2011: International Women’s Day Film Festival
Equals on film
Following the success of the Stand Up Screenings Series in 2010, Bond teamed up with BritDoc and Good Screenings to cele
brate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day (8th March). Bond sponsored the 'Equals on film' festival to enable organisations throughout the world to screen films relating to gender equality (MDG3) for free on and around International Women's Day.
Bond funding meant that global civil society organisations were able to have access to a range of films to screen on or around 8th March, in order to highlight International Women’s Day in their region. Bond support enabled 25 MDG3 related film screenings in 10 countries, including Nepal, Malawi, Serbia, Lebanon and Bolivia. Over 1500 people attended these screenings, including a number of MPs at a screening of Beadie Finzi’s The Hunger Season at the Houses of Parliament here in the UK.
The National Platform for Maltese NGOs organised a number of screenings during a week of activity around International Women’s, including Sisters in Law which follows the work of State Prosecutor and Court President as they help women fight often difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from family and their community to remain silent. SKOP felt that this film gave a message of hope that even though there is still a lot of abuse against women, change is starting to happen with strong minded women taking the lead. The narrative helped to reinforce the fact that abuse should never be accepted or tolerated, and that women need to be able to speak out about these problems.
Angie Farrugia, on behalf of the Maltese National Platform, said: “The film was also a powerful tool in helping the audience to understand some of the difficulties that female migrants in Malta may have experienced. This shows the power that documentary has in relating what seems like distant ‘development’ issues to their application in our own communities.” She added, “[we] believe that the bes
t thing that came out of these screenings is that the audience became more understanding of the situation of women migrants in Malta. [We] hope that this understanding will translate into concrete support for women migrants in Malta.”
On 10 March, the Global South Initiative (GSI) in Nepal screened the film Pushing the Elephant, to over 100 guests, bring local media attention to the International Women’s Day celebrations. Hansha Sanjyal from GSI noted that it is usually quite difficult to arrange events like this in Nepal and so was extremely grateful for the support from Bond and Good Screenings on this occasion. He is excited to host more events in the future around other significant campaign dates.
If you would like more information about how to host your own Good Screening event please get in touch with Sarah Mosses (Producer: Good Screenings) or check out Good Screenings to see a list of current available titles.
