Feminine Cinema Cycle – 50th Screening

29.06.2022 - 21h00

Duration: 72 min

Show Room

Session Presentation

Under the heading Cinema at the table, the Femme Sessions screen, on the last Wednesdays of each month, cinema made by women!

In June, we present a program that comes to us from the United States of America through the partnership with the Women's Voices Now Festival.

This is another partnership that we have established with festivals with which we share the same goals.

Women’s Voices Now uses film to drive positive social change that advances girls’ and women’s rights globally.

“The War and Worship of Women's Bodies” it’s a selection of short films from the Women's Voices Now online film collection: Voices for Change, transports us around the world to experience the fear and loathing occurring within and without women's bodies -- an experience shared by women regardless of where they are from. Yet, in the midst of the darkness and desecration, women strive to reclaim the sanctity of their beings -- through anger, through movement, through expression, and through connection. In going on this cinematic journey together, we see women's resilience and persistence, and we are invited to support and revere them, seeing them through their own eyes -- healed and whole.

This film discusses subjects that may be considered sensitive.

Program:

Part I: The Danger of Being a Woman

A GIRL OF NO IMPORTANCE

Anya Camilleri | UK | 2017 | 15´

Synopsis

There are about 10,000 girls kidnapped and trafficked from Eastern Europe each year. Most of them are young girls, not even 18 years of age, who have been forced into prostitution. They want to get out, they just don’t know how to escape the violent criminals that keep them under strict control. These girls are bought and sold like cattle. A Girl of No Importance is a drama about a Ukrainian girl, Alina, 16 years old, who manages to escape, and what happens to her as she finds herself in the centre of Rome, a beautiful city where she can trust no one.

About the Filmmaker

Anya Camilleri is a director and writer. She has co-created and directed transatlantic romance Ny-lon and award-winning Liverpool 1, as well as many hours of primetime drama. Her short films Perfect, Jealousy, and A Girl Of No Importance have garnered festival wins internationally. She is currently co-creating an original drama series for Endemol Shine with Maddalena Ravagli – Courtesans, as well as co-creating a series for RAI TV, Motherhood (working title), with star Gabriella Pession.

BEAUTY, FEAR, VIOLENCE

Anouk Phéline | France & USA | 2017 | 6´

Synopsis

A young woman goes home alone at night and thinks about death. Then come the screams. But what is a scream? And who is prey? This visual essay depicts a film noir Los Angeles ruled by violence against women.

About the Filmmaker

After studying film and philosophy in Paris at Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), La Sorbonne and University Paris Diderot in partnership with la Cinémathèque française, Anouk Phéline has furthered her education in visual arts at UCLA.

She is now a Ph.D. candidate in cinema history under the supervision of Antoine de Baecque (ENS, Paris) and Elena Dagrada (Unimi, Milano). Her research focuses on the making of Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy (1954) in relation with the artistic tradition of the trip to Italy.

Haunted by the beauty and violence of Los Angeles, she directed there her first experimental short film BEAUTY FEAR VIOLENCE (2017). In this visual essay, text, images and sound collide to raise an obsessing issue: the experience of fear.  

THE CAMPAIGN 

Jenny Montasir | USA & Egypt | 2017 | 17´

A 

Synopsis

Could an advertisement help end sexual harassment in Egypt? The Campaign follows the making of the first ever mass ad campaign in Egypt to boldly address the epidemic of sexual harassment.

In 2010, an initiative called HarassMap began developing online and on-the-ground programs to combat sexual harassment. When a UN report revealed that 99 percent of women in Egypt had experienced harassment, they realized that fighting this crisis required more creativity.

The Campaign follows HarassMap on their journey to produce a major TV campaign to bring an anti-harassment message to the masses. From the start, their production is plagued by creative disagreements, staff changes, and financial issues, and the unusual challenges that follow a political revolution, including a shocking series of sexual assaults in Tahrir Square, and sustained periods of change and unrest. As the air date approaches, they wonder, will the public accept their point of view? How much impact can an ad have on a problem deeply entrenched in the streets?

About the Filmmaker

Jenny Montasir is an Egyptian-American documentary filmmaker and video journalist. For four years, she was based in Egypt covering women’s rights and social justice issues. Her work has been featured on the BBC, The New York Times, MSNBC, The Huffington Post, Voice of America, Time, and The Guardian. Her widely shared documentary short, Speak Out: Domestic Violence in Egypt, was selected to screen at the 2012 Women Deliver Global Forum.

Part II: Taking Back Our Power

HOLLABACK 

Emilia Wieding | USA & GERMANY | 2018 | 10´

Synopsis

Ciarra Lambert aka Queen Jo is a multi-faceted hip-hop artist from Philadelphia, who has the courage to fight for women’s rights within the same scene that degrades them on a daily basis. She shares her views and opinions through the lyrics of her music and takes the battle against the unequal judgment of women.

In a very early stage of her life, she began to realize that society was treating girls differently. By the time she was in high school, she started writing rap lyrics. Even though she was rejected from a label, saying her music is not “suitable” because it was feminist rap, she never gave up spreading her word.

Hollaback shows Ciarra in her creative process combined with her activist mindset. It follows her through the process of creating a song criticizing the way the hip-hop scene portrays women.

