Shirley – Visions of Reality

The film uses 13 cinematically vivified paintings by Edward Hopper to tell the story of a woman who lives in a reality she doesn’t accept as given but rather as a made up and changeable construct and who sticks to her convictions in moments of truth.

The film tells the story of a woman. A woman in America in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and early 60s. A woman who attempts to influence the course of history with her professional and socio-political involvement. A woman who doesn’t accept the reality around her as a given but rather a made-up and changeable construct. A woman who works as an actress and is used to staging reality, portraying realness and is therefore able to question and shape it herself. A woman who doesn’t strive for solo success as an actress or stardom in the future but feels like part of a collective aspiring to give social potency to theater. A woman who can’t identify with the dominant female role model of the concept of a wife yet longs to have a life partner. A woman who doesn’t compromise in moments of professional crisis and isn’t afraid to take on menial jobs to secure her livelihood. A woman who in a moment of private crisis decides to stick to her partner and puts her own professional interest on the back burner. A woman who is furious with political repression yet doesn’t resign in despair and who has nothing but disdain for betrayal. An attractive, charismatic, committed, emancipated woman.  

 

© KGP Filmproduktion

 

World premiere: Berlin International Film Festival 2013 (Berlin, Germany)

Trailer
Awards

2013
Viennale (Vienna; Austria)

Erste Bank MehrWERT-Filmpreis

2014


Austrian Film Award (Vienna, Austria)

Best Cinematography, Best Production Design , Best Costume Design


The Golden Eye (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Best Cinematography


2016

BLOW-UP ARTHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL (Chicago, USA)

Cedric Gibbons Award

Festivals

2013
Berlin International Film Festival (Berlin, Germany)
Image Forum Festival (Japan)
DOK.fest München (Munich, Germany)
IndieLisboa (Lisbon, Portugal)
Bildrausch Filmfestival Basel (Basel, Switzerland)
New Horizons Film Festival (Warsaw, Poland)
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic)
Palić European Film Festival (Palić, Serbia)
Melbourne International Film Festival (Melbourne, Australia
Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hong Kong)
Split Film Festival (Split, Croatia)
Kaunas International Film Festival (Kaunas, Lithuania) 
Film Fest Gent (Ghent, Belgium
Festival du nouveau cinéma (Montreal, Kanada)
Viennale (Wien, Österreich)
EnergaCAMERIMAGE (Toruń, Poland)
Seville European Film Festival (Sevilla, Spain)
exground filmfest (Wiesbaden, Germany)


2014
Trieste Film Festival (Triest, Italy
Cineteca di Bologna (Bologna, Italy)
Göteborg Film Festival (Gothenburg, Sweden)
!f Istanbul Independent Film Festival (Istanbul, Turkey)
Tampere Film Festival (Tampere, Finnland)
Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hong Kong)
Diagonale. Festival des österreichischen Films (Graz, Austria)
The Golden Eye (Tbilisi, Georgia)

filmstills
Press Materials