Critical Barbra

Barbra Streisand, born in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in film and music in recent decades. Not only is Streisand a gifted singer with a mezzo-soprano voice that spans more than three octaves, she is also an accomplished dancer, actress, comedian and storyteller. After her early success as a singer, she rose to fame as a movie star in the 1960s and 1970s, and as a director of her own films since the 1980s, she was arguably the most powerful woman in the U.S. film and entertainment industry for more than two decades.

From December 14 to 17, the international conference with performance elements “Critical Barbra” will take place at the DFF cinema, the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and the Goethe University. Organized by Vinzenz Hediger (Frankfurt) and Marc Siegel (Mainz), the conference will shed light on the various facets of this first Jewish superstar with global reach, from music to film, and on Streisand’s status as a queer icon. In conjunction with the opening of the conference, on December 14, American director Cheryl Dunye, known for her work THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1996), will present William Wyler’s FUNNY GIRL at the DFF cinema.