PETRA KELLY - ACT NOW
Petra Kelly was one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century.
She was born in West Germany and grew up in the racist America of the 1960s. As a student, she worked in Robert Kennedy’s campaign team in the months before his assassination. Her role model was Martin Luther King, and his philosophy of civil disobedience shaped her thinking.
She was a charismatic woman, who was the driving force of the original German Green Party. Not only did Petra vault to fame as the star of the Green Party, she was also a woman capable of founding a new and world-changing political stance and taking on two superpowers. At the height of the Cold War, Petra Kelly inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets to protest the deployment of nuclear missiles on West German soil. She won the Alternative Nobel Prize and brilliantly combined all the big issues, which are more relevant than ever today. From the dangers of nuclear testing, uranium mining, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste disposal in the oceans, chemical environmental pollution, deforestation, ocean pollution, the ongoing desertification through over-industrialization and the environmental hazards of industrial agriculture, Petra Kelly had all the issues in her sights.
With the First Nation American Milo Yellow Hair, she campaigned against uranium mining and the dangers associated with it. She appeared at major peace demonstrations with Joan Baez. She confronted then GDR leader Erich Honecker with the “Swords to Plowshares” campaign and declared her solidarity with peace movements in East and West.Petra believed that even one person can change the world. She wanted to give Germany, with its sinister Nazi legacy, a new moral identity.
In 1992 she was murdered at the age of 44 by her partner and political colleague, former NATO general Gert Bastian.Her legacy is carried on by climate activists like Luisa Neubauer, the German figurehead of the Fridays for Future movement.
The film brings this great figure of world history back to life.Drawing on international archive images that were never seen before, it paints a picture of a sensitive and unwavering woman who could not be stopped by anyone. Close friends and companions talk for the first time about Petra Kelly’s private and political life.
Petra Kelly was a woman who changed history – and who, like many history-changing women, has been largely erased. Her far-sighted transnational thinking and global action, her commitment to peace and human rights beyond the East-West bloc thinking of the time – all of this makes her an icon for the 21st century.
Written & directed by Doris Metz
Director of Photography Sophie Maintigneux
Editor / dramaturgy (editing) Nina Ergang
Script consultant Birgit Schulz
Music composer Cico Beck
Original sound Ivonne Gärber
Archive producer Vanessa Christophers-Trinks
Line producer Monika Mack
Producer Birgit Schulz
Commissioning editors Dagmar Mielke rbb / ARTE, Jens Stubenrauch / rbb, Petra Felber / BR, Martin Kowalczyk / BR
A production of Bildersturm Filmproduktion GmbH
in co-production with Kimmel & Metz Filmproduktion UG
and
Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Radio Bremen
in co-operation with ARTE
Supported by
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Deutscher FilmFörderFonds
Medienbord Berlin-Brandenburg
Distributor Germany Real Fiction Filmverleih
World Sales New Docs