London 16/17/18/19 Feminist august Film 2018 Festival
OPENING GALA: FATMA75 + Q&A
Fatma75 Selma Baccar Tunisia,1975
Africa's Lost Classics is a project by the consortium of the five African Film Festivals in the UK, TANO (‘five’ in Swahili) who collectively revisit the history of African cinema. We are proud to screen FATMA75, newly restored and digitised thanks to ALC's effort to readdress the white male, eurocentric canon by bringing the work of African feminist filmmakers to UK cinema screens.
THURSDAY 16.8.18 6.40 pm Genesis Cinema
Screening will be followed by drinks at the bar + feminist Zine Fair
THE GENDER OF POWER Women Against Patriarchal Structures + Q&A
Winnie Pascale Lamche
France/Netherlands/ South Africa/Finland, 2017
What mechanisms are set in motion when women exert real power, power to change lives and countries? In recent years cases like Dilma Roussef, Julia Gillard or Hillary Clinton prove a pattern of patriarchal backlash against the very idea of a woman being in charge. In this session we explore this through the case of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela .
THURSDAY 16.8.18 6.40 pm Rio Cinema
CARRY GREENHAM HOME
Carry Greenham Home Beeban Kidron & Amanda Richardson UK,1983
One hundred years after the first women got the vote in the UK, 50 years after the protests of May ’68 triggered resistance across the world, where is the feminist revolution now? ICO x Club des Femmes curate a season of films and happenings focused on women filmmakers post ’68, who took up cameras as they took to the streets: to instigate further revolutions in ways of seeing, being, living and loving.
THURSDAY 16.8.18 7.00 pm Rio Cinema
MAEVE
Maeve Pat Murphy & John Davies Ireland, 1981
Revolt, She Said: Women and Film After ‘68 is curated by the incredible queer feminist film collective Club des Femmes. In the age of the sound-bite, Club des Femmes is a much-needed open platform for more radical contextualisation and forward-looking future vision: a chance to look beyond the mainstream.
FRIDAY 17.8.18 6.40 pm Rio Cinema
With the support of the Independent Cinema Office and BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery.
HANDMAKING HERSTORY: Feminist Uses of Craft + Q&A
BOOTWMN Director USA, 2015
The LFFF presents a screening showcasing the practical crafts of women from varying walks of life, who explore through their handiwork issues of Race, Sexuality and Age. Through their crafts the protagonists devise new methods of making themselves visible, and question what counts as feminist practice.
FRIDAY 17.8.18 7.00 pm Rio Cinema
LESBIAN IDENTITIES: Becoming/Situating Ourselves
+ Q&A
Dyke Jails Cecilia Montagut Spain, 2018
The films in this session show lesbianism as something plural, complicated, and deeply political. Gender Troubles: The Butches portrays butchness, often underrepresented even within LGBT spaces. Dyke Jails explores the relationships, attractions, and camaraderie among incarcerated women.
FRIDAY 17.8.18 6.50 pm Genesis Cinema
THURSDAY 16.8.18
FRIDAY 17.8.18
6.40 pm
6.40 pm
THE GENDER OF POWER: Women Against Patriarchal Structures
REVOLT, SHE SAID: Women and Film After ‘68
Women & Power 2ʼ Meg Earles (2017) Winnie 100ʼ Pascale Lamche (2017) + Q&A w/ Director
MAEVE 110ʼ Pat Murphy (1981) + Q&A w/ Director RIO CINEMA
RIO CINEMA
7.00 pm
7.00 pm
REVOLT, SHE SAID: Women and Film After ‘68
HANDMAKING HERSTORY: Feminist Uses of Craft
Carry Greenham Home 70ʼ Beeban Kidron & Amanda Richardson (1983) A Question of Choice 18ʼ Sheffield Film Co-Op (1982)
BOOTWMN 11ʼ Paige Gratland & Sam McWilliams (2015) Older Women Rock! 25ʻʼ Clare Unsworth (2018) Like Dolls, I’ll Rise 29ʼ Nora Philippe (2018) RIO CINEMA +Q&A
RIO CINEMA
6.50 pm
6.50 pm
OPENING GALA:
LESBIAN IDENTITIES: Becoming/Situating Ourselves
Fatma75 60ʼ Selma Baccar (1975) + Q&A w/ Stefanie Van de Peer & Dr. Dora Carpenter-Latiri Bar + ZineFair after screening
GENESIS CINEMA
Dyke Jails 65ʼ Cecilia Montagut (2018) Gender Troubles: The Butches 54ʼ Lisa Plourde (2016) + Q&A GENESIS CINEMA
SATURDAY 18.8.18
1.30 pm
1.30 pm DARING TO DISRUPT The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen 25ʼ Jennifer Abod (2017) Heather Booth: Changing the World 60ʼ Lilly Rivlin (2017) + Q&A RIO CINEMA
4.00 pm
KEEPERS OF CULTURE: African Heritage and Feminist Documentary Practices Tia Ciata 26ʼ Mariana Campos & Raquel Beatriz (2017) The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman 75ʼ Rosine Mbakam (2016) + Q&A RIO CINEMA
4.00 pm
NOW, HERE SHE STANDS: Perspectives on survival Breaking the Silence 30ʼ Julia Lima (2018) Restauraçao 14ʼ Natalia Keiko (2015)
SUNDAY 19.8.18
STAYING TOGETHER: Women Against Systemic Violence
I Tried 15ʼ Lais Melo (2017) Nazanin 15ʼ P.Vatankhah (2018)
+ Q&A
RIO CINEMA
RIO CINEMA
7.00 pm
5.30 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: Feminist Filmmaking Practices. What does a feminist film set look like?
