Ella Bergmann-Michel

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The film is characterised by atypical landscape shots, with views of nature being distorted without technical effects. Close-ups, details and overhead shots without a horizon create an impression of flatness. Flora and fauna are transformed into graphic elements through symmetrical reflections.

‘Fischfang in der Rhön’ is reminiscent of Ella Bergmann-Michel’s experimental landscape photographs on the one hand and her collages on the other, in which she layered coloured transparent papers on top of each other.Read More »

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Ella Bergmann-Michels’ second film, ‘Erwerbslose kochen für Erwerbslose’ (The Unemployed Cook for the Unemployed), was commissioned by the Frankfurt Association of Soup Kitchens, which had run out of funds to provide thousands of unemployed people with hot meals as the economic crisis worsened. The film was shown as a supporting feature in many Frankfurt cinemas and in street screenings at the Frankfurt Hauptwache.Read More »

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The documentary film ‘Where Do Old People Live’, commissioned in 1931 by Dutch architect Mart Stam, shows the modern and forward-looking architecture of the Budge Home in Frankfurt. Its residents live in spacious, light-filled rooms and are accommodated in single rooms with state-of-the-art facilities. The film focuses on presenting architecture that promotes social interaction among residents through its spatial structure.Read More »

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The film portrays unemployed people who buy cheap fruit and vegetables at the wholesale market to resell them on the streets of Frankfurt. Without police permission, the traders are constantly on the run with their wooden carts. Parts of the film were shot at the fairground next to the wholesale market hall. Newspaper and lottery ticket sellers, propagandists offering their wares for a few pennies, convey the mood of a time when hardship made people inventive.Read More »

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Ella Bergmann-Michel abandoned her last film, Wahlkampf 1932 (Last Election), about the 1932 election campaign in Frankfurt, for political reasons. During filming, she was arrested and some of the footage was destroyed. Only fragments of the film remain.Read More »