‘Othered Voices: Women’s Voices in Media Industries’, Panel Discussion with:

• Nicky Gogan (Emmy-winning writer, director, producer. Pyjama Girls, Black Ice, Lost in France)

• Margo Harkin (Multi award-winning filmmaker of drama and documentary for over 30 years. IFTA Winner, Prix Europe nominee, director/producer. Mother Ireland, Hush-a-Bye Baby, Bloody Sunday: A Derry Dairy)

• Dr. Anne O Brien (Media Production Co-coordinator NUIM, expert in gender inequality in media)

• Dr. Sarah Arnold (Lecturer in Gender & Production Studies at Maynooth University)

• Chaired by Dr. Maria Pramaggiore, (Head of Maynooth University Dept of Media Studies, expert in media and gender).

Amaka’s Kin looks at the experiences of female directors working in the hugely prolific and male-dominated Nigerian film industry, known as ‘Nollywood’. Dedicated to the memory and successes of the late filmmaker Amaka Igwe, who famously said ‘Nollywood is a global movement’, the film uses interviews to chart the work of the women striving to make their mark in a man’s world.

[& short shhh! Leah Thorn]

An early feminist filmmaker, Germaine Dulac was an integral part of the ’20s French avant garde movement. Women’s voices are felt from behind the camera, as well as in front of it, and The Seashell and the Clergyman – a silent film dealing with male obsession through a surrealist and experimental form – speaks volumes of the director’s point of view. The live film score contributes a fresh and real-time voice to this 1928 masterpiece.

The Seashell and the Clergyman is paired with a classic of recent feminist counter-culture, starring artistic icon of our time Lydia Lunch. In opposition to Dulac’s silent films, Lunch speaks ad nauseum in Black Box and narrates with a vicious anger, a voice of resistance and resilience. Artistic film occupies a special place within feminist visual culture and this double bill gives a taste of something other than the ubiquitous mainstream narrative.

[& short Spirit Away, Betina Kuntzsch ]

What happens when women are denied a voice? Deniz Gamze Ergüven explores this question in multi-award winning ‘feminist escape movie’ Mustang. Beautifully shot and exceptionally performed, the Oscar-nominated tale (writer/director Ergüven’s debut), tells the story of five sisters punished for ‘immoral’ behaviour in rural Turkey. A voice-over by the youngest sister frames this rousing portrayal in terms of solidarity and empowerment.

[& short Home, Zainab Entezar]

Regarding Susan Sontag provides rich insights into the life of one of the most influential and outspoken critical thinkers of the 20th century. Patricia Clarkson narrates, reading as Sontag from her books and journal entries. This documentary charts Sontag’s public and private life through her writing, politics, personality and bisexuality. Incredible archive footage and wonderful narration establish an original and poetic tone fitting for its subject.

[& short The Bus Trip, Sarah Gampel]

Why do women rarely serve as voice-over narrators? Did the empowered ‘fast-talking dame’ die out with the screwball comedy? And is ‘The Bechdel Test’ really a good way to measure female characters’ verbal representation? This talk will consider these and other questions, looking at historical and contemporary trends in the treatment of the female voice in cinema.

A diverse, fascinating and entertaining selection of Irish and international short films: Bombing, Gloria Mercer | Girl, Megan K. Fox | Miss Z, Niamh McKenna | Murmur, Aurora Fearnley | Reel: Irish Women,Elaine Gallagher | Slow Down, Megan K. Fox | Terminal, Natasha Waugh | Why Can’t You See Me? Andra Roman

Filmmakers Roundtable hosted by film programmer Eibh Collins (Galway Film Fleadh Shorts, Irish Screen America, Indie Cork, Irish Film Festival London)

DFFF 2016 BEST SHORT FILM WINNER Megan K Fox "GIRL" 

Margarita, with a Straw focuses on Laila, a rebellious Indian teenager with cerebral palsy trying to find her independence. As well as representing a young woman with a speech disorder, the film departs from typical coming-of-age movies due to its own radical agenda: Margarita is one of the first Hindi films to get LGBTQ sex scenes past a strict board of censors.   

[& short Between Us, Mairéad Kiernan]

In its depiction of a mute woman’s arranged marriage in mid-19th century New Zealand, Jane Campion’s The Piano raises questions not just about the representation of women’s voices, but also about how best to represent other marginalised groups. Though the film received some criticism for its presentation of the Maori people, the central character’s withholding of her voice, and use of music as an alternative to speech, provides one of the most remarkable treatments of the female voice on screen.

[& short January Hymn, Katherine Canty]