HERDOCS FORUM
EWA Network had the pleasure to participate in the third HERDOCS Forum, a platform dedicated to supporting women active in the world of documentary filmmaking, open to documentary professionals from a range of backgrounds.
The Forum offered a diverse and free programme combining workshops, discussion panels bringing together international experts, and allowing for discussions, networking opportunities, and project presentations.
The programme opened with an interview with Norwegian directors Vibeke Løkkeberg and Mina Nybakke, authors of Road to Director’s Chair which premiered this year in the Berlinale World Forum.
Løkkeber's footage had been lost for 50 years. In 1973, Vibeke filmed the beginnings of the feminist film movement, the “First International Women’s Film Seminar” organised by filmmakers Claudia von Alemann and Helke Sander which can be regarded as one of the very first feminist film festivals. Her footage was found in the NFI archives and she laid eyes on it for the first time in a different century however some unresolved battles from that era are alive today.
The interview was moderated by Katarzyna Trzaska, from the Polish Female Filmmakers Association.
This was followed by an international panel, bringing together representatives from various Creative Support networks. EWA Network was represented by Alexia Muiños Ruiz.
In a lively discussion led by Maria Krauss, representatives of organisations working at the intersection of film, education and distribution explained how they have strengthened the voices of women and minorities in culture over the years.
Tereza Šimíková, from Chicken and Egg, explained the strategy for participants of both the (Egg)celerator Lab and the Chicken & Egg Award programmes. She helps them find internationally comprehensible and compelling language for their stories, and facilitates a network of partnerships on both sides of the Atlantic
Ira Tantsiura, from FILMA, Ukraine, a festival created by a feminist collective as a collaborative platform for films that meet the principles of intersectional feminism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, inclusion, and a culture of consent. Tantsiura explained the organisational difficulties in times of war, as well as the enthusiasm for bringing feminist themes and methods of creating feminist cinema to the fore, and for developing mutual support among like-minded people, regardless of form.
Alexa Cardas from F-Sides, a young cineclub and feminist film festival founded in 2020. The festival's mission is to combat gender inequality in cinema by exclusively screening films by female filmmakers, making it the first film society of its kind in Romania. The main event consists of biannual film screenings, and recently have expanded to roundtable discussions on gender and cinema issues, art exhibitions, social research and impactful film literacy activities to sucecssfully reach out younger generations.
Katarzyna Trzaska spoke on behalf of the Polish Female Filmmakers Association, much celebrated by the audience.
Alexia Muiños Ruiz outlined the EWA Network training programmes and the Network’s groundbreaking research on female directors, as well as the mentoring programme for emerging female producers and the European Commision-funded project which mapped how the the gender pay gap could be tackled.
Charlotte Ducos, explained her double hat as a representative of the Promotion agency Swiss Films and from Loreley Films, an association aimed to rediscover artists belonging to underrepresented groups whose work has been forgotten over the years. Its mission is to bring back films, whose value was not noticed or fell into oblivion, in order to give the opportunity to both culture professionals and the general public to (re)discover them with the eyes of the present.
The session continued with a conversatory, moderated by Marta Golba-Naumann (HERDOCS Foundation) about motherhood and artistic work, and how to combine work and family. They shared experiences, challenges, and strategies for preventing being burnout in the everyday life of mothers–creators. The workshop was supported by the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, which prepared a report on motherhood in creative work.
Aleksandra Wiechowska – Warsaw Culture Observatory
Agnieszka Strzeżek – illustrator and painter, one of the initiators of the “Mother Creators” collective
Jaśmina Wójcik – visual artist, director and author of listening-focused, participatory socio-artistic actions
Tereza Simikova – director, producer, consultant
Moderation: Marta Golba-Naumann – HER Docs Foundation
After lunch, the participants attended an interactive workshop about microaggressions in creative environments and the workplace, in which the facilitator Dr Sandra Frydrysiak gave a lecture, provided a case study and encouraged the participants to engage in group discussions to help them recognize this type of aggressions.