Caterina Klusemann

Caterina Klusemann (born 8 February 1973 in Lucca, Italy) is an independent filmmaker and documentarist.

Born in 1973 in Italy to the German painter Georg Klusemann and the Venezuelan sociologist and photographer Elena Hochmann-Klusemann, she grew up in Germany and Venezuela. After completing school in French Switzerland, she went on to study neurobiology in Basel, where she co-authored a frequently cited article on the blood-brain barrier. [ [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1909885 Research article in the British Journal of Pharmacology 118(8), 1879-1885, 1996] ] From 1996 to 2001, she studied film directing at Columbia University. Today, she is based in Berlin.

Her documentary "Ima" shows her fight to uncover the secrets of her grandmother's survival during the Holocaust. Her style is "very personal yet without being intrusive." [ [http://www.berlin-judentum.de/kultur/klusemann.htm Review by Iris Noah] ] The result is "a very honest, unpathetic exploration of the 'third generation'." [ [http://www.morgenpost.de/content/2002/10/08/tagestipps/554039.html Review of "Ima" in the German national daily newspaper "Morgenpost" of 8 Oct. 2002] ] The film won the "Bayerische Dokumentarfilmpreis - Junger Löwe" in 2002. Its short version "Matrilineal" was shown at the "International Critic's Week" or "Sémaine de la critique" 2003 during the Cannes Film Festival. [ [http://www.cineuropa.mobi/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=25812 Reference to German Films shown during the Cannes Film Festival 2003] ] [ [http://www.german-films.de/app/filmarchive/film_view.php?film_id=986 Site of the German National Film Information Centre] ] "Matrilineal" was awarded the "Jameson Short Film Award" in 2002 because of its originality "in portraying how difficult it is to overcome the often essential self-protection of blocking-out terrible events and how liberating dialogue can be. The accent within the film is not so much on the final statement, as on showing the difficult ways needed to break down self-built barriers. The movement of the excellent camerawork underlines the authenticity of the psychological process involved."

"Ima" is the first part of an envisaged trilogy. The second part "Georg" (2008), on the relationship to her German father, reiterates Klusemann's attempt to "face the past, the unspoken, with the perpetrators and their children as well as with the victims and their children." [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=B_HmOjrtlDUC&pg=PA106&dq=caterina+klusemann&sig=LcbMWLQM9pikekKxdDmdQsecebc#PPA106,M1 Frank Michael Schuster, "Das Reden über Juden. Sekundärer Antisemitismus in aktuellen Feuilletondebatten“, in: "Das Unbehagen in der 'dritten Generation': Reflexionen des Holocaust, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus", edited by: Rassismus und Antisemitismus: Villigster Forschungsforum zu Nationalsozialismus, Münster/Germany, 94-108, discussion on C. Klusemann on page 106f, ISBN 3-8258-7281-5] ]

These and her other documentaries, such as "The old woman and the sea" [ [http://www.geo.de/GEO/kultur/geo_tv/53829.html Article in the magazine "Geo"] ] , "Ménage à trois" [ [http://www.cineastentreff.de/content/view/1-1-194384-1/1959/152/ Review of the theme evening on arte] ] , or "Dresscode" [ [http://www.artistaseartes.com.br/sub_paginas.php?pagina=2456&menu=56 Brasilian review for "Dresscode"] ] have been transmitted on Arte [ [http://www.arte.tv/fr/recherche/1383954,templateId=noncache.html?doSearch=true&keyword=caterina+klusemann&x=0&y=0#results Information on Caterina Klusemann's documentaries by the broadcaster "arte", in French] ] [ [http://www.arte.tv/de/recherche/1383954,templateId=noncache.html?doSearch=true&keyword=caterina+klusemann&x=0&y=0#results Information on Caterina Klusemann's documentaries by the broadcaster "arte", in German] ] and in South America, the US (TV5Monde, Eurochannel), the Netherlands [ [http://www.ikonrtv.nl/werelden/uitzending.asp?oId=838 IKON: Werelden ] ] , Poland [ [http://www.cyfraplus.pl/cgi-bin/cyf/index/full/18505 Cyfra+ Program Tv ] ] , or Sweden [ [http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=10652&a=182824 Review of the Swedish public station SVT for "Ima"] ] .

She has also written and directed a feature length children film. [ [http://www.german-cinema.de/app/filmarchive/film_view.php?film_id=1607 Site for the children's film at the German National Film Information Centre] ]

External links

*
* [http://www.caterinaklusemann.com Caterina Klusemann's website]
* [http://www.georgklusemann.org Website on her father and her documentary "Georg"]
* [http://archief.volkskrant.nl/artikel?REC=a08f4d6252eef8182a532582a438054a Pay-for review of "Ima" in De Volkskrant archive]
* [http://www.mabuse.cl/1448/article-56584.html Review of "Ima" in "Mabuse: Revista de Cine" (Colombia) in Spanish, 30 October 2003]
* [http://www.taz.de/digitaz/.archiv/suche?dos=1&mode=erw&demo=1&tx=caterina+klusemann&ti=&au=&sdd=&smm=&syy=&edd=&emm=&eyy=&art=&len=&se=&rev=1&ListLen=10&qu=&re= Pay-for articles on Caterina Klusemann in the German national daily "die tageszeitung"]
* [http://www.hiergeblieben.de/pages/textanzeige.php?limit=20&order=titel&richtung=ASC&z=79&id=8835 Review of "Ima" from the German daily "Neue Westfälische"]
* [http://www.na.se/tv/index.asp?intShowId=326&dtmSelectedDatum=2004-03-21 Review by Lotta Thorsén of "Ima" in Swedish]
* [http://www.publik-forum.de/ausgabenarchiv/index.php?id=7704 Review of "Ima" in "Publik-Forum: Zeitung kritischer Christen", 13 July 2001, no. 13, page 24, in German]
* [http://www.festivaltv.de/2001/detail5298.html?mexp=1&id=002002&b=177 Review of "Matrilineal"]
* A German Radio feature on Klusemann's work was broadcast on 24 January 2006 by "RBB Kulturradio", Berlin, entitled "Lange Schatten. Verfolgung und Exil – Trauma bis in die dritte Generation"

References