Participants and organisers from Reclaim The Frame x International’s Filmonomics training programme are attending Berlinale and the European Film Market 2023.
Launched on International Women’s Day in March 2022, Reclaim the Frame x International aims to support culturally diverse women & non-binary filmmakers based across Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, Taiwan and the UK through the circulation of works, and through a professional development programme: Filmonomics.
The project is delivered by a consortia: Birds’ Eye View (UK), Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival (Turkey), Regards de Femmes International Film Festival (Tunisia) & Women Make Waves International Film Festival (Taiwan), and supported by British Council.
The project has been awarded a number of passes thanks to a partnership with EFM’s Inclusion Initiative. Supported by Creative Europe Media, HessenFilm, the European Film Market (EFM) and the Berlinale, the EFM (Online) Market Badge Inclusion Initiative aims at creating outreach and greater pathways into a more inclusive market and film industry at large for marginalised film professionals from across the globe.
The following participants will be in attendance:
Aephie Chen, UK, Writer/Director.
Aycan Aluçlu, Turkey, Producer.
Chia-Hsuan Tan, Taiwan. Writer/Director/Producer. (attending EFM online)
Derya Durmaz, Germany, Writer/Director/Producer.
Emna Mrabet, France, Writer/Director.
Safa Ghali, Tunisia, Writer/Director/Producer. (attending EFM online)
Sheng Ting Shen, US, Director.
Yara Lahoud, Lebanon, Writer/Director.
In addition, representing the project, members of the consortia will be present
From Birds’ Eye View (UK), director Melanie Iredale. Melanie will be attending as a Jury member for Berlinale’s Teddy Awards.
From Flying Broom Women’s Film Festival (Turkey), director Nil Kural and coordinator Fatma Edemen (attending EFM online)
From Regards de Femmes (Tunisia) festival coordinator, Azza Jedidi (attending EFM online)
From Women Make Waves (Taiwan), programmer, Huei-yin Chen and programmer Hsieh I-Hsuan.
Turkey-Syria earthquake
We are devastated by the news of the earthquake that has killed, injured and displaced thousands of people in Turkey and Syria. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival and a number of wonderful Turkish filmmakers this past year through our #ReclaimTheFrame x International project, some of whom experienced personal loss on Monday. Our hearts and thoughts are with them. We’ve donated towards the aid that is so desperately needed, and for those of you who can also help in any small way, please click on the LINK to our website that will take you to the Red Cross donation site. Any amount will help. Thank you.
SHORT BIOS
Aephie Chen: is an interdisciplinary filmmaker, artist, curator working across Taiwan, UK and Iceland. She has lived in twenty-nine countries and the stories she explores often re-imagine identities, narrating relationships in a contemporary multicultural society.
Aycan Aluçlu: After completing her bachelor’s degree at the Department of Economics, she started to work in the production and coordination departments of Nar Film. She has been involved in production, project development, and funding on freelance projects. Aluçlu is an alumna of Sarajevo Talents 2019. She is producing her cinema projects under the roof of her company, Surrealland.
Chia-Hsuan Tan: is a Taiwanese filmmaker whose career has also developed around China and the US. Chia-Hsuan has a BA degree in Anthropology from National Taiwan University. This background in cultural and humanities studies has deeply affected her approach in filmmaking .She’s currently writing a story focusing on female basketball players in Asia, hoping to raise public interest in female athletes and their difficult situation.
Derya Durmaz: Her first short film Ziazan (2014) received 11 awards and full coverage in Washington Post and Monocle magazine. Her second short Mother Virgin No More (2015) premiered at the Berlinale Generations. She is a Berlinale Talents, Toronto TIFF Filmmaker Lab, First Films First and Film Independent Global Media Maker alumna. Her first feature film project won the Berlinale Talent Project Market Talent Highlight Award.
