Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992

Dir. Dagmar Schultz
Germany, 2012, 79 min.
Digital Format
In English and German with English and German subtitles

Doors open: 5:45pm

Screening begins: 6:00pm

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Presented in partnership with Bay Area Black Leaders and Frameline

The poet, writer, and activist Audre Lorde was born February 18th, 1934, to Grenadian immigrant parents in New York City. This February, to celebrate the birthday of the self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet," join us for a screening of AUDRE LORDE: THE BERLIN YEARS 1984-1992 to learn more about her connections to Germany and Black German activism. The film will be introduced by Bryana Jones, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University, who will reflect on Lorde's significance to the development of Black feminist and queer theory and her connections to international movements for social justice.
This documentary explores a little-known chapter of the writer’s prolific life, a period in which she helped ignite the Afro-German Movement and made lasting contributions to the German political and cultural scene before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Lorde mentored and encouraged Black German women to write and publish as a way of asserting their identities, rights and culture in a society that isolated and silenced them, while she challenged white German women to acknowledge and constructively use their white privilege.
This documentary contains previously unreleased audiovisual material from director Dagmar Schultz’s personal archive, including stunning images of Audre Lorde off stage. With testimony from Lorde’s colleagues, students and friends, this film documents Lorde’s lasting legacy in Germany. The film includes appearances from, among others, May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, Gloria I. Joseph, Ilona Bubeck, and Traude Bührmann, as well as Ika Hügel-Marshall and Ria Cheatom, both of whom collaborated on the making of this film.

Our Partners

Bay Area Black Leaders

Bay Area Black Leaders (BABL) supports Black leaders—particularly culture keepers and artists—by creating spaces that center rest, reflection, and sustainable leadership. Through gatherings, workshops, and community-based experiences, BABL invites participants to explore what rest looks like for them personally and how it can be practiced collectively within their communities. Our work affirms rest as both a healing practice and a leadership strategy, allowing Black leaders to show up more grounded, creative, and committed to long-term impact.

Learn more at: bayareablackleaders.org

Frameline

Founded in 1977, Frameline is a San Francisco-based nonprofit media arts organization dedicated to the development, exhibition, distribution, and preservation of LGBTQ+ cinema and queer independent media. Focused on changing the world through the power of queer cinema, Frameline is most well known for producing the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, the longest-running and largest queer film exhibition in the world.

Learn more at: frameline.org

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Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut San Francisco