Mostly comprising of a voiceover and archival footage, German auteur Ulrike Ottinger’s new film feels like a stylistic shift from the avant-garde, carnivalesque works of queer radicalism for which she is best known. Underneath the unhurried pace and the exhaustive account of Ottinger’s experience of 1960s Paris as a budding artist, there is a politically conscious playfulness that displays her ability to interweave different art forms and storytelling styles.

True to its title, the film rolls like a calligram, a text format where words are arranged to form a thematically relevant image. Ottinger’s recollections of past encounters with intellectual and artistic luminaries coalesce into a portrait of Paris, as well as herself. Calligrammes is the name of a bookstore owned by Fritz Picard that became a literary haven for Jewish émigrés; here, Ottinger crossed path with the likes of Tristan Tzara and Walter Mehring. The seemingly endless possibilities of life in Paris go on, like working next to Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir at cafes, seeing Georges Méliès’ films at Henri Langlois’ Cinémathèque Française, and listening to Juliette Gréco in nightclubs.

Paris Calligrammes rises above empty nostalgia, however. In a film filled to the brim with images and references, Ottinger’s voice becomes a fascinating and beguiling anchor: the measured tone, along with the mature earthiness of the vocal cords, creates an arresting graininess that challenges the image of Paris as a creative utopia. Nestled between the starry encounters is Ottinger’s reckoning with the colonial and racist history of France, including the near-forgotten Paris massacre of 1961. Ultimately, this masterly documentary is a psychogeographical exercise at its fullest potency and determination, overflowing with joy and political urgency all at once.

• Paris Calligrammes is released on 27 August in cinemas