Sanders-Brahms, Helma (1940–)

German screenwriter and director. Name variations: Helma Sanders. Born Helma Sanders, Nov 20, 1940, in Emden, Germany; attended acting school in Hanover, 1960–62, and Cologne University; never married; children: Anna Sanders.

Worked at tv station WDR-3 in Cologne as an on-air introducer of film classics, then produced film shorts and documentaries; made 1st film for tv, an interview with Ulrike Meinhof; joined New German Cinema movement in constructing scripts around political left; completed 1st tv film, Gewalt (Violence), for WDR (1971); made Der Angestellte (The Employee, 1972); won Fipresci prize for hour-long documentary Die Maschine (The Machine, 1973); made Die letzten Tage von Gomorrah (The Last Days of Gomorrah, 1974) and gained international success with her portrayal of the exploitation of Germany's foreign workers in film Shirins Hochzeit (Shirin's Wedding, 1976); probably best known for Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany, Pale Mother, 1980), which took 1st prize at 3 film festivals; released improvisational film Die Berührte, which won British Film Institute Award under title No Mercy, No Future (1981); became associated with European art cinema with such films as Flügel und Fesseln (The Future of Emily, 1984) and Laputa (1986); hyphenated her surname to Sanders-Brahms (composer Johannes Brahms is an ancestor) to distinguish herself from the German director Helke Sander.

See also Women in World History.