Two Minutes To Midnight, 2021

One channel video and sound installation, 47 min.

“What if women ruled the world?” Yael Bartana stages the question in her performative ‘Two Minutes to Midnight,’, where an all women government of a fictitious country must take a stand on an imminent nuclear threat from a foreign nation. A panel of fictional characters and real women experts in fields such as defence, law, politics and psychology is set in a democratic ‘Peace Room’, mirroring the toxically masculine ‘War Room’ in Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire, ‘Dr. Strangelove.’  The women are tasked with deciding how to approach the prescripted situation. Bartana’s visionary work is the synthesis of an interdisciplinary four-year process that analyses the geopolitical power game – and presents us with an alternative to the macho power discourse. 

 

The footage emerged from the recordings of the hybrid-experimental live performance What if Women Ruled the World? in Aarhus and Berlin (2017 and 2018) And the performance “Bury Our Weapons not Our Bodies” (Philadelphia 2019).

 

A film by Yael Bartana

 

 

The footage emerged from the recordings of the live performance

What if Women Ruled the World? in Aarhus and Berlin (2017 and 2018 ).

 

Producers

Yael Bartana

Naama Pyritz

Executive Producer live performance

Jo Paton

Associate Director live performance

Camilla Nielsson

 

Co-Producer Germany

Zsuzsanna Kiràly

 

Post Production Producer

Anja Lindner

 

Director of Photography

Uri Ackerman

 

Editor

Yael Bartana

 

Sound Design

Daniel Meir

 

Cinematographers

Sophie Winqvist

Agnesh Pakozdi
Matan Radin

Claudia Schröder

 

Additional Editors

Ayelet Gil

Michal Oppenheim

Daphna Keenan

Bobby Good

Walter Solon

Janina Herhoffer

Lian Rotem

 

Story Consultants

Itamar Gov

Mille Haynes

 

Dialogue Editor
Yasmin Vardi

 

Color Grading

Simon Veroneg

 

Graphic Design

Avi Bohbot

 

Titles Animator

Inbar Vahab-Kranz

 

Subtitles & Translation

Christina Gauglitz

Carrie C. Roseland

 

Camera Equipment Rental

Redrental, Aarhus

tectum, Berlin

 

 Commissioning Editor, RBB/ARTE

 Dagmar Mielke

Project accountant
Jolanka Höhn

Music
Vera Lynn “We’ll Meet Again” – ℗ 1953 – Decca, Courtesy of Universal Music GmbH

Words & Music by Ross Parker & Gugh Charles

© Dash Music Co. Ltd./Campbell Connelly and Co. Ltd.

With courtesy of Bosworth Music GmbH.

 

 

What if Women Ruled the World? (2017-2018) was commissioned and produced as a live project by Manchester International Festival, European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 and Volksbühne Berlin.

Executive Producer

Jo Paton

 

Actors Director in Manchester

Vicky Featherstone

 

Associate Director in Aarhus and Berlin

Camilla Nielsson

 

Writer for Manchester

Abi Morgan

 

Co-writer for Aarhus and Berlin
Alex Barrett

 

Curatorial Associate

Phoebe Greenwood

 

Consultant and development

Galit Eilat

Dr. Noa Shuval

 

Technical Director

Jack Thompson

 

Commissioning Coordinator

Hannah Falvey

 

Set Design
Saygel & Schreiber

 

Production Manager
Sam Collins

 

Sound Design
Daniel Meir

 

Assistant Producer
Hannah Clapham Clark

Company Manager
Louise Martin

 

Assistant Stage Manager
Clare Louise Heath

 

Wardrobe Supervisor

Shanti Freed

 

Graphic Design

Avi Bohbot

Gila Kaplan

 

Still Photographer
Birgit Kaulfuss

 

Studio Yael Bartana

Itamar Gov

Esper Postma

Saskia Wendland

 

Special thanks to

 

John McGrath, Juliana Engberg, Marietta Piekenbrock, Jacqui Davies

Nadia Albini, Natasha Gordon, Susanne Sachsse, Danusia Samal, Eileen Walsh

Galit Eilat, Susan George, Natasha Gordon, Nancy Hollander,

Leyla Hussein, Lina Khatib, Holly Kilroy, Dr. Marion Koopmans, Dr. Patricia M Lewis, Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera

Frances Raday, Kate Raworth, Anni Helena Routsala,

Shogofa Sahar, Sharon Squassoni, Natasha Walter, Mariam Ibrahim Yusuf

 

