Life? Or Theatre?

U.S. Premiere! Director Frans Weisz in person at both screenings!

In this moving and original documentary, director Franz Weisz revisits the haunting legacy of the German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon and her magnum opus Leben? oder Theater?, the subject of his 1981 narrative feature film, Charlotte. An extraordinary series of more than 700 autobiographical paintings with text, overlays and notes on musical accompaniment, Salomon's masterpiece was created in her early 20s while living in the south of France, having been sent out of Hitler's Germany to live with her grandparents. Using a recently discovered letter written by Salomon soon before her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz as a point of departure, Weisz’s stylistically daring film incorporates shots from Charlotte, mise-en-scène using the artwork, and testimony from witnesses to Salomon’s life to dig deeper into her remarkable story.