Focus: Katja Raganelli
Programme IFFR 2025
Katja Raganelli started out in the mid-1970s, creating television documentaries that illuminated fellow female filmmakers, venerable masters like Agnès Varda and Valie Export, as well as pioneering figures like Margery Wilson. Her works, though scarcely reviewed and rarely re-aired, sparked curiosity about these filmmakers and their craft. Raganelli’s films were collaborative, educational, and accessible, making a mark by introducing audiences to seldomly spotlighted cinematic perspectives. IFFR’s first international retrospective of her work celebrates her nuanced portraiture and enduring legacy as a filmmaker and film historian. Interested in learning more about Katja Raganelli's work? Read IFFR programmer Olaf Möller's blog here.
Overview of films
-
Katja Raganelli meets Márta Mészáros
A snapshot of Hungary’s most celebrated female director in one portrait and three partly autobiographical shorts. -
Katja Raganelli meets Alice Guy
A little-seen early assessment of cinema’s first female director plus three choice examples of her art. -
Katja Raganelli meets Margery Wilson
The only account of silent era actress-director Margery Wilson plus a classy Western showing off her skills. -
Tiger Talk: Women in Film – The Katja Raganelli Method
Katja Raganelli shares how her (extensive oeuvre of) portraits of female filmmakers came to be. -
Katja Raganelli meets Lotte Reiniger
A paean to an early female animation genius plus four examples of her extraordinary imagination. -
Alice Guy Blaché – Hommage an die erste Filmemacherin der Welt
Katja Raganelli | 60' | Germany | None
One of Raganelli’s earliest investigations into the beginnings of her artform, through Alice Guy-Blaché. -
Annot – Portrait einer Malerin und Pazifistin
Katja Raganelli | 48' | Germany | None
A portrait of German painter and pacifist Annot through Raganelli’s kindred lens. -
Asemie – Die Unfähigkeit, sich durch Mienenspiel ausdrücken zu können
VALIE EXPORT | 7' | Austria | None
A scandalous and densely symbolic video performance from 1977. -
At the Lőrinc Spinnery
Márta Mészáros | 16' | Hungary | None
Women at work in the Lőrinc spinning mill, a scene Mészáros would later return to. -
Katja Raganelli meets Delphine Seyrig
A bow to 70s European art-cinema’s most enigmatic actress and feminist activist. -
Bóbita
Márta Mészáros | 21' | Hungary | None
A young waif roams Budapest streets in one of Márta Mészáros’ early poetic shorts.
