Festival dei Popoli renews its appointment with Feminist Frames as part of the ‘Women Trailblazers in Documentary Cinema’ project in collaboration with Calliope Arts.

Feminist Frames is an international network of independent feminist filmmakers in creative dialogue with various artistic disciplines with the aim of creating a network of mutual support, co-creation and resource sharing, as well as being a space for feminist reflection on film work. During its meetings, the group has experimented with methods of shared creation and support in diversity with the aim of answering questions such as: what does it mean to be a feminist filmmaker and member of a transnational community? How can we build our own archive of feminist practices?

As in the previous edition of the Festival dei Popoli, for the 66th edition, Feminist Frames will present a section of documentary films made by female filmmakers on feminist and militant themes. Among the films that make up the section in the programme are Vibeke Løkkeberg's epoch-making The Long Road to the Director's Chair, with previously unseen footage from the “First International Seminar on Women's Cinema” convened in Berlin by directors Claudia von Alemann and Helke Sander in 1973, and the world premiere of No Mercy, by Isa Willinger, a choral reflection resulting from a multi-voiced intergenerational dialogue on the “female gaze”, with the participation of Ana Lily Amirpour, Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Valie Export, Nina Menkes, Céline Sciamma, Joey Soloway, Monika Treut and Apolline Traoré, among many others.

Feminist Frames includes: Güliz Sağlam, Soheila Javaheri, Elli Vassalou (The Post Collective), Mirra Markhaeva (The Post Collective), Lisa Çalan, Giulia Cosentino, Mariangela Ciccarello, Tuğba Yaşar, Claudia Tosi, Oliwia Tado, Rosa Barotsi, Margherita Monti, Valeria Weerasinghe, Chiara Caterina, Nagehan Uskan, Ahu Öztürk, Elif Yiğit, Ro Caminal, Geli Mademli, Ruken Ergüneş Özdemir, and Sophia Farantatou.

Part of the group had already come together previously during the three-year Purple Meridians project (2020-2023), funded by Eurimages.

Feminist Frames is supported by the IMFilm research project: Filmmaking Cultures Beyond the Industry (funded by the European Union — NextGenerationEU), at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.