MONICA MAURER:
Born in Munich, Germany. After concluding studies of Sociology and Communication Sciences in Munich and Berlin University she worked as a journalist for several newspapers in Germany and for the US radical magazine “Ramparts” having got ìnvolved in the Civil Rights movement during a research trip to the American South.
In 1967 she started to write features for television (New York-Urbs Ultima,1967/8; film portraits of Bernardo Bertolucci, the Taviani brothers, Cesare Zavattini a.o.). From 1970-72 assistant director to the avantguarde theatre and film director Carmelo Bene (“Salome”) and since 1972 independent filmmaker and producer. For her documentaries “Chile ‘72” and “The factory is where the workers are” on the occupied LIP-watch-factory , "Magliana" housing struggle in Rome, strikes of immigrant workers at the Ford factory in Cologne and the BMW factory (Munich) she also did her own camera work and editing(1971-75)
In the context of growing anti-arab tensions around ’74, she left film-making aside for a while and gave the priority to political and cultural engagement against racism, setting up a multinational bookshop for immigrant workers in Cologne (Germany), distributing literature and progressive newspapers (unavailable otherwise) in Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Spanish and Italian.
Between 1977 and 1982 she made a number of films - as author,director and producer - in cooperation with the Palestinian Cinema Institution and the Information Dept.of the PRCS (Palestine Red Crescent Society)
in Beirut.
Among those:
- “Palestine Red Crescent” on the social and humanitarian infrastructure and the public health services
provided for the population of the camps in Lebanon (1978)
- “Children of Palestine” (1979).
- “ The Fifth War” with Vanessa Redgrave; co-directed with Samir Nimer (1980).
- “Born out of Death” 1981.
- “Why?” on the siege of Beirut in 1982.
- “War Lab” on regional wars as a test field for arms industry (1984)
- “Listen!” on daily life live under Israeli occupation (1985).
- “Palestine in Flames” on the historical-political background of the 1° Intifada (1988/89 and
- "Yom alArd" ,filmed in 1981 and edited and released 2019
All films won several awards and participated in a number of International Film Festivals such as:
Bilbao, Cairo, Carthage, Cannes Fifa, Cracow, Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Lille, Moscow, Oberhausen, San Francisco, Tampere, Tashkent, Toronto.
Most films were distributed internationally.
From 1994/96 she lectured and coordinated the production of graduate films at the International School of Film and TV (EICTV) in San Antonio de Los Banos, La Habana, Cuba, founded by a.o. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fernando Birri in 1986.
She lives in Rome, Italy, where she continues lecturing and working as curator and consultant for several film-shows on the Middle East- such as “Al ARD” in Sardinia , ”Roads to Peace” in Pescara/Teramo ,“Le regard de Handala” in Rome ,"Cinema without Rights"in Venice and Mestre.
Throughout the 90ies she cooperated with the International Documentary Film Festival in Leipzig, Germany.
She is a member of the Board of the AAMOD (Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico) the Archive of the Working class and Democratic Movement in Rome ,
where she curated for 7 years the monthly CINEFORUM PALESTINA.