Narratives of and by women

DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL

This is not a festival on ‘women’s issues.’ It’s a festival about the power of women - their creativity, their perseverance and the solidarity of women’s groups which help improve the lives of thousands everyday. It celebrates the most fabulous women we have seen as well as simply being a ‘woman.’

For Public Service Broadcasting Trust’s (PSBT) Open Frame International Film Festival, which is in its 13th edition, narratives of and by women is the theme this year. So films screened in the festival will address, examine and investigate struggles, solidarities and movements related to women.

The festival, on till September 21, is packed with screenings, discussions and workshops at India International Centre (IIC). PSBT will screen some of the best works that have been selected at festivals from Oberhausen to Estonia, Kerala and Fiji. It will also include its recently completed films and an array of international documentaries applauded all over the world.

It will start with Bindu Nair’s Beyond Women Stereotypes. On the same day, films like The Grey Area: Feminism Behind Bars directed by Noga Ashkenazi, I Was a Teenage Feminist by Therese Shechter, Anusha Nandakumar’s Beyond the Veil and TheWorld Before Her by Nisha Pahuja, will be screened. Screenings will start from 10 am onwards.

On the second day, September 14, there will be films like Killing Us Softly 4 by Sut Jhally, No Job for a Woman by Michele Midori Fillion and In the Shadow of a Man by Hanan Abdalla. On September 15, Tamil Arangam by Revathy will be screened. The actress will be present for question and answer round. It will be followed by films like It Was Rape by Jennifer Baumgardner, Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War and Lesbiana- A Parallel Revolution by Myriam Fougere.

We Are Standing Tall by Ellie Bernstein, Under the Red Umberella by Justin Ostertag and Kim Longinitto’s Salma will be screened on September 16.  The screening will start from 9.30 am onwards.

Next day, see films like Forbidden Voices by Barbara Miller, The Kingdom of Women by Dahna Abourahme, Finding Face by Sky Fitzgerald and Patti
Duncan.

Like the previous years, there will be specialised film appreciation and filmmaking workshops by Suresh Chabria, former director of the National Film Archives of India and Ajit Duara. The intensive filmmaking workshops will include topics like aesthetics for non-fiction filmmaking and essentials of documentary filmmaking by Rajiv
Mehrotra.