Jelena (2024)
Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka)
Jelena, Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka), Austria, 16mm > digital, 3 min, 2024
Vom Gröller stays true to her characteristic penchant for the spontaneous associations possible between a few bare elements, in what at core remains a portrait of both a young woman and the famous Père Lachaise graveyard in Paris. It is precisely these relations between character, place, and music—Françoise Hardy’s classic tune “Tous les garçons et les filles,” as sung a cappella by the film’s subject herself. A concise summary could be ventured: “A young singer, suffering from heartache, spends her afternoons among tombs and bare trees. One grave, presumably of a couple, catches her eye.” One can’t help but feel for Jelena (the character); for her longings so accurately rendered by the filmmaker—as if reminded of an emotion one was unaware of having lost, yet which seems somehow retrievable, if for a moment, through film.—Salvador Amores
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with Sixpackfilm and Spellerberg Projects.
Image credits: all artworks, portraits, and stills courtesy sixpackfilm © Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka).
About the artist
Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka) (Austria) was born in London in 1946 and spent her childhood between East Berlin and Vienna. She made her first films in the late 1960s while still a student, asking her models to look into the camera for the duration of one 100ft roll of 16mm film. She graduated with a diploma in industrial photography from Vienna’s Graphic Instruction and Research Institute (1971) and later completed psychoanalytic training (1997) with a particular focus on issues of humour and shame. She has completed more than 100 films since 1968, screening extensively at festivals, museums, and galleries including Munich Film Museum, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Anthology Film Archives, Palais de Tokyo, Documenta 12, International Film Festival Hong Kong, Austrian Film Museum, Centre Pompidou, Galerie Fotohof, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Generali Foundation, Toronto International Film Festival, Tate Modern, and ten previous editions of Media City Film Festival. Her first dual photography and film retrospective was presented at Media City Film Festival in 2010. She is the recipient of the Austrian Art Prize for Artistic Photography (1999), Grand Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography (2005), and the Austrian Art Prize for Film (2016). She is founder of two educational institutions: the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography (1990) and the Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film (2006). Two significant monographs about her work have been published: Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller: Photography & Film (Christophe Keller Editions, 2013) and Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller: One Is Not Enough: Photography and Film (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König and INDEX Editions, 2018). She lives and works in Vienna, Austria.