A 12-year-old refugee who became an artist across two centuries—her canvases hold whole lives.
Whatever Comes Next is a documentary about the curious and dynamic life of Annemarie Mahler-Ettinger. The film portrays the painter and scholar, Annemarie Mahler. Born in Vienna in 1926, Mahler fled by herself as a twelve-year child to the United States and has since 1955 has lived in Bloomington, IN, and in the summers in Woods Hole, MA. The documentary portrays the artist's outer and inner lives, which bridge two centuries and two continents.
Direction
Keller lets Mahler breathe—no rush, no noise, just presence.
Cinematography
Those car journeys between Bloomington and Woods Hole feel like memory itself.
Director
Hildegard Elisabeth Keller
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mahler is the half-sister of composer Gustav Mahler—though she rarely discusses this, letting her own work speak.
The film's title comes from her own words about uncertainty, spoken at 87 with unsettling calm.
US
