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Director's Biography, Lisa Lewenz
Lisa Lewenz was born in Baltimore, has lived throughout America and Europe, and currently is based in Baltimore and New York City. Throughout the past twenty years, her work has consistently addressed the issues of time and memory. Lewenz's works have ranged from a documentary on nuclear power in; 1984, A View from Three Mile Island, published as a "calendar" with a chronology of the history of nuclear events; to a multi-media participatory work; Towards a More Perfect Union, involving groups of people attempting to reach a consensus of the most important issues of our time; to a work based on obsolete Civil-Defense Fallout Shelters built in the 1960s (Idol Worship/Idle Warship); to Leaving a Bit Behind, a site-work based on the ghost town abandoned near St. Louis-area due to dioxin contamination in the 80s.
Since 1981, Lewenz has worked extensively on A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS, a multi-generation collaborative project unwittingly begun by her grandmother, who made films documenting the rise of Nazi Germany during the 1920's and 30's. This has been Lisa Lewenz's most challenging project to date, for the personal issues addressed by the work were rooted in her family's life story, rather than derived from someone else's life. Lewenz combined selections from more than a dozen hours of 16mm films that grandmother, Ella Arnhold Lewenz made before her escape to America; numerous negatives that Ella shot during a brief return to Germany during the Berlin airlift; and Lisa's own photographs, writings and videos documenting identical sites and people some sixty years after Ella began filming. The project addresses transitions resulting from the most significant historic events of the twentieth century, starting with the rise of Nazi power in Germany and concluding with the end of the Cold War and German struggles towards reunification. Lewenz used this project to explore a range of personal and cultural questions regarding identity and memory: Germany's influence upon world history over the past hundred years; transitions in women's rights and the development of feminist ideals during the twentieth century; the absolute cultural betrayal experienced by German Jews between WWI and WWII; the effects of racism upon 'the hated' and the people who impose that hate; and questions regarding options for our future.
Awards/Fellowships:
Most recently, A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS was awarded completion funding from the Donnet Fund, the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Fund for Jewish Filmmaking. The project was among a dozen projects selected for financing in 1994 by ITVS for post-production funds, which resulted in a three year broadcast contract for airing A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS on American Public Television between 1999 and 2001. During the summer of 1994, Lewenz held a National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship in Berlin to complete the research phase of this project. Between February 1993 and January 1994, Lewenz held a Senior Research Professorship with the Fulbright/Hayes Commission in Germany, which awarded three consecutive full-maintenance fellowships to assist in research and production work on A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS. The Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz in Berlin hosted Lewenz for the duration of the fellowship, which was also affiliated with the Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek. Additionally, Lewenz received other grants and awards for the same project, including a 1990 Mid-Career Photography Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (October 1990 to October 1991); and the 1991 US/France Award to LaNapoule, France for a residency between October and December of that year; media grants from the Maryland State Arts Council (July 1993, and July 1995); a grant from A.M.A.M.A. (1992); the Baltimore Mayor's Commission for Art and Culture Media Grant (1989), a Canon USA Video Materials grant (1987); and other private and public foundation grants from 1985 to the present.
The Friends of Photography awarded Lewenz with the Annual 1990 Ferguson Award for another project, TOWARDS A MORE PERFECT UNION. This multi-disciplinary project was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and was selected for grants from the Baltimore Mayor's Commission for Art and Culture in 1989 and 1990. During the 1980's, Lewenz received numerous major grants from the Illinois Arts Council, including Artists Fellowships and Residency Grants in 1983, 1984, and 1985, and a Photography Fellowship in 1986. In 1985, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded an Emerging Artist Fellowship for her work entitled, 1984, A VIEW FROM THREE MILE ISLAND.
Education:
Lewenz's interest in interdisciplinary work led her to design her own multi-school undergraduate program, which enabled study with leading artists, filmmakers and writers in a number of art schools throughout the United States. Thus, Lewenz received a BFA in sculpture and performance art from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978, where she studied from 1974 and 1976, and again in 1978. In addition, Lewenz studied at the Philadelphia College of Art from 1973 to 1974, and for three semesters beginning in 1976 at the Kansas City Art Institute. She entirely financed her own education, working as an arts administrator, educator, painter and an array of other jobs. In 1978, Lewenz worked as the Project Director/Artists Assistant to the artist, Christo, in the project, "Wrapped Walkways". After touring the nation for several years as a performance artist, Lewenz returned to her studies. In 1982, Lewenz received a MFA in Post Studio/Multimedia from the CalArts, where she studied with John Baldessari and Doug Huebler and worked as an assistant to artist Sherri Levine and filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow.
Teaching/Lecturing/Production:
From 1984 until 1992, Lewenz taught continually as a full-time Assistant Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1984, fall), the University of Illinois (1985-87), St. Mary's College of Maryland (1987-88), the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (1988, spring), the College of Notre Dame (1988-91), New York University (1992, spring) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (1992, fall). Prior to 1984, Lewenz taught in several colleges and art centers as a visiting artist. Throughout her career, Lewenz has lectured extensively about her projects throughout the United States and Europe. In addition, she was a primary researcher in Germany for documentary projects with CBS News and The Discovery Channel.
