Tina Bara, Cornelia Schleime & Gabriele Stötzer
Rebels

A film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt | 2022

Germany
de
en
84'

Trailer

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Synopsis

Tina Bara, Cornelia Schleime and Gabriele Stötzer are rebels. As fearless young women in the 1970s and 1980s in the GDR, they made art expressing their anger against the oppressive regime, and claiming their right to freedom. Their uncompromising photographs convey what it feels like to be at the mercy of a system that suffocates young creative voices. But when the conflict with state security escalates, they have to make a decision: stay or go.

What you will find in this film

A form of photographic resistance born in the GDR of the 1970s and 1980s • Three artistic trajectories shaped by the desire for freedom, surveillance, and creation • Practices combining photography, performance, and Super 8 • A female counter-imagery standing against state propaganda • The intimate, political, and artistic cost of dissent.

Keywords

Reportage & Society Masters of Photography Experimental & Alternative Photography History of Photography Photographic memory

I see myself as the tool. I’m the brush. It’s not about me.

Cornelia Schleime Photographer

I was always searching for a parable for this feeling of being trapped.

Cornelia Schleime Photographer

Feminism didn’t exist as a concept, but they used the term to insult us. And I thought: they’re taking notice. I’m somebody, not just anybody.

Gabriele Stötzer Photographer

And the body and photos were also only a means of conveying this unspeakable message.

Gabriele Stötzer Photographer

It’s not only about political statements. That would be too banal. It’s always about the sensuality of the images, some kind of magical moment.

Cornelia Schleime Photographer

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The authors/artists

Tina Bara

Cornelia Schleime

Cornelia Schleime

Gabriele Stötzer

Gabriele Stötzer

Pamela Meyer-Arndt

Pamela Meyer-Arndt

Further exploration

Sara Blaylock – Parallel Public: Experimental Art in Late East Germany, MIT Press, 2022. (English) – The strongest contextual book for understanding East German experimental art and counter-publics.

Tina Bara – Lange Weile, Edition Fotohof, 2016. (German) – A core photographic book tied to Bara’s GDR-era images and later film project.

Gabriele Schor (ed.) – Feminist Avant-Garde: Art of the 1970s, Prestel, expanded ed., 2025. (English) – Useful for situating the protagonists within broader feminist image-making and performance histories.

Martin Walser, Cornelia Schleime – The Book of Dreams / Das Traumbuch, Rowohlt, 2022. (German) – Relevant for Schleime’s visual universe and staged imagery.

Gabriele Stötzer – Der lange Arm der Stasi, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2022. (German) – Important for the political background of surveillance, repression, and artistic resistance.

Rebellinnen – Discussion — SKD Voices / Albertinum

Rebellinnen – Fotografie. Underground. DDR. — DOK Leipzig

Rebel Women – Photography. Underground. GDR — Yorck Kinos

Review: Rebellinnen – Fotografie. Underground. DDR — IndieKino Magazine

Rebellinnen – Fotografie. Underground. DDR. — Salzgeber