Two-channel video installation, 25 min, 2025

Performance: Chelsea Manning

The film installation All The Things She Said shows anti-war activist Chelsea Manning, who has long been an inspiration for the artists. Instead of following up on what one might expect her to do, namely delivering a speech on leaking material about US war atrocities in Iraq or supporting young trans-people in the US, Chelsea Manning turns to music.

We see her playing a DJ set in an empty venue in Berlin, "Schwuz", the oldest club for queer- and trans-people in Germany. The sound has been recorded with multiple microphones, highlighting the importance of each sonic perspective in the collective experience of listening, dancing and celebrating.

In All The Things She Said, sound arrives with a potential for queerness, a force of forming togetherness despite war and repression, or, in Chelsea Manning's words, We tend to sound to connect, where things are unspeakable. We tend to sound because we crave pleasure and getting back that amber optimism.

Director of photography: Bernadette Paassen
Assistant dp: Svea Immel
Sound: Johanna Wiener
Grip: Camilo Sottolichio
Make-up: Nuria de Lario
Production: Wibke Tiarks
Sound design: Rashad Becker
Color grading: Waveline