Beginning in 1992, Lewenz began full-time work as the director of her first independent film, A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS. Since 1995, the film has been a featured project of the non-profit project known as A.M.A.M.A. (the Association of Maryland Area Media Artists). A.M.A.M.A. was initiated to advance understanding of contemporary media art by developing exhibition and distribution resources for contemporary media artist's work. In addition to hosting seminars and workshops, it has expanded regional media art resources and production facilities, while sharing resources and ideas with Maryland-area media artists and audiences. A LETTER WITHOUT WORDS has been AMAMA's first media production project.
Exhibition/Screening List:
Selected Screenings and Airwaves
PBS, National Broadcast, April 5, 1999, 10:00pm. (Check local listings)
Festival Screenings, 14 countries in 1998-99; Sundance, Berlin, Vancouver, Amsterdam, etc.
Sveriges Radio, Goteborg, Sweden, Feature interview by Inga Rexed, February, 1999.
The Oprah Winfrey Show, interview with Oprah Winfrey, January 14, 1999
Radio Forth, Edinburgh, Scotland, with Juliane von Keppel-Bismarck, September, 1998.
KRON Bay TV, Morning Show, interview, San Francisco, July, 1998
Kairos-Film, interviewed by Alexander Kluge. Berlin. February, 1998.
Deutsche Welle, International broadcast. February 1998
Bayerischer Rundfunk, "Studio Berlin" by Heidrun Wimmersberg, Feb 18, 1998.
Die-Zeit Television, TV Magazin, Feature story, produced by Gerhold Hoffman. Dec. 1995.
Radio Eins, Live inteview by Volker Wieprecht. Berlin. February, 1998.
Arsinal Kino/Friends of the German Cinema, Berlin, Germany, June 24, 1993
Amerika Haus, Hannover, Germany, April 28, 1993
Amerika Haus, Berlin, Germany, April 1, 1993
ABC Local Evening News, WJZ-TV, Baltimore, Maryland, June 16, 1988
The Studs Terkel Show, WFMT Radio, Chicago, Illinois, March 28, 1984
C-Span TV, Hour-long special, national broadcast, March 1984
Selected Solo Exhibitions
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, 1992
E.J. Bellocq Gallery, Ruston, Louisiana, 1991
Gormley Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 1991
92nd Street Art Center, New York, New York, 1989
San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco, California, 1987
Film in the Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1985
Dowd Fine Arts Center, Cortland, New York, 1984
Gallery 300, Valencia, California, 1982
NAME Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 1979, 1980
MoMing Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, 1979
Orchestra Hall, Chicago, Illinois, 1978
Broadway Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977
Grove Danstheatre, Miami, Florida, 1977
Selected Group Exhibitions
Houston Foto Fest, Houston Texas, 1994
Maria Feliz Gallery, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, 1993
Huntington Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1992
Woodstock Center for Photography, Woodstock, New York, 1991
New England Holocaust Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts, 1991
Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1991
Buscaglia/Castellani Museum, Buffalo, New York, 1991
Museum of Contemporary Arts, Baltimore, Maryland 1990
Harborplace Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland 1990
The Kunstraum, Washington, D.C., 1990
Ledel Gallery, New York, New York, 1987
Krannert Museum, Champaign, Illinois, 1986
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1985
Franklin Furnace, New York, New York, 1984
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois, 1984
P.S. 1, Queens, New York, 1983
Topeka Museum, Topeka, Kansas, 1976
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, 1973
Collections
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Hallmark Collections, Kansas City, Missouri
Museum of Contemporary Arts/FRAS Collections, Baltimore, Maryland
S. Keats Sinex Collections, Baltimore, Maryland
Numerous private collections
Ella Arnhold Lewenz (July 12, 1883-July 5, 1954)
Cinematographer (historical footage)
Born in Dresden, Ella began experimenting with photography in Germany during the early 1900s. She married Hans Leo Lewenz in Berlin in 1909 and moved to that city, which remained her home until December of 1938. Her former residence is now the Standesamt Charlottenburg von Berlin, Alt-Lietzow 28, and her family's vacation home was in Kladow, on the outskirts of Berlin. After learning how to process her own film, Ella started making 16mm films sometime during the mid-1920s. Eventually, she and her camera became inseparable, and although she was unknown as a filmmaker during her lifetime, her work represents one of the more important personal archives of her time. Ella Lewenz was one of the few women known to document the first half of this century in movies, diaries and photographs. A mother of six, she also edited, titled and dated her films. Her archive which includes about twenty hours of previously hidden footage, recorded family and friends, as well as many important figures in science, the arts, religion, and politics. Ella's work remained in the family attic for almost thirty years following her death in New York shortly after her last visit to Germany in 1954. Her archive remained unseen until 1981, when it was discovered by her granddaughter, Lisa. Ella's family members have attended public screenings of the film and have spoken during the subsequent question/answer sessions.
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