Sing, Iris – sing. Frauen lernen Männerberufe / Patterns Against Workers

Two formally different works that meet in their system-critical attention to exploitative working environments. First, the image of a smiling woman sitting in front of machines in the direct cinema bravura piece by Gisela Tuchtenhagen and Monika Held. A man arrives and gruffly tells the woman to change her clothes. But she is not alone in this situation, as a sisterhood of solidarity develops between the female workers who are being trained in the first retraining program in the Federal Republic of Germany for unemployed women in so-called typically male occupations in the electrical and metal sectors. At first glance, Olena Newkryta is literally moving on different levels. Her cinematic essay opens up connections between swiping on smartphones and weaving textiles. This seamlessly reveals an image of the worker as a slave operating monotonously between ones and zeros in an all-controlling information society. What remains are sleepless nights and automated gestures that keep a capitalist system alive that only helps itself. (P.H.)

Photo: Deutsche Kinemathek