WOMEN
a film project by Editta Braun & Menie Weissbacher
WOMEN
a film project by
Editta Braun & Menie Weissbacher
directing, screenplay, editing, choreography: Editta Braun
cameras, special effects, constructions: Menie Weissbacher
music: Thierry Zaboitzeff
with
Germaine Acogny
Weng Teng Choi-Buttinger, Nikola Majtanova, Maja Mirek, Jerca Rožnik Novak
Marlene Aigner, Editta Braun, Iris Heitzinger, Alina Lugovskaya, Kristína Oleárniková, Juliana Vargas Rodrígues, Astrid Weger-Purkhart
Annabelle Adlgasser, Lara Braun, Aruna Choi-Buttinger, Margarida do Pinto Amaral, Ulrike Hager, Sandra Hofstötter, Awa Kamara, Margret Liebau, Sigrid Linher, Beatrice Wanjiru Miringu, Regina Wyschata
dramaturgical assistance: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau
gaffer girl: Malou
editing consulting: Zoki Vilotic, Joana Scrinzi, Petra Hinterberger, Eva Hager
2nd camera, AI: Andreas Kirnbauer, Emanuel Cloeter
sound: Bernhard Lohner, Benedikt Grobauer
technical assistance: Joe Wagner, Anton Brühwasser, Stefan Ebner
lights: Thomas Hinterberger
assistance organization: Ulrike Hager
tailoring: Cvetanka Mojsovska
Making of: Maja Mirek
catering: Emma Wyschata
distribution: Ulrike Hager, Antje Papke
production: editta braun company, Studio Weissbacher
funded by
Federal Minstry Republic of Austria
Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport
City of Salzburg
Federal State of Salzburg
Upcoming fall 25
Inspired by the African dance legend Germaine Acogny, from whom Editta Braun herself once took important inspiration, this film encourages women around the world to take their fate into their own hands. This moving feminist dance manifesto shows imprisonment and the desire for freedom, the struggle for self-determination and the power of solidarity, humour and utopia.
The film features outstanding members of the company's current team, who are joined in a moving final scene by companions of Editta Braun from 45 years ago to form a strong cross-section of women from around the world.
The fact that Editta Braun was able to get the globally active Senegalese-French dancer and choreographer Germaine Acogny, who was awarded the Golden Lion for her life's work at the 2021 Venice Biennale alongside countless other awards, to take part in the film makes it unique. With her impressive charisma and dignified energy, the ‘mother of contemporary African dance’ connects the individual scenes, characters and stories on a timeless, symbolic level.
Moving feminist dance manifesto about imprisonment and the desire for freedom, the struggle for self-determination and the power of solidarity, humour and utopia.
Germaine Acogny
Senegalese and French, Germaine Acogny has evolved her own technique of Modern African Dance and is considered worldwide as the ‘mother of Contemporary African Dance’.
From 1977 to 1982, she was the Artistic Director of Mudra Afrique, created by Maurice Béjart and the Senegalese President L.S. Senghor in Dakar.
She dances, choreographs and teaches all over the world and has become a powerful ambassador of African Dance and Culture.
In 1997, Germaine Acogny was appointed Artistic Director of the dance section of Afrique en Creation in Paris.
With her husband Helmut Vogt, she created the Ecole desSables, the International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances. Located in Toubab Dialaw / Senegal, the Ecole des Sables is a place for training and exchange for African dancers and dancers from all over the world, an important meeting and education place for Contemporary African Dance and choreography. The center was inaugurated in June 2004.
Germaine Acognyhas choreographed many pieces, for her Company JANT-BI, which tours successfully around the world,and she creates and performs her own solos.
AWARDS
Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merite, Officier and Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres, Chevalier et Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur of the French Republic
Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Lion and Officier et Commandeur des Arts et Lettres of the Republic of Senegal
PioneerWoman by the Senegalese Ministry of the Family and the National Solidarity, 1999
Jointly with the Japanese Kota Yamazaki BESSIE Award in New York for their choreography Fagaala, 2007
New York BESSIE Award for outstanding performance in the solo "Mon élue noire-sacre # 2, 2018
Award for Life time achievements from the Cairo International Festival for Experimental and Contemporary Theatre, 2018
ECOWAS Excellence Award, category Arts and Letters, 2019
Golden Lion for "Lifetime Achievement" at the Venice Biennale, 2021
Grand Prix of the SACD France (Authors rights), 2022
Joan Myers Brown "Keeper of the Flame" Legacy Award from the I International Association of Blacks in Dance, 2023
Grand Prix de l'Académie des Beaux Arts in Choregraphy, 2023
Nonino Prize in Italy, 2025
