Sophie Holzberger

Dissertation

Title: Visions of Labor: Collective Film Work and Feminist Activism in West Germany, 1970s-1990s

Supervisor: Toby Lee

My dissertation examines the politics of collective filmmaking in West German feminist film history between the 1970s-1990s focusing on activist films and videos from different feminist movements. Whereas feminist film historiography oftentimes emphasizes single figures, this dissertation argues that the slow but steady change that feminist film- and videomaking enabled in terms of film aesthetics and working conditions was only made possible through collective and collaborative work, situated in concrete relationships, and their messy life worlds. By centering films that are not considered part of the German feminist archive and conceptualizing film production and distribution networks as intimate and affective political labor, the focus of this dissertation is twofold: it aims to broaden film studies’ concept of political film while questioning notions of a singular and white feminist history in Germany.

Bio

Sophie Holzberger’s research focuses on collective labor in feminist film history. They are a PhD candidate at the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Next to their academic work, they do film curation and co-founded the non-profit feminist elsewheres. Their publications include “‘I can eat film: A conversation with Monica Freeman” (NECSUS 2026), and the collective text “feminist elsewheres. A Making(-)Of Three Festivals in the Making” (Feminist Media Histories 2024). You can find more information on their work here: www.sophie-holzberger.de