Tricky Women/Tricky Realities 2024: Johnny & Me

Graphic designer Stefanie is stuck in a rut. Between advertising projects and commissioned works, her creative efforts seem futile and meaningless. Things change when she goes to see an exhibition and discovers the works of German photomontage artist, Dadaist and antifascist John Heartfield. Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, Stefanie miraculously finds herself transported to the basement studio of this pioneer of political photomontage. And on top of that, the artist himself is present as well in the form of an animated figure. Heartfield’s collages scathingly mocked war, fascism and, most of all, the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany. Inspired by his eventful life, which feels like an odyssey through the turmoil of the 20th century, a dialogue unfolds between Stefanie and Heartfield about the purpose and meaning and, most importantly, the political power of art. The film is terrifyingly topical – in view of the growing threat of far-right extremism, Heartfield himself says in a goosebump moment: “Facism: Do you even know what that means? Here they are again.” An absolute must-see!

Director Katrin Rothe will speak about the making and the background of her film at the Best Practice forum. Collages with elements from the film will also be on display on the mezzanine floor of Metro cinema during the festival!

Between reality checks, feminist utopias and new perspectives: from 7 to 10 March, the Tricky Women/Tricky Realities animated film festival celebrates resistant, powerful animated cinema by women and/or genderqueer artists at the METRO Kinokulturhaus. Around 160 short films invite you to engage with multi-layered, social, political and cultural worlds of experience and to open your own eyes to new spaces of possibility.

The festival takes place in a hybrid form with film programmes, lectures and artist talks in the METRO Kinokulturhaus and online on the festival's own platform: https://www.trickywomen.at/de.