The emancipatory potential of the film develops in an assertive act of liberation, which ELA EIS celebrates in a performance, long whip in hand, while she furiously clears obstacles in her way. In the first part of the film, the artist’s face is still hidden behind a red leather mask. It is only revealed when she succeeds in liberating herself as a self-assured woman. ELA EIS believed for years that she had lost her Super 8 film, but in 2021, after ended up in someone’s estate, it was rediscovered in the archives of the Inter Media Art Institute in Düsseldorf. The feminist performance originally titled Befreit was recorded without sound in a Düsseldorf loft in 1979. At the time, ELA EIS was part of Düsseldorf’s young underground scene, which used to meet at a bar known as Ratinger Hof.

Guest: ELA EIS, Darija Simunovic

Silent film accompaniment: Gunda Gottschalk, Maria Portugal

In cooperation with the IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute, Düsseldorf in the context of Circulating Copies.