Norrtullsligan – Weibliche Junggesellen

Norrtullsligan shows the everyday lives of four women eking out a living in the city with factory and office jobs. They share a living space, cook and celebrate together, supporting each other through hardships and heartbreak.
The film was shot in the early 1920s and is based on a book about the situation of female workers around the year 1900. This is why its depiction of the New Woman is very different from that of countless films from Hollywood and Europe. The book was written by Elin Wägner, an author and activist of the Swedish women’s movement. The intertitles are mostly quotes from the book; just like the film, it has a narrator, one of the four women, who describes the women’s precarious living situation from her perspective. The tone of the film is light or rather factual with an element of humour and irony, without glossing over their daily struggles. Pegg, the narrator, is marvellously played by renowned Swedish actress Tora Teje. The film shows the living and working conditions in indoor spaces, but also the wide landscapes of Stockholm. It is steeped in modernity, but as seen from below: from the perspective of the women who have to find their way in these new living conditions. (Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann)

Live music: Michaela Dietl, www.michaela-dietl.de

Carte Blanche of Karola Gramann and Heide Schlüpmann
Karola Gramann and Heide Schlüpmann love cinema. They have always enjoyed all its facets and contributed to its diversity through their own work, offering very different perspectives. Their collaboration began in the early 1980s, and in 1999, together with others, they co-founded the association Kinothek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt am Main that they still have ties with today. In cooperation with Kinothek’s new manager Gaby Babić, they conceived and realized the film festival Remake – Frankfurter Frauen Film Tage in 2018.
They have been internationally involved in program work, festivals, writing and education. Their particular interest is in the performances of early cinema, independent cinema and films by women.
Karola Gramann (1948) is a film curator and was the manager of Kinothek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt am Main until 2020. Heide Schlüpmann (1943) is a film theorist and professor emeritus for film studies at Goethe Universität Frankfurt.