Medeleine Bernstorff presents The Fanaticism of the Suffragettes

Madeleine Bernstorff presents “The Fanaticism of the Suffragettes” + Discussion (brunch and open house from 11h – 15h).

The FANATICISM OF THE SUFFRAGETTES is a compilation video (and trailer for a film program) inspired by an article from the German film magazine Lichtbildbühne from 1912. It is based on the observation that the women’s suffrage movement became radicalized at almost exactly the same time as cinema, still in the process of self-invention, began to consolidate itself and to shrug off nineteenth-century forms of expression.

From 1903 on, the radical Women’s Social Political Union (WSPU) fought for political rights for women in Britain under the autocratic leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst. They organized demonstrations, campaigns and countless petitions. Around 1910, the WSPU’s approach took an increasingly radical turn. Their members generated publicity using militancy and violence; harsher repression ensued. Many comedies refer to the actions of the WSPU. The non-fiction films show a more orderly image, often consciously managed by the suffragettes: long marches in white garments with the insignia of Holloway Prison and well-placed placards bearing slogans like “Taxation without representation is tyranny”. F.e. in 1918 one harassed husband still dreams of being Prime Minister and inflicting draconian punishment on suffragette activists to quash their militancy, yet in fact the outbreak of World War I saw most (bourgeois) suffragettes rushing to serve the national cause and setting aside their demand for the right to vote.

(idea and concept: Madeleine Bernstorff, editing: Angelika Levi/English version: Sebastian Bodirsky. Voices: Elsa de Seynes and Christabel Pankhurst, produced by support of: exhibition Bertha-von-Suttner-revisited, Niederoesterreich and Kuenstlerhaus Buechsenhausen, Innsbruck and many others) 17 min, 2009/2010