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Dear Colleagues, I am passing on an announcement for a symposium on "Women's Filmmaking in the Mediterranean" in November at Wellesley College. Connected with this event, there will also be a film festival (please see the second half of the announcement). Best regards, Dorothy Zinn Università degli Studi della Basilicata (Italy) Wellesley College Hosts the International Symposium Visions of Struggle: Women's Filmmaking in the Mediterranean Organized by Flavia Laviosa Collins Cinema - Davis Museum November 2-3, 2007 This two-day symposium will illustrate the hybrid expressions of modernity as manifested in the ways of being a woman in struggle in the Mediterranean area, paying special attention to women's cinema as a form of counter-cinema and reinterpretation of women's shifting roles. Organized around socio-political themes, the symposium hosts speakers who will examine films and documentaries that denounce violence and abuse, expose hypocrisies and address the consequences of cultural conflicts and changes in women's lives in Mediterranean countries today. Friday, November 2 4:45-5:45pm Reception Davis Museum 5:45-6:00pm Welcome and Opening Remarks Flavia Laviosa, Italian Studies 6:00-6:15pm Introduction to the Keynote Speaker Frances Malino, Jewish Studies and History 6:15-7:30 Keynote Lecture Yosefa Loshitzky, University of East London, England "Veiling and Unveiling the Mediterranean: Women's Cinema between East and West" 7:30-7:45pm Introduction to the Director and Producer Flavia Laviosa, Italian Studies Buthina Khoury Canaan, Majd production Co. Taybeh, Ramallah, Palestine Presentation of Maria's Grotto, a documentary on the practice of honor killings 7:45-9:45pm Film Screening Maria's Grotto (2007, 80 min.) Discussion with director B. Khoury Canaan Saturday, November 3 8:00-9:00am Breakfast Davis Museum 9:00-10:30am Session I Italy, Spain, France Chair: Elena Gascon-Vera, Spanish "Roberta Torre and the Critique of Mafia Violence" Àine O'Healy, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA "Private Fictions as Public Histories: Intimacy, Trauma and Melodrama in Take my Eyes and The Secret Life of Words" Belen Vidal, University of St Andrews, Scotland "Mutilated Bodies in Contemporary Women's Filmmaking in France" Carrie Tarr, Kingston University, London, England 10:30-10:45am Break 10:45am-12:15pm Session II The Balkans Chair: Winifred Wood, Writing Program "The Peacekeepers and the Women" Marguerite Waller, University of California, Riverside, CA "Guarding the Borders: Lesbianism and Nationalism in Post-Socialist Balkan Cinema" Aniko Imre, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA "Truth Inside the Female Body: Violence, Rage, and Transnational Feminism" Katarzyna Marciniak, Ohio University, Athens, OH 12:15-2:00pm Lunch break 2:00-3:00pm Session III Turkey, Greece Chair: Salem Mekuria, Art "Politics of Visibility: Independent Women Filmmakers in Turkey" Asuman Suner, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey "The Poetics of Gender: Two Radical Greek Women Directors, Antouanetta Angelidi and Kleoni Flessa" Maria Komninos, University of Athens, Greece 3:00-4:30pm Session IV Francophone Africa, Middle East Chair: Frances Malino, Jewish Studies and History "The Wiles of Maghrebi Women's Cinema" Florence Martin, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD "Opening the Chamber of Secrets: A View from the Middle East" Lina Khatib, Royal Holloway, University of London, England "The Occupation of Film-Making: The Work of Women Directors in Palestine" Kay Dickinson, Goldsmiths College, University of London, England 4:30-5:00pm Break 5:00-6:00pm Roundtable Discussion Guests: Yosefa Loshitzky, Buthina Khoury Canaan, Florence Martin, Lina Khatib, Kay Dickinson, Asuman Suner, Carrie Tarr, Maria Komninos, Àine O'Healy, Belen Vidal, Marguerite Waller, Katarzyna Marciniak, Aniko Imre Faculty: Elena Gascon-Vera, Flavia Laviosa, Frances Malino, Salem Mekuria, Winifred Wood Open to the Public Sponsored by the Treves Memorial Fund, the Departments and Programs of History, Jewish Studies, Writing, Art, Italian Studies, Political Science, Newhouse Center, Middle Eastern Studies, German, French, Religion, Cinema and Media Studies, Media Arts and Sciences, Women's Studies, Peace and Justice, Theatre & Wellesley Summer Theatre Company, Africana Studies, Spanish, Sociology, and the Student Film Society. Wellesley College International Film Festival Visions of Struggle: Women's Filmmaking in the Mediterranean Organized by Flavia Laviosa Italian Studies October 28-November 1, 2007 Collins Cinema Sunday, October 28 Italy Angela 6:30-8:00pm Director: Roberta Torre Italy, 2003. 