About the Filmmaker

Emilia Wieding started her career as a journalist at the Music University in Karlsruhe, Germany. She started with filming portraits about musicians and conducting interviews.

She soon discovered that there were more important topics that interested her as a journalist and that was how she started giving a voice to people suffering under injustice.

SHEDDING SKIN

Meysam Javadi | USA | 2017 | 7 min

Synopsis

Feeling ourselves in our own skin can feel safe, comfortable. A place of (dis)placement is not about better or worse, free or unfree; it is bittersweet, involving acceptance, coming to peace, independence, shedding attachment, and letting go.

About the Filmmaker

Meysam “Sam” Javadi is an Iranian film and theater director based for the last three years in Tajikistan. He was Video Director for Mamak Khadem’s Whispers of Spring, which premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and he made music videos for many prominent Tajik musicians.

He was the Director of Photography for the feature documentary After the Curtain, which premiered at Lincoln Center in February 2016. He is the founder of the theater group Bisarparastan, whose production, Journalist, written and directed by Sam, went on an 11-city tour of Tajikistan and then to the 2016 Rumi Festival in Norway.

Sam is also an accomplished dancer, musician, and actor. He brings this sensitivity to performance and to his camera style. Sam speaks Persian, Turkish, and English.

Part III: Healing Through Love & Acceptance

ONYI: THE PATH TO FINDING ME

Tamara Sims, Elissa Fong & Brigette Barrales | USA | 2019 | 6´

This is a Women’s Voices Now Production: Onyi: The Path to Finding Me is a production of Girls’ Voices Now, a Women’s Voices Now Summer Youth Program focused on empowering the next generation of women and femme-identifying activists, filmmakers, and feminists.

Synopsis

The media often portrays unrealistic standards that damage the self-esteem and confidence of those who do not meet “ideal” beauty standards. This film focuses on Onyi, who, despite the pressures of society, is unapologetically herself.

About the Filmmakers

Tamara Sims (14 years old) is a filmmaker and actor. She wrote scripts in 5th grade as part of the “Young Storytellers” program; her script was selected to be performed by professional actors including Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key, and she wrote a short film which debuted at the El Capitan theater, as part of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” film promotions.

She also participated in the “Movie Makers” program that took place at Sony Studios where she made a film about a female US President. Tamara aims to create documentaries that address environmental issues and social change.

Elissa Fong (16 years old) is a rising senior at South Pasadena High School where she dedicates her time to giving back to the community. She is part of TASSEL, where she teaches English to children in Cambodia through email and FaceTime. She is also involved with various community organizations, e.g. the city’s youth commission and WriteGirl, a program that inspires young women to write, and Bring Me Hope, where she attended a summer camp in China caring for disabled orphans. She strives to bring awareness about the medically underserved through her passion for writing and film, and plans to major in film at university and pursue a career in journalism.

Brigette Barrales (17 years old) is a Gen Z with a goal to use education to unlock the best in both the older and younger generations. She aims to use her experience in filmmaking to realize her ideas and meet like minded individuals.

YOUR BODY IS YOURS 

Yara Cruz (16), Jaqueline Mendez (15), Sydney Johnson (16), Alyn Mayoral (14) | USA | 2021 | 8´

Synopsis

How do we reclaim our bodies and grow to be comfortable in them? YOUR BODY IS YOURS delves into society’s current standards of beauty and explores the coexistence of body autonomy and positivity.

This film was created during the Girls' Voices Now program that empowers girls and femme-identifying youth from low-income and arts-underserved communities to find, develop and use their voices for positive social change through filmmaking.

BEFORE YOU WATCH THE FILM, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:

• What does body positivity mean to you?

• What does bodily autonomy mean to you?

• Are there any ways you practice body positivity?

• What does beauty mean to you?

AFTER WATCHING THE FILM, LET’S ASK OURSELVES:

• How can you incorporate body positivity and body autonomy into your life?

• What can you do to help people feel good about their bodies?

• Is there anything you can do to help yourself feel more comfortable in your own body?

REFRAMING

Iolanda Oliveira | Portugal | 2020 | 3´

Synopsis

A eulogy to the feminine, revealing and blossoming the Essence of Women in the form of love. The audience is softly moved towards its authenticity, affection, and spirit of collaboration through the sincere manifestations of distinct women. More than a short film, it is a creative process connecting Art to Consciousness, focusing on reframing the idea of the objectification of women built by the media.

About the Filmmaker

Iolanda Oliveira lives in Portugal and her professional practice is mainly based on the facilitation of Art & Consciousness workshops and artistic education in schools and communities in Portugal and Brazil.  She worked in the field of theater in Central European countries.

She is the founder of the Integral Festival – Holistic Health, whose focus is to bring together speakers with different visions so that the public expands its vision on the field of action in the area of Health.

She is affectionately a former student of The Artistic Secondary António Arroio, graduated in Fine Arts from ESAD. CR and Psychology Sciences by FP. UL.

*Every last Wednesday of each month, the Maus Hábitos screens thematic cinema cycles in which the common denominator is films directed by women.

The aim is to give visibility to the work of women in the film industry, through the projection of their works and, whenever possible, their presence in the sessions, promoting the encounter between the public and the authors.