The seminars will take place on Zoom. Please register to receive the link (at the latest one day ahead of each event): https://forms.gle/1eydbzDdYQ7vaJWx5
This seminar series places in conversation researchers and professionals of the film and screen industry on the topic of affirmative initiatives in film production, representation and distribution, that is, acts or images that go beyond a lamentation of the status quo and produce feminist alternatives and possible futures.
The search for an affirmative feminism arises from the observation that feminist narratives are often created through negation and opposition. In contrast to narratives that lament women’s lack of power compared to men, affirmative arts produce models of gender and power that are fluid and in constant transformation rather than embedded in dichotomies. Following philosopher Rosi Braidotti’s work on ‘affirmative ethics’, affirmative arts use the limitations to our ‘freedom’ as a foundation for creating alternative futures, proposing solutions for enhancing our political, social, spatial freedom. Instead of presenting characters that are alienated by the binary systems of gender, race, sexuality, ability or class, affirmative films present narratives and aesthetic forms that manifest as what Braidotti would call ‘micropolitical instances of activism’. This theory is at the core of a feminist initiative to promote a fair, inclusive and diverse future. Taking an affirmative approach in one’s work is thus being critical of the present without being annihilated by it.
This series of events emerges from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie research project ‘Affirmative Post-Cinema: Narrative and Aesthetic Responses to Gender and Power’. This is also the subject of the recently published monograph by Maud Ceuterick, organiser of the seminar series, Affirmative Aesthetics and Wilful Women: Gender, Space and Mobility in Contemporary Cinema (Open access and available here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030370381).
The seminar series will take place digitally on 3 consecutive Fridays in March, with the participation of the following panelists:
12th of March 10-12am CET: Production/networks/policies
Amanda Coles, Arts and Cultural Management / Employment Relations, Deakin University
Helene Granqvist, Producer and President of Women in Film and Television International
Marcela Stolzmann, Producer at AdoAto Pictures, Amsterdam
19th of March 11-1pm CET: Aesthetics/representation
Anna Backman Rogers, Professor of Culture, Aesthetics and Feminist Theory at the University of Gothenburg
Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, City University London
Illya Szilak, Artist, Writer and VR Filmmaker of Queerskins
26th of March 10-12am CET: Curation/distribution
Miriam De Rosa, Senior Lecturer and Curator in cinema and contemporary visual arts, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Nadia Dresti, International Advisor, Locarno Film Festival
Mathilde Henrot, Programmer at the Locarno Film Festival, and co-founder of Festival Scope and Festival Scope Pro
Skadi Loist, Professor of Production Cultures in Audiovisual Media Industries, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
The seminars will take place on Zoom. Please register to receive the link (at the latest one day ahead of each event): https://forms.gle/1eydbzDdYQ7vaJWx5
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