91 mins. Angela breaks with her family and the chance of an honest job to marry, at the age of twenty, Saro, a local delinquent several years her senior. Together they embark on a career of cocaine dealing, feeding the needs of "Palermo Bene," as the city's affluent, "respectable" professional classes are known. Saro is a pawn, not a "made" Mafioso. Using a shoe store as a cover, Angela and Saro launder money and embark on their idea of the good life. This lifestyle seems crazy enough, but Angela's real trouble begins when she meets Masino, who becomes her husband's right hand man, and Angela's lover. Strict codes of honor dominate their world, and an affair between them would be a dance with death. Based on a true story. Leading actress Angela Finocchiaro won an award for Best Actress at the 2002 Tokyo Film Festival. Italian w/English subtitles Spain The Secret Life of Words 8:00-10:00pm Director: Isabel Coixet Spain, 2005. 115 mins. Set in an isolated spot in the middle of the sea, an oil rig, where all the workers are men, and on which there has been an accident, this film is about Hanna, a former nurse who is trying to forget her past. She is brought to the rig to look after Josef, a burn victim who has been temporarily blinded. As Hanna tends to Josef's wounds, it soon becomes clear he is desperate to divulge secrets. Meanwhile, Hanna remains protectively silent, listening but revealing little. A sense of mutual recognition and empathy unfolds and an unusual intimacy develops between them, a link full of secrets, truths, lies, and pain, from which neither of them will emerge unscathed and which will change their lives forever. Winner of numerous prices and of the Lina Mangiacapre Award at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. English Monday, October 29 Greece Let's go for an ouzo 6:30-7:50pm Director Kleoni Flessa Greece, 2002. 85 mins. Sofia and Eleni and Petros and Alexandros and Despina and Daphne are familiar, people-next-door types with their obsessions, weaknesses, hang-ups, and their daily rounds in search of communication. Sofia, fragile and with no defenses, searches for the scent of life. Eleni tries to combine career and child, making mistakes for which she blames her mother Despina. Alexandros, a full-fledged adolescent strives to be loved. Petros goes after lost relationships. This is a film about characters and the absences of characters, relationships that are articulated and disarticulated through tender glances and open wounds, with an invitation open to all as an antidote. One that they have extended dozens of times while they wait and hope... let's go for an ouzo. Greek w/English subtitles France In My Skin 8:00-9:30pm Director: Marina De Van France, 2002. 93 mins. This is a haunting and riveting exploration of the human body as a boundary --and a battleground -- between the individual and the often unreachable world outside. After suffering deep gashes to her leg from an accidental fall, Esther, a young research analyst, becomes preoccupied with her body and skin, especially her wounds. At first she merely caresses her arms, pinches her excess skin, or traces the cuts on her legs, but it isn't long before she is carving wounds directly and aggressively into her own body. Her boyfriend becomes understandably concerned and angry, but his inability to understand forces Esther into reclusion to explore her newfound practice. With increased urgency, she turns an unapologetic knife or razor upon her own skin. French w/English subtitles Tuesday, October 30 Slovenia Guardian of the Frontier 6:30-8:10pm Director: Maja Weiss Slovenia, 2002. 100 mins. This is the first feature released from Slovenia to be directed by a woman. In it, Weiss explores the political and psychological boundaries encountered by three young women on a summer canoe trip down the beautiful Kolpa River. The Kolpa not only marks the boundary between Slovenia and Croatia, it also provides a fertile domain for an encounter amidst the known and the unknown. College students Alja, Zana and Simona embark during their summer holiday on an adventure that awakens more than just a passion for nature. During their boat trip, they realize they are being watched and followed by a political extremist group called the guardians of the frontier. Layers of social, political and historical differences boil to the surface. Their adventure suddenly takes a violent twist, leaving their lives altered forever. Winner of several awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Slovenian w/English subtitles Bosnia-Herzegovina The Peacekeepers and the Women 8:20-9:30pm Director: Karin Jurschick Germany, 2003. 81 mins. This chilling investigation examines the booming sex-trafficking industry in Bosnia and Kosovo, and boldly explores the disturbing role of the UN peacekeeping forces and the local military in perpetuating this tragic situation. In 1995, the UN set up a free trade zone in Bosnia, hoping to bring peace to the troubled region. Instead it lured the thriving business of human trade, where women from villages in Moldova, the Ukraine and Romania are sold by the hundreds into prostitution. In a shocking indictment, the film reveals that affluent peacekeeping forces have been some of the burgeoning industry's most solvent customers, allowing the sex trade to get a foothold in the region and paving the way to its expansion. Winner of the Arte-Documentary Award for Best German Documentary. w/English subtitles Wednesday, October 31 Lebanon The Kite 6:30-7:50pm Director: Randa Chahal Sabag Lebanon, 2003. 