Films by Mitja Hagelüken

Germany 2022, 79 min
by Marita Stocker

The world out there on stages is a man’s world. Or is that just what they want us to believe? What if the true King of Rock and Roll is a Queen?Listen closely and you hear Memphis Minnie’s guitar in Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton, Sister Rosetta’s unbridled spirit in Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Mama Thornton’s growl in Elvis. Still the fact that women rocked the stages from the1950s on has been successfully pushed out of the collective memory. Time to pull out the roots and tell the other side of the story. The women we meet on our journey devote their lifes to rock music, each of them is an icebreaker and they are as inspiring as different. ‘You have to be like a man. But I can do it, I am a woman with balls’, is Linda Gail Lewis’ Credo, while Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s considers herself a ‘rare bird’. Suzi Quatro procclaims that she doesn’t do gender at all, while Rosie Flores emphasizes her female qualities when playing the guitar. And Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses decided to leave the sexist music business to be listener-supported, because: ‘What would my kids think if I looked at every camera like I wanted to fuck it – as they tell you to do?’ROCK CHICKS – I AM NOT FEMALE TO YOU is a film about music as an inner need, about fighting for your dreams and daring to be yourself.

2019, 80 min
by Marita Stocker

Georgia: A multi-ethnic state in the Caucasus, hovering between the past and the future. Up upon a hill, the Paliashvili Music School for gifted children looks out over Tbilisi. The plaster is crumbling, hardly any instrument can be tuned, and many teachers are far beyond retirement age. While they still seek that spark of inspiration, the headmaster fights for a new building and the students pursue their calling in life. WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS LOVE is a film about a place lost in time and threatening disappearance, about growing up and aging, about great dreams and the art of improvisation.