Browse Next Generation Films

Matrilineal

Scene from "Matrilineal" (photo © ???)

Matrilineal tells the story of four women: the filmmaker, her sister, her mother, and her grandmother. Caterina Klusemann grew up in a villa in the heart of Tuscany. At home, an odd mixture of Spanish, Polish and German was spoken—but never to evoke the past; the past seemed to have been erased from memory, or perhaps it never existed. Curious, Caterina asks questions, but receives only silence or anger in answer, especially from her grandmother. Was a terrible family secret buried in the past? She persists with her questions. Gradually, she establishes a bond with her grandmother that allows the elderly woman to open up and reveal the secret of her identity. It is a story of misfortune and renunciation. The women have found new bases on which to live as a family.

Matrilineal is an intense personal documentary that explores how a grandmother's secrets of identity have had repercussions on two subsequent generations of women.

Caterina Klusemann was born in 1973 in Lucca/Italy and grew up in Venezuela, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. She studied Biochemistry from 1991-1995 in Basel, followed by studies in Film Direction at Columbia University from 1996-2001. Her films include: H&G (short, 2000), Matrilineal (short, 2001), Ima (2001), For Our Man (short, 2002), and Paul and Bataar (2006).

Genre Family, History, Women's Film
Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2001
Director Caterina Klusemann
Directors of Photography Caterina Klusemann, Roman Vitt
Editor Caterina Klusemann
Music by Claas Willeke
Producer Caterina Klusemann
Production Company Caterina Klusemann Filmproduktion/Berlin
Length 30 min, 400 m
Format Mini DV
Blowup 16 mm, Color, b&w
Original Version English/Spanish/German/Italian
Subtitled Versions English, French
Sound Technology Mono
Festival Screenings in competition at Amsterdam 2001 , Leipzig 2001, Washington Jewish Film Festival 2001, Le réel en scène Gentilly 2001, San Diego Jewish Film Festival 2002, Dresden 2002, Rio de Janeiro 2002, Belo Horizonte 2002, Tampere 2003, Festival du Court Metrage de Bruxelles 2003, Huesca 2003, Umea 2003, Cork 2003, and Cannes 2003 (International Critics Week), among others
Awards New Line Outstanding Filmmaking Award & Milos Forman Fund Award 2001, First Prize Gentilly 2001, Jameson Award Dresden 2002, Best International Short 2002 Belo Horizonte

World Sales
Caterina Klusemann Filmproduktion
Caterina Klusemann
Crellestrasse 40
10827 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-62 98 93 71
fax +49-30-62 98 93 71
email: mail@caterinaklusemann.com