Maria Lang, along with Ute Aurand, belonged to a group of female students at the Berlin Film and Television Academy who shaped a new experimental film language in the 1980s. During this time, she created her most important films, Familiengruft – ein Liebesgedicht an meine Mutter (1982) and Zärtlichkeiten (1985), which explored lesbian life in Berlin. With the question «Who were the first women to make films in Germany?», Aurand and Lang founded the Filmarbeiterinnen-Abend at the Kino Arsenal.