Screening of "Ringl and Pit": Pioneering Women in Photography

A captivating portrait of Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach, two pioneering artists who met in Berlin in 1929 and started the “ringl + pit” studio to do advertising photography. Full of humor and vitality at 88 and 86 years old, they reflect on their work, their lifelong friendship, and what being a “New Woman” was like during those times. Ringl and Pit traces their lives from their early days in Weimar Germany, to their escape from the Nazis and subsequent separate careers in London and Palestine, New York and Argentina.

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Juan Mandelbaum’s television work has been broadcast on a variety of venues, from Independent Lens to Sesame Street and has won multiple awards, including Emmy awards and nominations.

Juan was a producer/director at WGBH on the PBS series AMERICAS, where he co-produced and co-directed “In Women’s Hands” on Chilean women’s participation in political life between 1970 and 1990 and produced and directed “Builders of Images”, on the role of artists in Latin American societies. His film “Our Disappeared”/”Nuestros Desaparecidos”, on people he knew who were kidnapped and disappeared during the 1970s dictatorship in Argentina, has played in over 30 festivals worldwide and aired on the PBS series INDEPENDENT LENS.

Juan has produced and directed several music films (all aired on PBS), including “Caetano in Bahia”, on the great Brazilian singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso, “A New World of Music”, on the New England Conservatory of Music’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra on tour in Chile and Argentina, and two pledge specials for PBS, “A Taste of Passover” and “A Taste of Chanukah”, at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall.

He has made several films on the arts, including the 3-part “Poetry Heaven”, on the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Poetry Festival and “Ringl and Pit”, on two German women photographers who started a studio in Berlin in 1929.

His newest film is “Paquito D’Rivera: From Carne y Frijol to Carnegie Hall” on the Cuban clarinet and saxophone Latin jazz master, which airs on PBS on October 12th, 2026 and is streaming on the PBS website.

Juan studied sociology in his native Argentina, where he worked as a journalist, photographer and educator. He holds an M.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

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