International Women's Day Film Festival

national | arts and media | press release Tuesday March 03, 2009 21:23 by Progressive Film Club - Progressive Film Club

International Women's Day Film Festival

Sunday 8th of March 2009

To mark International Women's Day the Progressive Film Club will be screening a number of films made by and about women, beginning at 11a.m. and continuing all day.

** Admission for all screenings today is free

11 a.m.
Olga Benario: A Life for the Revolution (2004)

Written and directed by Galip Iyitanir. A dramatised documentary about the life of Olga Benario Prestes, a young German anti-fascist. After being arrested in Berlin for preparations for high treason she fled to Moscow, where she trained as an underground agent. She then travelled to Brazil, where she helped to organise what was hoped to be an uprising against the Brazilian fascist government. In German, with English sub-titles.
Running time: 145 minutes.

2 p.m.
Women with Balls (2005)

A community-made film. Fatima Mansions were traditionally portrayed as a community stigmatised by drug abuse and crime. The women of Rialto History Group wanted to tell their own stories, showing a different past and at the same time giving an honest appraisal of their lives. They wanted to explore their own culture, especially the humorous rivalry between the two communities of Dolphin's Barn and Fatima Mansions. Making this film was an opportunity to explore how a community can recover from exclusion by telling its own story in a creative way.
Running time: 30 minutes.

Also
Making History in Fatima (2006)

Directed by Paula Geraghty. Making History in Fatima is a compelling documentary that explores some of the motivations behind the making of the film Women with Balls. It charts the women's experience in their own words and in an engaging and sensitive manner.
Running time: 30 minutes.

Also
Mosquito Bites (2005)

Written and directed by Treasa O Brien. Consumer culture, corporate policing and the privatisation of public space are explored in this short film about the mosquito, a device that emits an extremely irritating sound at a frequency that most older people cannot hear. Two of these devices have been installed by the owners of Paul Street Shopping Center in Cork to deter teenagers from gathering in Rory Gallagher Square.
Running time: 15 minutes.

3:45 p.m.
Malkia wa Soka Zanzibar [Zanzibar Soccer Queens] (2007)

Directed by Florence Ayisi (who also made Sisters in Law, presented by the Progressive Film Club last year). The story of a group of strong-willed young women who are determined to better their lives and to define new identities through playing football. Despite opposition and limited facilities, they succeed in playing the game they love. The film presents personal stories of aspirations, shattered dreams, self-determination, friendship and confidence gained from playing football. In Swahili, with English subtitles.
Running time: 90 minutes.

5:30 p.m.
The Future of Feminism (2007)

Directed by Cara Holmes. The Future of Feminism is an introduction to the concepts of feminism, how people perceive feminism today, and why it is essential that feminism continue to exist in our consumerist societies. The film was shot in Dublin, Belfast, Copenhagen, and Berlin. The director says that the intention was to keep the film short and to simply portray feminism in a positive light.
Running time: 35 minutes.

Also
Hablemos del Poder [Talking of Power] (2005)

Sex, race and class in revolutionary Venezuela. From the hills of Caracas to the banks of the Orinoco, grass-roots women's groups tell how they are changing our world. In Spanish, with English subtitles.
Running time: 65 minutes.

7 p.m.
Schwarzer Kanal (2007)

Directed by Cara Holmes. The Schwarzer Kanal is a space on the bank of the River Spree in Berlin where people traditionally pull up in caravans and live there for however long they want and in the way that they want. However, the site is under constant threat from a gentrification process that threatens to clean up such sites in order to build apartment blocks and offices?nowadays mostly empty!
Running time: 15 minutes.

Malkia wa Soka Zanzibar [Zanzibar Soccer Queens] (2007)

A second chance to see this inspiring film, shown earlier today.

Directed by Florence Ayisi (who also made Sisters in Law, presented by the Progressive Film Club last year). The story of a group of strong-willed young women who are determined to better their lives and to define new identities through playing football. Despite opposition and limited facilities, they succeed in playing the game they love. The film presents personal stories of aspirations, shattered dreams, self-determination, friendship and confidence gained from playing football. In Swahili, with English subtitles.
Running time: 90 minutes.

The Progressive Film Club (in conjunction with Access Cinema and Dublin City Council) is a voluntary organization dedicated to showing progressive films from all over the world. Struggles for people's rights, for the rights of workers, of immigrants, of women, for national liberation and for social justice are some of the themes of the outstanding films we have short-listed, most of them never shown before in Ireland.

Showings are on Sunday evenings at the New Theatre in East Essex Street. (Entrance through Connolly Books.) Book through Connolly Books in person or at (01) 6708707) or come early and pay at the theatre.

Please visit our website http://www.progressivefilmclub.ie/ to download a copy of our programme of films

For further information contact [email protected]