooper Union in New York City with Hans Haacke and Robert Breer, among others. In 2001, she joined Filmsamstag, a group of filmmakers and critics who organized screenings and discussions on experimental film at the Filmkunsthaus Babylon in Berlin-Mitte from 1997 to 2007.

What interests me about making films is the inherent possibility of observing reality through the camera‘s lens, using technical means to capture my personal perspective. I am strongly attracted to the unique visual qualities of everyday existence, and my films are my means of drawing attention to that which fascinates me. Some of this is perceptible only by looking through the camera, and invisible to the naked eye. (M.G.)

Milena will present two programs on Super 8 with a focus on her films made in New York. In addition to her work New York Film Diary, the filmmaker has put together a program of short films made between 1994 and 1998.

fri 05/09 14:30 | frankfurt forms: milena gierke pt. 1 (screening at pupille)

During the 13 months I spent in New York, I always had my camera with me. This film concentrates on direct visual impressions of my daily life in New York. It is more of a sketchbook than a documentation of my life. New York Film Diary is a very personal, silent inventory of what I saw, of what attracted my attention there. (Milena Gierke)

Unlike many other films of the diary genre, Gierke’s account of her year living in New York is not entirely autobiographical. As the Super 8 footage silently unfolds, the filmmaker does not try to make sense of her own meaning of the images but rather respects them as they came out of the camera, unlike a written diary, where one reflects on their own feelings towards the events told on the page. Filming is for Gierke a tool to engage and interact with anything she comes across throughout her New York stay. The camera —in her own words— was a sketchbook, and, following this logic, the final result is a compilation of many smaller scale films of a heterogeneous nature, both in form and content, from a structuralist glimpse that suggests the possibility of a whole film, to condensed sequences of birds flying, people ice skating on central park, a man handmaking noodles on the street, the cityscape at dusk or many iterations of self-portraits, among many other phenomena. Her images are frontal and direct and show an enthusiasm for experiencing light, movement and real life as it unfolds in front of the camera.

( Borja Rodríguez Gimeno )

In the presence of Milena Gierke.

New York Film Diary Sep. 3, 1994 - Oct. 3 1995

D: Milena Gierke, super 8, b&w a. color, silent, 96 min, 1994-1995

Milena Gierke - New York Film Diary (1994-1995)

fri 05/09 17:00 | frankfurt forms: milena gierke pt. 2 (screening at pupille)

A selection of short New York miniatures complements and expands Milena Gierke's New York Film Diary in this second program. Some of these works, created between 1994 and 1998, were shot at the same time as the film diary, while others were created during further visits to the city. Snapshots are layered on top of each other and fit into larger stories and history — this constellation creates a different temporal dimension that, in addition to providing a perspective on historical events, never loses sight of the moment: a Thanksgiving celebration in New Jersey; a Sunday outing to the harbor; participants in the AIDS Walk meeting afterwards in Central Park; a drag queen parade along the Hudson River; cats hanging around in a New York backyard in full sunshine; fallen leaves in a swimming pool after sudden summer rainstorm; excited soccer fans at the 1998 World Cup; curtains blowing in the wind and light falling through a window onto a red velvet sofa and finally coping with the summer heat on a rooftop terrace reading Wim Wenders' screenplay for Wings of Desire. In the presence of Milena Gierke.