“The lyrics contain the topics that the girls want to push outwards,” says director Clara Stella Hüneke.
Photo: documentale.de
Other films about empowering projects of young people usually end with the successful implementation on stage. Your film goes after the girl’s big appearance from the Wedding with her rap project »Sisterqueens« even further. Why?
When we started making the film, the two older protagonists, Faseha and Rachel, had been active in the feminist rap project for a long time. From this project and this empowerment mode, which in the middle of the film leads to this one big concert in the Hebbel on the bank, I go more into the little stories: What has this experience with every single girl? I wanted to make long -term observation right from the start, because these girls who meet in the intercultural girls’ center Mädea have so much questions about life and have politics that you want to know what arises from it. I could have accompanied the rap project only for a twelve-month cycle, but if there are such large upheavals as Corona and Black Lives Matter, the question arises: How is it possible to develop yourself independently? To find out that, a certain calm is needed, but the film created in four years is also told very anecdotically. You experience youth in individual and small events. And the film ends with a hopeful note, with very own decisions.
It looks like the girls have temporarily forgotten the presence of the camera. To what extent did you have an impact on which pictures were used?
First of all, the girls and the girls’ center discussed whether they want the film at all. With our permanent team of three women, we have created the conditions for getting to know each other very well. The relationship of trust was totally important to me. We had very intensive conversations with everyone involved during the entire shoot and stuck the topics and the frames. It was also necessary to update the agreements again and again because needs could change. We respected the privacy of families and there was always the opportunity to get out or set borders. Our content focus on self -determination, art and politics gave the girls a lot of security. Topics like sexuality were rather out of the question. But there is a car film, we cut the film alone and take responsibility. Of course we watched him first with the girls, then with an internal audience. It was a rather empowering experience and nice to see that others are inspired by the three protagonists.
Interview
© Amelie Amei Kahn-Sackermann/ documentale.de
Clara Stella Hüneke was born in Frankfurt am Main. During her studies of video art, she worked as a director’s assistant. She made her Bachelor documentary in Athens in 2015. In 2018 she started studying at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. “Sisterqueens” is her diploma film. She currently lives in Berlin.
Because children are not as protected in documentaries as in feature films, the Child Protection Association also advises to have an external consultant.
The girls’ center, to which those involved are so closely connected, had an eye on it. Various perspectives are also represented on the girls’ biographies in our crew. The cooperation with the dramaturge Rebecca Ajnwojner (formerly Gorki-Theater)-very unusual for a documentary-was particularly important to me. I got to know the girls about them and we wanted to find out what they actually wanted to tell themselves. The rap was the key: the lyrics contain the topics they want to push outwards. The three girls lead through the film, not any teacher or adult protagonist. We wanted to accompany them instead of asking from the outside: What do you want to know about girls in Wedding when you live in Buxtehude?
In an interview, they said they filmed themselves to better understand this experience.
Yes, I made the short film “On soon, your Clara” at the age of 26 in the research phase for “Sisterqueens”. It is a very critical self -survey with the aim of developing similarities from it and understanding what I have to take into account as a director. Many girls are unsure about their appearance. Therefore, we produced appreciative pictures in »Sisterqueens« and did not want to exhibit the girls. However, they have already brought a certain media expertise because they published music videos and gave interviews. With the fact that they also had to experience shitstorms, we dealt with the preliminary talks.
Such negative experiences or problems with parents, who also brought the rap project with it, hardly occur in the film. Was your focus on empowerment?
There were no such incidents during the shoot. In fact, the girls already had a more solid attitude. Nevertheless, you could have worked in the film even more as a concept, but we decided to make a hopeful film that strengthens the prospects of the girls.
However, the frustrating and discriminatory outside in the film is present with corona, demonstrations and with their own concerns of girls such as equality and anti -racism. It is a very happy film in which the hardness and severity of the topics, the inside of it, shine through. In order not to exhibit the girls, we did not want to confront them with the toughest situations, but in many interviews that structure the film to learn something about their thoughts.
Should the film be a kind of safe space itself? Fathers and boys hardly occur.
Of course, the girls ‘center in which we have shot a lot is also a girls’ center that only works as a safe space. The fathers are actually partially absent or no longer alive, that is a biographical circumstances. But there is a brother who breaks gender roles of men through his feminist and supporting attitude with stereotypical gender roles, as often depicted in films.
Corona not only hindered the shoot, but also makes certain things visible in the film: the special sense of responsibility for girls towards relatives, the efforts to keep the sisters via zoom. Did you make a virtue out of necessity?
In any case, I am very grateful afterwards that we continued to turn. Corona is a joint starting point for the audience. It also shows how important these girls’ centers and artistic projects are for these youngsters because they have created an infrastructure that has broken away for many others. Workshops were designed online in arduous work and with high logistical effort; The girls were very lucky to be involved in this way and continue to be able to do artistic projects themselves. And when you could meet outside again in summer, the center was certainly an important reception center that was denied to most young people.
It is astonishing and delightful that an approximately ten year old explicitly sees herself as a feminist.
At Mädea, the girls experience feminist education and learn role models that fit their reality of life, which unfortunately often fails to do at school. But everything is voluntary. There are definitely people who just play table tennis there, while others deal with Malala and Rosa Parks in theater projects. Unfortunately, such democratic projects such as “Sisterqueens” are currently threatened by the break -in of cultural support and social cuts. The feminist hip-hop project is currently dependent on donations for the continued existence.
“Sisterqueens”, Germany 2024. Director: Clara Stella Hüneke. 97 min.
On 9.3. Present the film team “Sisterqueens” with panel discussion in the Babylon Kreuzberg, more information at: kollaboev.de
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