Hairpieces

2005, 07:00 min., 16mm, 4:3, b/w
Direction: Mareike Wegener
Camera: Michael Jörg
Sound: Sebastian Stroux, Micha Höing
Advisors: Prof. Dietrich Leder, Solveig Klaßen
Production: Academy of Media Arts Cologne

Generation-spanning study of women’s hair rituals. In such constellations biographies appear to repeat themselves. Watching three women of different ages during their hair rituals, one discovers more commonalities than differences. Young, middle-aged, old; morning, noon, night; styling, coloring, hairpieces.

Haarteile [Hairpieces] came out of the Documentary Miniatures seminar, with the brief of documenting a repetitive process. In the seminar, Mareike Wegener saw the film Oskar Langenfeld. 12 Mal (1966) by Holger Meins, which impressed her both formally and content-wise, and which influenced the fragmentary structure of Haarteile. For the film she only had two rolls of 16 mm film. At this point she had had little experience with film. She sketched out the film and decided on every single image, though without having a command over the terminology. Only later did she learn the technique and vocabulary of film.

To this day biographies are a central theme for the filmmaker. She is staunch in her belief that people express themselves solely through what they do. In both of her feature-length documentary films The Matchstick Traveller (2008) and Mark Lombardi – Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy (2012) she portrays artists. In her work, it is not about connecting the dots of someone’s biography and creating an artificial order. For her life is chaos and her films dispense with all categorization. The films are fragments or atmospheres that remain open and follow the logic of the filmmaker in the process. Mareike Wegener spends a lot of time with the people that she portrays. “I have to really love them, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stand it. The experiences that I have in living with the subjects of my films become embedded in my biography, as they yield insights that have an influence on the things I do next."

The documentary film Mark Lombardi – Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy by Mareike Wegener was shown in selected theaters nationwide in 2012. The premiere of the film took place on May 28, 2012, at the Filmforum in Cologne with the director present.

Mareike Wegener as born in 1983 in Westfalen. She writes screenplays, directs, and edits for herself and for others. In 2009 she received the Gerd-Ruge fellowship. Wegener is a co-founder of the production cooperative PETROLIO, which she has run with KHM graduates Hannes Lang and Carmen Losmann since 2012. 

Undergraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, from 2003 to 2008. Exchange semester in the department of Documentary Media Studies at the New School in New York City. Since 2011 postgraduate student in the department of Media and Communication at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.

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