“DokFilm” premieres on March 21: “Lee Miller – Supermodel and War Photographer” and “In Edith’s Footsteps”
Two film portraits of impressive women personalities of the 20th century – conclusion of the ORF focus on International Women’s Day
Vienna (OTS) – At the end of the extensive ORF focus on International Women’s Day, “dokFilm” will present two portraits of impressive women from the 20th century on Sunday, March 21, 2021, from 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2. Teresa Griffiths’ documentary “Lee Miller – Supermodel and War Photographer” about the eventful and moving life story of a pioneer and icon who is second to none can be seen first. Then another remarkable photographer takes center stage, but she was much more than that: Filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk goes “In Edith’s footsteps” (0.05 am) and portrays the life of his great aunt, the Jewish photographer Edith Tudor-Hart, who lives a double life as Agent of the Soviet secret service KGB.
“Lee Miller – Supermodel and War Photographer”
If history has been about both the emancipation of women and their continued exploitation, few lives summarize these contradictions better than that of the American Lee Miller. Born Elizabeth Miller, she was many things: model, muse, artist and war photographer. Known for her self-portrait posed in Hitler’s bathtub, her life was as extraordinary as her photos. She did not dwell on conventions either privately or professionally and went her own way. Today she is hailed as one of the most notable female icons of the 20th century.
As a model for “Vogue” and muse of the surrealists, Lee Miller enchanted men with her beauty. She could easily hold her own in the company of Man Ray and Pablo Picasso. Miller chose to live her life on her own terms. She soon took the camera into her own hands and was one of the few war photographers in Europe during World War II. She created photographic documents from the Allied invasion to the end of World War II and documented the liberation of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps: Her works are counted among the most important photographic works of the 20th century.
She moved from New York to Paris, from Egypt to England, from the battlefields of Europe to a country house in Sussex – Lee Miller was known for making quick decisions and surprising U-turns in her life. She once wrote of herself: “For some reason I always prefer to go somewhere else.”
The documentary by Teresa Griffiths tells the eventful and moving life story of a pioneer and icon who is second to none. With Miller’s son Antony Penrose, fashion journalist Marion Hume, model Karen Elson, war photographer Lynsey Addario, and others, filmmaker Lee Miller’s groundbreaking work explores her radical mind, and celebrates her courage and willingness to break taboos, both as an artist and as an artist as a woman.
“In Edith’s footsteps”
In her middle-class life, Edith Tudor-Hart, born Edith Suschitzky in Vienna, was a staunch communist, Montessori kindergarten teacher, Bauhaus student and probably one of the most important figures in British social photography of the 1930s. On the side, however, she also worked for the Soviet secret service KGB. In the course of her complicated double life, she repeatedly got into conflicts between her political commitment and her family environment. Numerous tragedies were therefore inevitable.
Director Peter Stephan Jungk, who dealt with the eventful life of his great-aunt in his book “The Dark Rooms of Edith Tudor-Hart”, also follows her rather unhappy life between Vienna and London in his documentary, talking to historians, archivists and ex-agents and family members, wondering how this remarkable woman managed to hold on to her political beliefs despite all the atrocities of the Stalinist regime.
In an unusual way, Jungk tells the true story of an Austrian KGB spy who was instrumental in bringing Russia into possession of the atomic bomb shortly after the Second World War.
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