FEMINIST CLASSIC: Sama 90ʼ Néjia Ben Mabrouk (1988) + Q&A
What Doesn’t Kill Me 82ʼ Rachel Meyrick (2017) Bitter Sea 15ʼ Fateme Ahmadi (2017) + Q&A w/ directors
BFI SOUTHBANK
6.40 pm FAILING FEMININITY AND MYTHICAL MOTHERHOOD: Contemporary Essay Film Bodies #1: Saint Agatha 12ʼ Mirari Echávarri (2017) Mater Amatísima 55ʼ María Ruido (2017) + Q&A w/Directors RIO CINEMA
8.50 pm GENESISTERS L7: Pretend We’re Dead 90ʼ Sarah Price (2016) + Live Music GENESIS CINEMA
With Veronica McKenzie, Mounira Almenoar, Nainita Desai & more speakers TBA. RIO CINEMA
6.50 pm CONSTELLATIONS OF ACTIVISM We Are Not Alone 15ʼ María Aizpuru (2016) Bloody Activist 13ʼ Rebecca Brand (2017) Organizing the Impossible 14ʼ C.Gomila & T.Matamalas (2017) Fat Hiking Club 14ʼ Layla Cameron (2018) Body Manifesto 28ʼ Carol Araujo (2016) + Q&A GENESIS CINEMA
DARING TO DISRUPT + Q&A
The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen Jennifer Abod USA, 2018
Feminist activism explored and celebrated through two documentaries on the lives of Angela Bowen and Heather Booth, respectively. In this turbulent political and social climate, their inspiring stories are a call to dare to disrupt the status quo.
SATURDAY 18.8.18 1.30 pm Rio Cinema
NOW, HERE SHE STANDS Perspectives on Survival
+Q&A
BREAKING THE SILENCE Julia Lima Brazil, 2018
Filmmakers look at what surviving and resisting look like, in two fiction and two documentary shorts that portray the claustrophobic nature of domestic abuse, but also the courage of survivors, the healing process through art and community and the indispensable support of friends and estate workers.
SATURDAY 18.8.18 4.00 pm Rio Cinema
FEMINIST CLASSIC: SAMA
+ Q&A with Director Néjia Ben Mabrouk
SAMA Néjia Ben Mabrouk Tunisia, 1988
The London Feminist Film Festival’s mission is to support women and non-binary filmmakers in the male-dominated film industry, to get women’s stories out there, and to inspire feminist discussion and activism. Every edition, one of our highlights is the Feminist Classic screening. Often in the film industry, the label “classic” conjures up a certain kind of film: Western, high-budget and male-directed. We believe that a crucial part of feminist work is the questioning of cultural and historical categories that erase or obscure women’s contributions. It is important for us to reclaim this label "classic" for films directed by women. We are extremely proud to screen Sama, by pioneer Tunisian feminist filmmaker Néjia Ben Mabrouk , as our Feminist Classic for 2018, on the 30th anniversary of its release.
SATURDAY 18.8.18 5.30 pm BFI Southbank
SAMA (LA TRACE) Néjia Ben Mabrouk, Tunisia, 1988, 90’ Sabra refuses to be reduced to a traditional domestic role. She seeks an education, while facing intense pressure and scrutiny from the male-dominated mid-1980s Tunisian society. Director Néjia Ben Mabrouk’s explores in this film –based on her own experiences – the world of female relationships, their rituals, intimacies and superstitions.
