Films by Women, screening and discussion Trained to See: three women and the war, by Luzia Schmid

The film festival Films by Women returns to the museum this year with a showing of Trained to See: three women and the war (Drei Frauen - ein Krieg: Germany 2022, 106 min) by the Swiss director Luzia Schmid. For the first time, this documentary focuses on the context of a military conflict from the viewpoint of the women journalists who were direct witnesses to the end of World War II.

When in late 1943 the British government accredited almost 500 reporters and photographers to cover the Normandy invasion there was not a single woman among them. The Americans, however, appreciated the influence of their best-selling magazines and for the first time in history accredited female journalists. Reporters Martha Gellhorn, Margaret Bourke-White and Lee Miller visited bombed cities such as Cologne, Leipzig and Munich and witnessed the liberation of the Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Through their eyes we see the defeated and liberated Germany in a different way; a highly personal gaze that brought a new perspective to war reporting. The film showing, introduced by the museum’s managing director Evelio Acevedo and the festival’s co-director Carlota Álvarez Basso, is followed by a discussion with the documentary’s director and Diego Mas Trelles, co-director of the festival.

This activity is organised with the collaboration of the Swiss Embassy in Spain. Free entry; prior booking online required