ABOUT
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In a world where attention has become a commodity, I aim to create spaces where ‘othered’ humans and non-human actors can be seen, felt, and heard.
I am a Berlin-based artist working as a filmmaker, installation artist and writer. In my practice, I use the tools of video, photography, documentary interviews, text, and sound design to develop immersive audio/visual experiences. I create polyphonic portraits, questioning norms, and honoring endangered people, beings, and places. Through this approach I examine cultural and place-based phenomena through layers of multiple voices and perspectives, aiming to question and decenter dominant narratives and give space to alternative frames of reference. My approach eschews singular, hero’s journeys in favor of collective narratives.
My work is influenced by my time in India where I studied developmental economics and the neocolonial narratives that shape north-south economic policies. I am also influenced by my time living in Japan where I first understand the impacts of the assumptions we absorb through culture and how destabilizing it can be to come to understand our worldview is not reality. After coming to Berlin my interest in examining colonial practices expanded to include plants, animals, and insects.
Through my installations and writing, I hope audiences are able to open up to their own truth and expand their sense of connection to themselves and other living beings.
Laura J Lukitsch is a filmmaker, video artist, and story consultant. Her work creates spaces for audiences to experience different perspectives of our collective stories. Her first feature documentary, Beard Club (2013) is a film about the social politics of facial hair. Park Project Berlin (2017-ongoing) examines our public realm. Laura’s interest includes social change, the power of intersectional narratives, and ways we can bring new voices into mainstream consciousness. She helps artists struggling to tell their stories reframe their inner and outer narratives and get their work seen.
Laura J. Lukitsch, Filmmaker, Video Artist, Story Consultant
Global Performance Media, Story Coach for creatives
This Beautiful Shot is Not an Accident, podcast about design thinking, storytelling and social change
Projects:
Park Project Berlin
Mind the Gap Movie
Beard Club, the documentary
Select Clients:
Earthworks
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
Public Bikes
CORO, San Francisco
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Teaching:
Catalyst, School of Film and Visual Media
Bite Sized Video, creating short video for the web
San Francisco State University, Digital Media Production Program, Demo Creation Course
Grants/Residencies/Awards:
Bizerksamt Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Projektfünderung Litchtenberg
Fleischacker Foundation
Pacific Pioneer Fund
SF Film Foundation Filmmaker Residency
Best of the Fest, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Audience Award, Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema
Screenings/Installations:
UPCOMING
2023
“PALLASEUM Archiv der Erinnerungen,” Audio collage of interviews with residents and neighbors of the Pallaseum, part of In Arbeit curated by Stephan Kruhl and Margita Weiler, Pallaseum, Berlin, September 15-24
PAST
2023
“Symbiosis,” feature film, experimental SciFi film directed by Sascha Weber, featuring Frederic Krauke, sound design Mathieu Sylvester, editing Laura J. Lukitsch, Passage Theater, Berlin, September 3
“Bodies and Heroes” Truth Trust Trees, Verwalterhaus, Berlin, July 27 – August 6
“How Do We Love This World, If Mushrooms Could Talk and Trees Could Hug,” Truth, Trust, Trees, Verwalterhaus, Berlin, August 2, 6 pm
2022
Sensing the City – Sense of the City, “TRACES | perceptions | reflections,” video installation, bike tour, Projektraum Zwitschermachine
2021
KuBa Kulturbahnhof Artist Residency, “HOW DO WE LOVE THIS WORLD | if mushrooms could talk and trees could hug”
2019
“SIANA | [un]natural transitions,” video performance, part of SIANA sound, screening, dance, performance, Sprechsaal, Berlin
“WHEN NOBODY IS WATCHING & BENCHES,” video installation, part of A Full Moon Night, Videodrome 2, Marseille, France
“KORPER UND HELDEN | bodies and heroes,” photo/video installation – Im Grüne Bereich
2018
“DIE LUST AM FLIEGEN | the desire to fly,” Video, sound installation – Lilienthal Park
“PUBLIC FIGURES | making of Berlin,” and “MOVING MONUMENTS | tiergarten,” video installation, Premarts, Berlin
2017
“BERLIN FROM ABOVE | on the s-bahn”, video installation, Fenster Flugel, Projektraum Ventilator, Berlin
“Love,” video Umgemutlich, WBB Willner-Brauerei, Berlin
2016
“Priceless,” Milk Bar, Oakland, New Urbanism Film Festival, LA, Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema, San Francisco
Dialogues in Transit micro-video series, Instagram
2015
“The Art of Carrying Things by Bike,” Gigantic Bicycle Film Festival, Seattle, Rochester BikeFilmFest, New York
2013
“Beard Club,” Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Arkansas, premiere
2011
“Love,” sound/video installation, San Francisco home
2010
“Beard Club,” Temescal Street Cinema, Oakland, CA, sneak peek