Fem Fest 2023 DAY 1: Feminist Animation

On this day, International Women’s Day, our cinema will be the stage for female and queer film makers specialised in the fine art of animation. A diverse and colourful compilation of feminist films made by upcoming directors as well as pioneers in the past. Here are some of the names & details:

Tess Martin (NL)

Rotterdam-based filmmaker who pushes the conceptual potential of hand-made animation, using organic graphic techniques. Much of her work addresses vulnerability: in relation to nature, the onslaught of time and the precariousness of memory. For several years she ran the monthly event series Manifest Animation Show & Tell in WORM.

Evelyn Jane Ross (US)

Specialised in claymation (!) and specialised in hand-drawn and stop-motion animation. She grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her film is a response to patriarchal storytelling.
*Summary: In the beginning of them, She created us. *

Sara Koppel (Denmark)

One of the last animators in Denmark still drawing on paper, an art she has been practicing since she was 14 years old. We are talking the old school Disney cartoon technique, where every second of film is approximately 12 original drawings. The coloring is made in the computer but always in a way that keeps the structure of the paper and pencil. She is considered worldwide as a pioneer in erotic animation film.

Charlotte van Winden (NL)

“I am fascinated by systems of humans as individuals as well as part of society, and misunderstood and unresolved phenomena in an ‘experienced reality’. I dispute and daydream about (new) meanings as an associative web of the current zeitgeist. This is often expressed in video and performances in which I work with quick handmade props and sets.”

Lori Malépart-Traversy (Canada)

Lori studied Studio Arts and Film Animation at Concordia University. She co-directed three videos for a sexual assault awareness campaign for Concordia University. She is now working on a project about female masturbation at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Michelle Verhoeks (NL)

Michelle Verhoeks is a visual artist with a heart for mixed media and traditional methods of making, By getting inspiration from dreaming, wandering and observing, new concepts emerge. Recurring themes are sexuality, women, body positivity, the unconscious, dreams and surrealism.

Lele Crossmedia (Poland)

This all-female film production collective initiated a film project by a group of students at the Lodz Film School in 2020 as a protest against the anti-abortion law that was pushed through during the pandemic by the Constitutional court.

Kelly Gallagher (US)

Filmmaker/Animator & Associate Professor of Film at Syracuse University, NY
“Film as confrontation and visualized resistance is imperative for me in my work because by creating visualized representations of a world in which our impact actually ruptures capitalism and systemic patriarchy and racism, we are given the realization that such a world can even in fact exist and that our political efforts are not in vain, but are in fact imperative.”

Izibene Oñederra (Basque Country)

Intriguing work with a fairly dark, grim and mysterious atmosphere with an amazing soundtrack. Relates to the stigmatising and alienation of bodies.

Curated and introduced by Mariëtte Groot.