Marc Aurel-Strasse, Vienna: The last surviving Jewish textile merchant in what used to be the textile district, the Iranian hotel proprietor and the Cafeì Salzgries with its regulars. From summer 1999 until spring 2000, Ruth Beckermann undertook a series of small journeys on and around her own doorstep and investigated her neighbourhood with the help of a film camera. The film also bears witness to the political changes which accompanied the extreme right’s joining the government-coalition.
- Berlinale (2001)
- Cinéma du réel (2001)
- Diagonale (2001)
She was born in Vienna where she also spent her childhood. After her studies in journalism and history of art in Vienna, Tel Aviv and New York, she got her PhD degree in 1977 at the University of Vienna. She has since contributed as a journalist to several Austrian and Swiss magazines.
In 1978 she (co-)founded the distribution company Filmladen, where she was active for seven years. During this period, Ruth Beckermann started to make films and write books. Since 1985 she has been working as a writer and filmmaker. Her film The Dreamed Ones was selected at many international festivals and won several awards. In 2018, Ruth Beckermann finished her latest film The Waldheim Waltz and won, among other awards, the Glashütte-Original Documentary Award from the Berlin International Film Festival.
Filmography: The Dreamed Ones (2016); The Missing Image (2015); Those Who Go Those Who Stay (2013); Jackson/Marker 4am (2012); American Passages (2011); Mozart Enigma (2006); Zorros Bar Mizwa (2006); Homemad(E) (2001); A Fleeting Passage to the Orient (1999); East of War (1996); Towards Jerusalem (1991); Paper Bridge (1987); Return to Vienna (1984); The Steel Hammer Out There on the Grass (1981); Suddenly, a Streik (1978); Arena Squatted (1977).