A green hairy body, a large purple eye, and pink boots. This is what one of Alma Weber’s aliens looks like. The Dresden animated film artist sits on the flowered vintage sofa in her studio and draws sketches for her current project entitled “Menstrualiens” – a mixture of the words menstruation and aliens.
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Aliens because you feel alone and extraterrestrial because many think that something is wrong with them, because their cycle does not follow this pattern that one has somehow learned.
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The 28-year-old transfers her drawings to the computer with an electronic pen. In her studio in Dresden-Mitte near the train station is the large monitor on which she brings her characters to life. Here she animates the alien’s big eye, which rolls right and left as it speaks. And here she puts the soundtrack under the trick animation.
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In the run-up, she had conversations with menstruating people who spoke very openly about how they felt about their bodies: “Sometimes it was so extreme that I took an ibuprofen or something, but that changed relatively quickly for me that I actually didn’t want that. Somehow I wanted to feel that I was menstruating (…). ”
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She wants to represent her extraterrestrials sympathetically – and thus entertain. “I hate to address things with my index finger and portray it all so directly, because I somehow lose the fun.”
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Against menstruation as a taboo: Pinky Gloves and Co.
With her short films, Alma wants to fight against treating menstruation as a taboo. Even in school, the topic was only presented in abbreviated form and was always a giggle topic that was not discussed.
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I think that was also a bit of a problem that it wasn’t talked about anymore and that it was dismissed as something disgusting – and it will be, as this example with the Pinky Gloves has shown again.
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A few weeks ago, two men presented their “Pinky Gloves” as a business idea: pink rubber gloves with which you should discreetly remove and dispose of your tampons. The topic caused a lot of criticism on the Internet – until the idea was finally put on hold. “It also reproduces such an image of femininity, the female body is disgusting, and everything that goes on in it is scary and shouldn’t come to the surface and shouldn’t be shown,” comments the artist.
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Show blood? Yes, as long as it is not menstrual blood
She also had a very memorable experience at a film festival: “I watched a series of short films and a film was shown in which people were killed in a martial manner and their heads were chopped off, a lot of blood flowed and then a film came in Not very much happened to that, except that a girl emptied her menstrual cup into a sink and the whole auditorium screamed and people couldn’t bear to see this scene. So blood: Yes, nothing, as long as it’s not menstrual blood. ” She feels that is absurd – and that is why it is important to keep talking about the subject, also in art, until it is no longer a taboo subject.
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Made socially: Girls are less confident about each other
Equality and feminism were issues for Alma Weber from an early age. She was born in Halle in 1992 and grew up in Weimar. Her mother, herself an artist, heard music from strong women like Nina Hagen, Stereo Total or Francoise Cactus, who also became her daughter’s role models.
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“As a child, I was lucky that I received a lot of support and was able to take drum lessons, and I was definitely the only girl around me who played the drums.” There are also social reasons – that boys are loud and wild , be completely normal, girls should be rather quiet.
“So you kind of constantly see in many corners that women are still being kept small and that is reproduced in such a way that girls then also think for themselves that they cannot do something or do not dare to do something.”
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She currently plays in two women’s bands: The Shna and Gránátèze. When she plays the drums, it’s primarily about having fun – but if it encourages other women to try something, she’ll be happy, of course. In their view, the drums are a very suitable instrument for breaking up role models.
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Films to let out anger and laugh
To study animation and animation, she then went from Weimar to Kassel, where she got involved – and founded a feminist reading group, for example. The more Alma Weber dealt with the issue of equality, the more situations she noticed in everyday life in which women are treated unfairly. Unequal pay, having to be afraid of walking home alone at night, constant belittling of girls.
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In her work she addresses these topics: In “Pink Cuts Pink” a blonde girl’s hair is brushed and brushed until it turns red, screams with rage, her hair is disheveled and runs around wildly. Then she is put back on her chair and brushed again. “Hair is definitely a symbol of femininity, with which you can play a lot and which you can break easily and which can also irritate. In the film I wanted to show this backlash, that is, that you keep being thrown back becomes.”
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“People should no longer have to be afraid of one another”
Your films are shown in small art house cinemas before the main films. Alma Weber also produces music videos, explanatory videos and gives workshops. Strong women always play a role in their work.
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For me it is a matter of course to be a feminist. Not just every woman, all people should be feminists. I think many are too, without naming them that way. Because ultimately it means that you are in favor of all people having equal rights, regardless of their gender, sexuality or origin.
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For the future, she would like to see more respectful dealings with one another. That people no longer have to be afraid of each other. “For example my little brother: If he experiments with gender roles and walks around the city in a dress that he doesn’t have to be afraid of being attacked somehow or something, where I think that should be taken for granted, but it is not yet. That would but I myself wish – that people can be who they want and that it goes without saying. ”
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