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TRAILER:
Filmed over the course of nearly a year, this short documentary by Renate Aller invites audiences into a probing and candid dialog with Eva Rubinstein. Now in her nineties, Rubinstein discusses her life, her artistic philosophy and her long engagement with social acitivism.
Commissioned by Museum Schloss Benrath and Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany.
A CONVERSATION WITH EVA RUBINSTEIN
A New Documentary Short by Renate Aller Offers an Intimate Portrait of Photographer Eva Rubinstein
New York, NY
A new fifteen-minute documentary directed by Renate Aller and edited by Anthony Graceffo and Michelle Tang offers a rare, deeply intimate look into the life and mind of photographer Eva Rubinstein. A Conversation with Eva Rubinstein was commissioned by Galerie Clara Maria Sels and Museum Schloss Benrath, Düsseldorf, Germany, and will premiere alongside a major exhibition of Rubinstein’s photography on view at the museum from August 28 through November 29, 2026.
Filmed over the course of nearly a year, Aller’s documentary invites audiences into a probing and candid dialogue with Rubinstein, now in her nineties, as she discusses her life, her artistic philosophy, and her long engagement with social activism.
Born in 1933 in Buenos Aires — where her parents, the pianist Arthur Rubinstein and Aniela Młynarska, were on tour — Eva Rubinstein was raised in Paris and trained as a dancer and actress before turning to photography in the late 1960s, following her divorce from the clergyman and civil rights activist Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. The shift, by her own account, was inseparable from the political awakening that came with it: her early work documented socialist Poland and Northern Ireland in the days after Bloody Sunday. She also found herself at the center of the New York photography world of the era: while studying with Diane Arbus, given the assignment to photograph something she didn’t understand, Rubinstein asked to photograph Arbus herself. Arbus agreed — and the print was barely out of the fixing solution when called Robert Frank, who asked Rubinstein to come to his loft on the Bowery to photograph him as well.
Rubinstein’s photographs are held in major public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and are celebrated for their exploration of what she calls the “third dimension” — a fusion of outer reality and inner sensibility that she describes as an interior landscape.
Through quiet, unguarded exchanges, the film builds a portrait of a life shaped equally by artistic purpose and social conscience. “Photography is my music,” Rubinstein says, “because I am not musical whatsoever.”
“This film feels like a continuation of that dialogue,” says Aller, “turning the camera back to look at what remains when the shutter stops clicking.”
A Conversation with Eva Rubinstein is a must-see for art historians, photography enthusiasts, and anyone drawn to work that transforms a life fully lived into art. The film will be submitted to major international festivals and is available now for select private press screenings.
About the Filmmaker
Renate Aller is a multidisciplinary artist working in New York City and Princeton, New Jersey. Since her training at art school in London, Aller has created numerous multimedia installations for public spaces and museums, spanning performance, sound, and film. She is currently completing her sixth art book, due for publication in early 2027. Her most recent book, The Space Between Memory and Expectation (Kehrer Verlag, Germany), includes essays by Makeda Best, Chief Curator at MoMA, New York, and Courtney J. Martin, Executive Director of the Rauschenberg Foundation.
Aller’s work is held in numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; the Yale University Art Gallery; the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; the New Britain Museum of American Art; the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI; the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle, Switzerland; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the Parrish Art Museum; and the New-York Historical Society Museum. Recent solo exhibitions include the Parrish Art Museum (2019), the New-York Historical Society Museum (2022), and the Brattleboro Museum, VT (2022–2023).
Media Contacts
Renate Aller, Director
Email: RenateAller@gmail.com
Phone: +1-917-365-2789
Website: RenateAller.com | Instagram: @renateallerstudio
Galerie Clara Maria Sels
Poststraße 3, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)211 328020
Email: info@galerie-claramariasels.de
Museum Schloss Benrath
Benrather Schloßallee 102
40597 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)211 8921903