Program 7

Making an image for oneself / Part 1

Diverging from the Norm

Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 7 p.m.

„Die Beichte – Eine filmische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Anderssein“
D: Eva Merckling-Mihok, CH 2008, 27 min, German and Czech with German subtitles
The director, Eva Merckling-Mihok, will be present at the screening

In the protection of the darkness of the confession booth, the speaker offers insight into her own autobiography. She tells of her family’s repression of the existence of her father—a Roma from the Czech Republic who did not stick around. She tells of feelings of inferiority and guilt, based in her mother’s and grandmother’s aversion to her father and their shame of the (half-)Romani daughter. She talka about experiences in her childhood and youth that make clear that repression provides no protection from prejudice and discrimination. And she tells of a self-determined way of dealing with her history and identity that she arrived at on her way to adulthood. Die Beichte (The Confession) is a lament directed at her father and at the same time, the desire for reconciliation with him and ultimately, with herself.

Making an image for oneself / Part 1

In societies that attribute people’s “ethnic” ascription great value and link their social status to it, immense psychic and physical work is required of those labeled as the “Others.” This work involves attempting to move away from racist ascriptions and be perceived as a “normal” part of majority society, or to counter and refuse ascriptions and actively deal with and refute the associated racists devaluation or “added value” gained through “exoticizing.” On the two evenings of the film program, 19 and 21 June, strategies of “Becoming White” or “Becoming Invisible” as well as “Outings” and “being different” will be up for discussion.

Eva Merckling-Mihok,

was born in 1966 in former Czechoslovakia and came to Switzerland as a singer/saxophonist in 1990. She lives and works in Zurich as a Djane, filmmaker and music therapist.