“In these politically and socially turbulent times we felt a real need to address the rising levels of misogyny, racism, and xenophobia,” write the organizers of the fifth London Feminist Film Festival on the fest website. “Not just by looking at what is happening here and now, but also by delving into the past.” These aren’t empty words; the recently released lineup for the London Feminist Film Fest promises to spotlight women filmmakers from all over the world and provide a platform for classic feminist cinema.
This year’s fest will see a bevy of films from Indian filmmakers, so a special program called “Indian Women Claiming Spaces” has been arranged. Featuring movies like Manuela Bastian’s “Where to, Miss?” which follows a young woman over three years as she establishes herself as a taxi driver in Delhi, the lineup will present “the many differences existing in this vast country and how this affects society’s expectations of women.”
Another lineup, “VAGW: Resistance & Survival,” will celebrate international resistance efforts against gendered violence. Abeer Zeibak Haddad’s “Women of Freedom,” an exploration of the “honor killings” women have been subjected to in Israel and Palestine, will screen as will Katja Berls’ “Outside Peace, Inside War,” which sees two WWII survivors (and sisters) discuss the sexual and physical violence they encountered from soldiers during the war. Dorett Jones’ short “Nothing About Us Without Us,” centered on a UK black women’s organization protesting government cuts to VAGW [Violence Against Girls and Women] services, will play as well.
The festival will also take time to honor classic examples of feminist cinema. In addition to the “Feminism and the Archive” lineup — which will feature Selina Robertson’s address about her work at the Rio Cinema’s feminist film curation archive —Marva Nabili’s 1977 film “The Sealed Soil” will be shown in a special screening. “The Sealed Soil,” shot in secret and smuggled out of Iran, follows an 18-year-old girl as she comes of age in a small town in southern Iran.
The London Feminist Film Fest will run August 17–20. Go to the fest’s website to check out the full 2017 lineup. You can purchase festival tickets via Rio Cinema and tickets for “The Sealed Soil” screening at BFI Southbank.