FAILING FEMININITY AND MYTHICAL MOTHERHOOD:
Contemporary Essay Film
+ Q&A with Directors María Ruido & Mirari Echávarri
Mater Amatisima Maria Ruido Spain, 2017
The essay form allows filmmakers Ruido and Echevarria to display strategies of appropriation, re-enactment, deconstruction and re-telling to explore abject motherhood and femininity in two mythical figures: Medea and Saint-Agatha.
SATURDAY 18.8.18 6.40 pm Rio Cinema
KEEPERS OF CULTURE:
African Heritage and Feminist Documentary Practices + Q&A
The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman Rosine Mbakam Cameroon, 2018
A session exploring documentary filmmaking as a feminist practice to interrogate and reflect upon notions of cultural identity and women’s role –especially in the domestic sphere– in preserving and passing on African heritage and tradition.
SUNDAY 19.8.18 SATURDAY 18.8.18 1.30 pm Rio Cinema
STAYING TOGETHER: Women Resisting Systemic Violence + Q&A
What Doesn’t Kill Me Rachel Meyrick USA, 2018
Women often find themselves having to navigate a patriarchal system that is not built for them or that indeed is built against them. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the judicial system when it comes to issues of custody.
SUNDAY 19.8.18 4.00 pm Rio Cinema For mothers who escape domestic violence, the story does not end there. In the US, abusive fathers are seeking custody of their children in increasing numbers. And frighteningly – they are winning. Rachel Meyrick’s directorial debut explores a terrifying trend in family courts all over America that mirrors the situation in UK: abusers gaining custody by manipulating a system that enables them to continue the abuse, puts children in extreme danger and fails their protective mothers. In this bold and provocative film, mothers, lawyers, and domestic violence experts share intimate personal stories, hard-hitting facts and frank discussions about what is wrong with the system and how to fix it. The characters in this documentary, from an 86 year-old survivor to teenage activists, are already fighting back.
CONSTELLATIONS OF ACTIVISM + Q&A
We Are Not Alone Maria Aizpuru El Salvador, 2016
A screening of shorts where women mobilize for change: reclaiming their rights, fighting stigma, oposing abuse. What does the fight for Human Rights look like accross the Globe? From Spain to Brazil, from Honduras to Canada women from all ages and backgrounds unite to bring about social justice.
SUNDAY 19.8.18 6.50 pm Genesis Cinema
GENESISTERS: L7: Pretend We’re Dead
SATURDAY 18.8.18 8.50 pm Genesis Cinema
L7: PRETEND WE’RE DEAD Sarah Price, USA, 2016, 90’ The rise and fall of seminal grunge punk band L7, who were pigeonholed as an all-female band, including exclusive home movies, rare performance footage and interviews with Joan Jett, Shirley Manson and more.
FEMINIST FILMMAKING PRACTICES What does a feminist film set look like? SUNDAY 19.8.18
PANEL DISCUSSION
7.00 pm Rio Cinema
How can we make the film set a feminist space? What feminist filmmaking practices can we implement, what procedures or guidelines? Feminist filmmakers and professionals share their strategies after years of experience in a male-dominated industry. With Veronica McKenzie (producer, writer, director), Mounira Almenoar (Raising films), Nainita Desai (composer, BAFTA breakthrough brit). Additional speakers TBA.
once more, with feminism.
VENUES RIO CINEMA (DALSTON) 107 Kingsland High St London E8 2PB
GENESIS CINEMA 93-95 Mile End Rd London E1 4UJ
BFI SOUTHBANK Belvedere Rd, Lambeth London SE1 8XT
Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Send us an email at marta@londonfeministfilmfestival.com
A NOTE FROM LFFF Welcome to the 6th edition of the London Feminist Film Festival! At LFFF we believe in the potential of filmmaking as feminist activism and as an agent of social change. We bring to you a selection of films from around the world that address pressing and underdiscussed feminist issues. In our 2018 programme, filmmakers expose the threats faced by human rights defenders in Latin America, and salute the efforts of a grassroots campaign to end period poverty in the UK. They are fat activists who hike without shame in Canada and researchers exploring romance between incarcerated women in Spain. Our audience will have a chance to cheer Afro-Brazilian feminists taking to the streets and listen to three generations of Bamiléké women discussing the complexities of culture clashes and tradition. We’ll discuss the many faces of motherhood: a fetishized instrument of social control, a connecting link to identity and heritage, or a territory vulnerable to male violence. Once more, we bring you a Feminist Classic, and present to you, for the first time at LFFF, a Zine Fair and a Riot Grrrl night. We hope you enjoy LFFF as much as we enjoyed making it happen.
@LdnFemFilmFest
www.londonfeministfilmfestival.com