Helke Sander

Born January 31, 1937, in Berlin, Helke Sander studied drama in Hamburg and German and psychology in Helsinki, Finland. After directing and acting in several theatrical productions and participating in numerous art happenings in Helsinki in the early Sixties, Sander worked as a director at Finnish TV. During her studies at the German Film and Television School in the late Sixties, Sander became very active in the students’ movement, founding the Aktionsrat sur Befreiung der Frau (Coalition for the Liberation of Women) in 1968 and co-founding the women’s group Brot und Rosen (Bread and Roses) in 1972. The speech she delivered at an autumn 1968 conference of SDS (Socialist German Students), which argued that the students’ movement reflected the sexism of its time, is widely credited as the spark that began the New German Women’s Movement. In 1974, Sander founded Frauen und Film, the first European feminist film journal. Her first feature-length film, Redupers (1977), received the Prix l’age d’or at the Brussels Film Festival in 1978. Helke Sander teaches at the School of Visual Arts in Hamburg. She also works for German TV and writes for the Berlin daily taz and for Frauen und Film. She lives in Hamburg and Berlin. (8/02)

The Germans and Their Men
A film by Helke Sander, 1989, 96 min., Color
"If a woman doesn't have equal rights, is she equally responsible for the crimes of a nation?" Helke Sander's quasi-documentary turns a wry and reveal...

Gluttony
A film by Helke Sander, 1986, Color
Eve discovers the rapture of the apple and offers it to Adam thus committing the original sin. Told in studio-bound cartoon style, this tale serves a...