80 mins. Set in an Arab village separated by the Israeli-Lebanese border, the film provides a backdrop for a girl's dreams of freedom and love. Lamia, a rebellious 15-year-old, lives on the Lebanese side and comes to the attention of Youssef, a young Israeli border guard, when her kite gets entangled in a barbed wire fence in no-mans-land. On her wedding day, 16-year-old Lamia, is to "cross over" the rows of barbed wire separating her village from that of her cousin's. Between the two villages lies a border and several watchtowers. Lamia's village is in Lebanon; her cousin Samy's village has been annexed by Israel. A passage is opened under control of both sides in order for newlyweds and coffins to return to their village of origin. Winner of the Silver Lion Price at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. Arabic w/English subtitles Croatia Calling the Ghosts 8:00-9:00pm Directors: Mandy Jacobson and Karmen Jelincic Croatia 1996. 63 mins. This powerful documentary is the first-person account of two women caught in a war where rape was as much an everyday weapon as bullets or bombs. Jadranka Cigelj and Nusreta Sivac, childhood friends and lawyers, enjoyed the lives of "ordinary modern women" in Bosnia-Herzegovina until one day former neighbors became tormentors. Taken to the notorious Serb concentration camp of Omarska, the two women, like other Muslim and Croat women interned there, were systematically tortured and humiliated by their Serb Captors. Once released, the pair turned personal struggles for survival into a larger fight for justice-aiding other women for similarly brutalized and successfully lobbying to have rape included in the international lexicon of war crimes by the UN Tribal at the Hague. Winner of two Emmy Awards. Serbo-Croatian w/English subtitles Palestine Frontiers of Dreams and Fears 9:10-10:00pm Director: Mai Masri Palestine, 2001. 56 mins. This documentary traces the delicate friendship that evolves between two Palestinian girls: Mona, a resident of the economically marginalized Beirut refugee camp and Manar, an occupant of Bethlehem's Al-Dheisha camp under Israeli control. The two girls begin and continue their relationship through letters until they are finally given the opportunity to meet at the border during the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon. When the intifada suddenly erupts around them, both girls face heart-breaking changes in their lives. Winner of numerous awards at the International Women's Film Festival in Torino, Italy, the Ismailia, Tokyo, and Beirut International Film Festivals, and named Best Documentary by the Egyptian Documentary and Film Critics Association. Arabic w/English subtitles Thursday, November 1 Algeria Rachida 6:30-8:10pm Director: Yamina Bachir-Chouik Algeria, 2004. 100 mins. Rachida lives and teaches in an old neighborhood in Algeria. Like most Algerians, she thinks she is far removed from the bloody conflict the country is in, until one day she is attacked by a terrorist group. The terrorists ask her to plant a bomb in her school. When she recognizes one of the terrorists and refuses, she is shot and left for dead in the street. Miraculously, she lives and seeks refuge with her mother in a neighboring village. But terrorism is unavoidable there too. Winner of numerous awards at the Amiens, London, Marrakesh, Mexico City and Namur International Film Festivals. Arabic and French w/English Subtitles Israel My Terrorist 8:20-9:20pm Director: Yulie Cohen-Gerstel Israel, 2002. 58 mins. In 1978, filmmaker Yulie Cohen Gerstel was wounded in a terrorist attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In a remarkable twist of faith, twenty-three years later, Gerstel began questioning the causes of violence between Israelis and Palestinians and started to consider helping release from the Dartmoor Prison Fahad Mihyi, the man who almost killed her. After working as an Israeli coordinator on a film shoot and visiting the occupied territories, Gerstel came to realize that both Israelis and Palestinians played a role in perpetuating the cycle of hostility and bloodshed. It was her goal to stand up as a survivor and call for reconciliation on each side. This documentary received a special jury prize in The Jerusalem Film Festival, was nominated for the Silver Wolf Award at IDFA, and has been selected to over 80 film festivals around the world. English and Hebrew w/English subtitles
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