Films by Jeanine Meerapfel

Germany 2020, 104 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel

A WOMAN is a cinematic essay, a deeply personal look into the past of a woman. The story of Marie Louise Chatelaine, the director's mother, is the starting point, but several stories are added and told in parallel, in a fragmented reflection of yesterday and today. A family history that makes contemporary history recognizable, a deep search into the wounds of exile and a reflection on the function of memory. The images that follow the stations of this woman's life flow like a stream of consciousness: Chalon-sur-Saone, Strasbourg, Untergrombach, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires. What does it mean for a person to feel foreign? Being a foreigner in the country, in life, in language... particularly estranged as a woman.

Germany 2019, 47 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel, Floros Floridis

Artificial intelligence is already changing almost every area of life today. The documentary/essay is inspired by these changes that influence our perception of Topos. By combining film images, graphics with documentary text modules, the author associatively points out how the progress of data and technology colonize human existence and fundamentally influence the balance between the psychological, mental and biological aspects of life.

Germany 2008, 53 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel

This is a personal trip to General Mosconi, a small town in theNorth of Argentina, rich with oil and gas. 1993 the state owned enterprise, YPF, that gave work, health care and education to the whole region, was privatised. The unemployment rate climbed to 70 percent, the whole infrastructure system collapsed.I went there to make a film-workshop on documentaries with members of the UTD, the union for unemployed workers in Mosconi. The press calls them piqueteros, they call themselves social workers. They have developed creative and unusual strategies of survival and ways of re-establishing the social network, that serve as a model for protest demonstrations throughout the country.They film themselves and I film them: their projects, their beliefs, their attitude towards life.

Germany 2007, 79 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel

General Mosconi is a small town in the North of Argentina, rich with oil and gas. 1993 the state owned enterprise, YPF, that gave work, health care and education to the whole region, was privatised.The unemployment rate climbed to 70 percent, the whole infrastructure system collapsed. The town is an example for what is today understood as the loss of state and politics. Today, the majority of people living there cannot even afford a bottle of gas (gas is the cheapest energy source in Argentina). Water is only available six hours a day and then it’s mostly polluted. All public institutions are basically shut down and offer services only sporadically. The main characters of this film are members of the UTD, the union for unemployed workers in Mosconi. The press calls them \'piqueteros\', they call themselves social workers. They have developed creative and unusual strategies survival and ways of re-establishing the social network, that serve as a model for protest demonstrations throughout the country. This film is about their projects, their beliefs, their attitude towards life. It was shot during the course of a film-workshop organized by the Goethe Institute.

Germany 1990, 83 min
by Johann Feindt, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helga Reidemeister, Dieter Schumann, Tamara Trampe

Rhine wine in Saxony! It is being served at an information stand set up by West Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) just before the first and only free elections to East Germany’s People’s Assembly; the ballot will give the CDU almost 41% of the vote. But while the East Germans appear entirely sober about it all despite the sweet swill on offer, during the election campaign in February/March of 1990 the West Germans seem drunk on the new order. “Socialism is over. Nobody wants it anymore”, exults Helmut Kohl. Meanwhile, his finance minister is speaking of an “expanded economic territory”. And very soon, a Nazi banner is proclaiming the “east regions” of Germany as the next goal for a “reunification”.“How do various generations experience the uncertainty, the disorientation and the reconsideration of East Germany’s old values?”, asked the East-West German documentary film collective Blick ins Land. In their questioning of workers, schoolchildren, border guards and police, a teacher and an East German state security (Stasi) officer about their experiences and feelings, the collective provided an unvarnished look at the downsides of the “splendid happiness”. Source of Synopsis