Alaska

Berlinale Shorts Special Programme 2018

Memories of the bodies of others, a look at one’s own body: ‘A dream of myself, the consequences of the act with society’, as Dore O. described her film, which features a soundtrack composed of droning violin, blow dryer and assorted sounds taken from the ‘Concord Sonata’ by Charles Ives.
‘Dore O.’s Alaska is a beautiful film, which makes us suspicious of it. Alas, beauty has a catch. It is only the surface, behind which dread and fear are concealed. For Dore O. beauty is a part of reality. For her there exists a beauty of fear, as for Genet there exists a beauty of murder. Alaska is a filmed dream, one without crude metaphors borrowed from psychoanalysis that rationalise the dream and open it up to interpretation. Alaska is a film that resists all interpretation, insisting on being experienced instead.’ Klaus Bädekerl, Filmkritik 5/1969

Alaska was digitalised by ARRI based on and using the 16mm print from the archive of Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen. We would like to thank ARRI for their support.

by Dore O. Federal Republic of Germany 1968 Without dialogue 18’ Colour & Black/White Kopie: Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Berlin

Crew

Director	Dore O.
Music	Dore O.
Producers	Werner Nekes Hamburg, Dore O. Hamburg

Dore O.

Born in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany in 1946, she is a filmmaker, painter and photographer who studied design in Krefeld as well as painting in Hamburg and Perugia. She has been working in film since 1967 and is co-founder of the Hamburger Filmmacher Cooperative. Her films have screened at national and international festivals and her work has featured in retrospectives at numerous museums and cinematheques.

Filmography (short films, selection)

1967 Jüm-Jüm; Co-Director: Werner Nekes 1968 Alaska 1969 Lawale 1972 Blonde Barberei 1974 Kaskara 1976 Frozen Flashes 1981 Beuys 1982 Stern des Mélies 1988 Blindman’s Ball

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019