Emna Mrabet: Raised in Tunisia, Emna Mrabet mad two short films; Paroles d’exilés (2008) and Absence (2010). A l’Aube de nos rêves (2019) is her latest documentary about post-revolutionary Tunisia. Her films have been featured in several festivals, including PCMMO, Rendez-vous de l’histoire de Blois, Festival du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Tétouan. With a PHD in cinema, she is also a university teacher, researcher, critic and the author of the book Le cinéma d’Abdellatif Kechiche: Prémisses et devenir (2016).
Safa Ghali: After getting her engineering degree in statistics and data analysis, she decided to pursue her dream and joined a cinematographic school. She directed 5 short movies and has participated in Tunisian festivals and abroad. In 2019, she got her Masters degree in writing and directing from ESAC. She is currently writing her Phd thesis in cinema.
Sheng Ting Shen: Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Sheng-Ting Shen is a director, editor, and producer currently living in New York. Sheng-Ting’s short film Bad News (2020) was selected and won over 15 international film festivals. Her latest short film, The Coolest Club (2022) is on its festival run.
Yara Lahoud: journeys by storytelling through scriptwriting and film directing. She advocates for human rights, peace and women’s empowerment through her films and creative projects. Yara collaborated with production companies and national filmmakers on a variety of projects, including short films, documentaries, and series. She also works as a screenwriter for various platforms (youtube, short films, Instagram, websites). She was in charge of numerous health awareness sessions held in schools, initiatives, and workshops, for which she used her creative direction during the execution phase. Yara also devotes her time to learning opportunities and influential initiatives that promote peace through media and film.
Birds’ Eye View (UK)
Birds’ Eye View champions women & non-binary led perspectives in cinema, and connects with audiences through community building and conversation.
We preview and present week-of-release screenings, curated cinema seasons and special events, connecting audiences to filmmakers, cultural influencers, social justice campaigners, researchers, artists and critics in a safe and inclusive space for conversations. Launched in 2018 in partnership with five cinemas, our network has grown to 20+ cinemas in 15 cities across the UK. In addition, we engage audiences through online activity and support digital releases.
Expanding on this, our Reclaim The Frame x International project works in partnership with women’s film festivals around the world to take our shared mission overseas, with support from the British Council.
Reclaim The Frame is complemented by our industry-facing/training activity with filmmakers and distributors/exhibitors of marginalised genders, supported by ScreenSkills, which in turn furthers our work in diversifying representation/the gatekeepers and our mission for equity in all film spaces.
Flying Broom Women’s Film Festival (Turkey)
Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival has been organised by Flying Broom annually since 1998. The festival is an international organisation where feature-length, short, documentary and animation films by women directors from Turkey and around the world are presented to the audiences in a framework of specific themes, panels, discussions and exhibitions. In addition to the film screenings, local and international directors, press members and film critiques are hosted in Ankara as a part of the festival.
Regards des Femmes (Tunisia)
Regards de Femmes is the first festival in Tunisia dedicated to women directors. It is an event created by the Tunisian Federation of Film Societies to empower women filmmakers specially at their early career. The event provide a yearly platform that aims enhance the presence of women in film industry by promoting their work, discussing it and raising the challenges they encounter. The festival also provides a diversity of trainings, workshops and panels for each edition. The well known script writing residency organised is an unavoidable activity of the festival.
Women Make Waves (Taiwan)
Taiwan Women’s Film Association (formerly Taipei Women Film and Video Association) was established as a non-profit organization in 1993. We have been organizing the annual Women Make Waves International Film Festival, one of Taiwan’s major film festivals which has established itself as the biggest one dedicated to supporting female talents. It is also the longest-running and largest issue-oriented film festival in Taiwan. Starting in 2001, we took Women Make Waves Film Festival on the road around the island to decrease the gap in Taiwan’s urban-rural divide, becoming the first touring film festival in Taiwan.
Reclaim The Frame x International is funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants, which are designed to support UK and overseas organisations to collaborate on international arts projects.