Die «filmende Bäckersfrau» Elisabeth Wilms

Overview & Synopsis

In the early 1940s, Elisabeth Wilms (1905-1981) from Dortmund discovered her passion for filming. What began as a hobby quickly developed into a lucrative business at the interface of amateur and commercial film after the end of the war: In gut Forty years she produced about one hundred films, including around sixty commissioned films for charitable organizations, industrial companies based in the Ruhr area and the city of Dortmund. Their productions did not fill cinema halls, rather they were shown in the context of "non-theatrical film" outside of commercial cinema for a wide variety of purposes. Wilms acted simultaneously as a producer, director, camerawoman, editor and projectionist, but constantly declared her work in public as a "hobby" and was also often dubbed the "filming baker's wife" by the contemporary press. With the focus on Wilms and her work, the case study follows an authorial approach and is situated at the same time in amateur and commercial film research. She significantly expands the understanding of film history by mapping the many facets of (West) German film culture after 1945 outside of commercial cinema, using the example of a female filmmaker. At the same time, it is to be understood as a contribution to Dortmund's local history.