On the occasion of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, the Embassy of Austria and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Washington D.C. invite you to the event Leading the Story: Women Journalists Across Generations.
Join us for a screening of the film Unsichtbare Mauern (Invisible Walls) by Austrian filmmaker Robert Pöcksteiner about the remarkable life of journalist Hella Pick. After the screening, a panel discussion with journalists Barbara Wolschek (Head of the Correspondents’ Office of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF in Washington), Emily Tamkin (Author and Freelance Journalist, Austrian-American Media Fellow), and Greta Baxter (The Guardian, Social Producer) will take place, moderated by Finja Draxler (Director of the Austrian Press & Information Service). The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
The screening will be in German with English subtitles.
Doors open at 6:15 PM. The event starts at 7:00 PM and is followed by an Austrian wine reception.
ABOUT HELLA PICK & THE FILM
Hella Pick (1929–2024) was born in Vienna, into a middle-class Jewish family. Following Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, and a visit from the Gestapo, Hella’s mother managed to get her on a Kindertransport to Britain in March 1939. Her mother obtained a visa and joined her three months later. She studied at the London School of Economics, and in 1960, she became the UN correspondent of The Guardian newspaper, where she worked under its chief US correspondent Alistair Cooke and went on to spend more than 30 years reporting on foreign affairs for The Guardian. Hella Pick was a long-standing member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for German-Jewish Studies/Weidenfeld Institute based at the University of Sussex and secured support from the German and the Austrian governments to help the University establish the Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies.
Hella Pick was awarded honours by the UK, Austria and Germany, among them a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sussex, the Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der Republik Österreich, and the Grosses Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstorden der Republik Deutschland. The Guardian News & Media Archive contains an oral history of her time working for the paper in the 1960s and 1970s and Hella Pick’s memoir, Invisible Walls, an account of her life and career in journalism, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2021. Hella was the Arts and Culture Programme Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an independent think-tank based in London and continued as its Senior Advisor until her death. She had dual British and Austrian citizenship and regularly visited Austria, her ‘home away from home.’ In the film Unsichtbare Mauern (Invisible Walls), Austrian filmmaker Robert Pöcksteiner sheds light on her remarkable life.
Robert Pöcksteiner is an Austrian filmmaker, producer and director with 30 years of experience in radio and TV. His projects include the four part docu series ‘Soundtrack Österreich’, ‘Snapshots in Time – Die Kinder von Zaatari’, which received a prize for adult education in Austria, 'The New Vienna Congress', ‘Meine ersten hundert Tage - Das erstaunliche Leben der Elsie Slonim‘ and ‘The Jews of Lackenbach’.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Barbara Wolschek | Head of the Correspondents’ Office of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF in Washington
Emily Tamkin | Author and Freelance Journalist, Austrian-American Media Fellow
Greta Baxter | The Guardian, Social Producer
The panel discussion will be moderated by Finja Draxler (Director of the Austrian Press & Information Service at the Austrian Embassy Washington).
© Film Poster: Robert Pöcksteiner