The Film All-Nighter

The Film All-Nighter

I Roar for Freedom

When Camille Claudel was born, her mother is said to have cried in despair and then remained silent, so fervent had been her wish for a boy. Years later, the great sculptress was to be overshadowed by her lover: Auguste Rodin. Her famous dictum of »Je réclame la liberté à grand cri« has now been literally translated into reality by Claire Walka in a one-minute film I Roar for Freedom.
It’s a suitable heading too for the other contributions in this year’s Film All-Nighter at the International Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne as various women – some loudly, some less so – attempt to claim back what is theirs, to resist the limitations of their surroundings and/or simply to explain what freedom actually means.
At least two of the filmmakers rework their childhood of the 1970s. Both grew in the countryside – one in Spain and one in Finland –and they both suffered under village  arrowmindedness
and moral repression. Meanwhile, torture fantasies break out against a Barbie doll. The question as to »How do I get rid of my unbeloved spouse?« is answered in a playful manner. Artistic freedom itself is challenged. And Claire Walka roars and roars and roars …

_Christine Schilha