trudi schoop | the conquest of emptiness

In the 1920s, Trudi Schoop was an internationally famous dancer who was celebrated on the stages of the world as the "female Charlie Chaplin".
In the early 1950s, however, she changed her audiences and began working with long–term psychiatric patients – a revolutionary idea for this time.
In this film, the 86-year-old Trudi Schoop tells about herself and her work, about her career as a dancer and her experience with the normal and the insane. She shares some of the key lessons and insights she has learned in her long life, at the center of which has always been human expression and communication.


		Claudia Willke
		Director and Producer
		M.A. in literature and political science (Tübingen) M.A. in film studies (Hamburg) section: documentary
		Willke Film
		founded in 1987 in Hamburg specialises in the development, realization and production of short and full-length creative documentaries focuses on portraits and other documentaries in the field of the arts, music, philosophy and society collaborates with TV-channels, film funds, international co-producers and distributors has production experience in Europe, Africa, Japan and Northern America
		Selection of realized productions:
	1991:	Come Dance with Me
		80 min., 16mm 1st prize for a documentary at the International Dance Screen Frankfurt 1991 Jury Award at the Leipzig Documentary Festival, 1991 Ecumenical Award at the Leipzig Documentary Festival, 1991 Women's Association Award, International Documentary Festival, St. Petersburg, 1993
	1992:	The Conquest of Emptiness
		45 min., 16mm rated "especially worthy" by the German Board of Film Censors shown at several international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, USA
	96/97:	Enjoy Your Symptom
		52 min., Beta SP shown at international festivals in Germany, Slovenia
	1998:	Have You Seen The Moon?
		60 min., 16mm/Video shown at international festivals in Germany, Japan, Italy
	2000:	Nights of Long Shadows
		60 min., Beta SP, 16:9 German-French-Norwegian Co-Production
	2001:	Living with The Gods
		58 min., Digi-Beta, 16:9 German-Austrian Co-Production
	2001:	Nothing Special
		52 min., Beta SP, 16:9


	Script / Director:	Claudia Willke
	Camera:	Gisela Tuchtenhagen
	Sound Recordist:	Claudia Willke
	Montage:	Renate Merck
	Music:	Gerd Bessler
		Tassilo Jelde
		Nico Kaufmann
	Prod. Manager:	Sabine Friedrichs
	Sound Mixer:	Stefan Konken
	Produced by:	Willke Film
		© 1992


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