Milli Bhatia, Stephanie Hardt, Ido Karilla, Pedro Maia, Anne Misselwitz, Jackie Shemesh

 Emil Uriel Bartana, Saskia Wendland

With thanks to


Amna Abdullatif, Kathryn Abel, Hassan Akkad, Naomi Alderman, Shalni Arora, Claudia Aradau, Nisha Ayub, Amanda Bamford, Trine Bang, Wendy Barclay, Emil Uriel Bartana, Rebecca Bennett, Nancy Berman, Erica Bolton, Chiara Bottici, Pola Bousiou, Connie Butler, Judith Butler, Christine Byriel Andersen, Ayse Cavdar, Christine Cort, Chipo Chung, Diane Coyle, Jacqui Davies, Dilar Dirik, Philippa England, Mary Evans, Mel Evans, Sarah Faulkner, Marianna Fotaki, Jade French, Fiona Gasper, Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Shelley Harten, Gil Hochberg, Kelly Hotten, Ruth Ibegbuna, Sally Jones, Naomi Klein, Chloe Lamford, Philippa Lei, Naomi Mabita, Ruth Mackenzie, Sarah Mander, Charlotte Mann, Evie Manning, Helen McFarlane, Dagmar Mielke, Cristina Mittermeier, Oren Moverman, Gemma Mortensen, Kavyasiddhi Mulvey, Dee Dee Myers, Kirsten Niehuus, Sarah Niles, Yuli Novak, Kobi Ovadia, Deborah Orr, Safak Pavey, Lucy Pearson, Nina Power, Gill Powell, Vicky Pryce, Jane Quinn, Jessica Raine, Gabrielle Rifkind, Françoise von Roy, Dame Nancy Rothwell, Sheila Rowbotham, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Antonia Salib, Livnat Sela, Stav Shaffir, Kamila Shamsie, Juma Sharkah, Emma Sky, Annie Sprinkle, Lynne Stafford, Gloria Steinem, Kate Stone, Martine Taube, Gaetana Trippetti, Simone Turchetti, Teresa Hoefert de Turégano, Ruth Turner, Ruth Ur, Francesca Waite, Sophie Walker, Gabriele Walsh, Anoushka Warden, Yusra Warsama, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Saskia Wendland, Ellen West, Janine Weston, Judith Wilson, Isabel Adomakoh Young, Hillit Zwick, Annet Gelink Gallery, Sommer Contemporary Art, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Petzel Gallery, Capitain Petzel Gallery, HSL, Keyteq, Splinter Scenery, Star Events, Tube UK, UK Rigging, White Light, Bruntwood, Civic Engineers, Electricity North West, Graham Construction, Selfridges & Co.

Camilla Nielsson

 

Additional footage was shot during the live performance Bury Our Weapons, Not Our Bodies in Philadelphia in 2018.

The performance was curated and organised by Amanda Sroka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Director
Yael Bartana

Producer
Naama Pyritz

Director of Photography
Itai Neeman

Second Unit Director of Photography
Mick van Rossum

Choreographers
Ruti Sela and Mor Bashan
from the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group

Costume Designer
Yael Shenberger

Art Director
Shmuel Ben Shalom

Master of Ceremony
Olwen Fouéré

The Undertakers

Jennifer Abrevaya, Benjamin Behrend, Lesley Berkowitz, Julianna Boylan, Daniella Brown, Erin Carney, Taylor Cawley, Sebastian Cummings, Angie Fennell, Adrianna Jimenez Gonzalez, Dana Herbert, Anita Holland, Leah Holleran, Briannon Holstein, Matthew John Janis, Jung-eun Kim, Amalia Wiatr Lewis, Jacqueline Rose Libby, Emma Manion, Jaime Maseda, Kayla Simone McGill, Kevin Meehan, Rhonda Moore, Sarah Muehlbauer, Mphoentle Ndaba, Chloe Marie Newton, Hillary Pearson, Paige Phillips, Vitche-Boul Ra, Gabrielle Revlock, Matthew Rios, Roberto Rodriguez-Garcia, Nia Simmons, Andrew Smith, Margot Steinberg, Katherine Sullivan, Dwayne Townsend, Haylee Warner, Sarah Warren, and Emily White

Choreographers

Ruti Sela and Mor Bashan from the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group

Performance Production Coordinator

Chelsea Sanz

 

Two Minutes to Midnight is produced with the support of

Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam

RBB/ARTE

Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation

Hammer Museum, LA

Ingenue Production

© Yael Bartana, MY-I Productions

 

 

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