Lfff2017: VAWG: Resistance & Survival + panel discussion

VAWG: RESISTANCE & SURVIVAL SESSIONS + panel discussion with Katja Berls (director, Outside Peace, Inside War), Dorett Jones (director, Nothing About Us Without Us), Sarah Browne (Campaigns Officer, Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation), and Zlakha Ahmed (Apna Haq). Chaired by Camille Kumar (Women & Girls Network).

This session will explore and celebrate women’s global resistance to violence against women and girls (VAWG) through 3 films that challenge the notions that there is one right way to respond to VAWG and that there is one kind of survivor.

NESAA ALHORIA (WOMEN OF FREEDOM) (European Premiere)
Abeer Zeibak Haddad / 2017 / 58 mins
This film tells the stories of women murdered in the name of ‘honour’ within Arab and Palestinian communities in Palestine and Israel, focusing on the social and political contexts in which the women were killed. The director travels through Palestine and Israel collecting testimonies from survivors and perpetrators, and giving voice to murdered women, while drawing on her own experiences. Women of Freedom encourages discussion, reflection and action on an issue that is not limited to one community, religion or country.
Trigger warning: images of violence.

AUẞEN FRIEDEN, INNEN KRIEG (OUTSIDE PEACE, INSIDE WAR) (World Premiere)
Katja Berls / 2017 / 29 mins
More than 70 years after the end of WW2, Hilde and her surviving sister speak about their experiences of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against them and their sisters by soldiers during the war. This film speaks about and to the violence and trauma perpetrated against women and girls in war and crisis zones around the world, both past and present, and its impact on women’s lives.
Trigger warning: discussions of violence.

NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US
Dorett Jones / 2016 / 12 mins
This short film captures black women’s resistance to government cuts that threaten vital VAWG services for and by black and minoritised women. It follows women from Apna Haq, a black women’s organisation from Rotherham, who travel to London to march with other women and hand in a petition to Downing Street to protest against the continued closure of black women’s organisations, which threatens women’s lives.