Saturday 13 November 2004, 11.00

Ulrike Ottinger, Germany 2002, 360’

Unnoticed or denied by the international gaze, invisible power structures develop that make it even more difficult for people to secure their existence. It is no longer a matter of the old 'heroes of the working class' but of the new heroes and heroines in the struggle for survival, who use their great courage and inexhaustible imagination to get by. – Ulrike Ottinger

Southeast Passage is Ottinger's first foray into video; it is a tapestry weaving together a number of themes found throughout her work whether fictional or documentary. Filmed with a mini-dv camera, it is an epic six hour Eastern European travelogue divided into three chapters. The first chapter documents the journey from Wroclaw in the Southwest corner of Poland, to Varna, a Black Sea coastal city in Bulgaria. The second and third are devoted to Odessa and Istanbul respectively. Ottinger was instinctively drawn to such sites as impoverished Romany villages, Odessa's abandoned Jewish quarters, a seaside night club that serves as a front for the ever-burgeoning Eastern European sex trade, and the Armenian slums of Istanbul. The footage is nothing short of stunning.

The film is screened in connection with the  Time Zones exhibition.

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£3.50 (£2 concessions), booking recommended

    

This event is related to the Time Zones: Recent Film and Video exhibition