The billboard has 46 films that reflect the different realities and types of violence experienced by women and girls.
The third edition of Ecuador Feminist Film Festival Equis It starts this Wednesday in a mixed format: face-to-face and virtual; with a billboard that adds 46 films in total.
“This year we are inviting the public to feel, from the beautiful things to the things that can be hard at times. The festival’s programming tries to reflect the different realities and types of violence experienced by women and girls. Many times these realities are very harsh “, expresses Virginia Sotomayor, co-director of Equis.
The movie My age, yours and the age of the world (Mexico, 2021), by the Mexican filmmaker Fernanda Tovar will be in charge of opening the festival. In the film Tovar portrays his grandmother, describing her as “a queen who faces invisible monsters”. This inaugural outdoor function will be this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Gabriela Mistral Square (Luis Cordero between Reina Victoria and Av. Diego de Almagro. Sector La Mariscal).
Estefanía Arregui, Co-director of the festival, she says that they spend almost the whole year working on selecting films that can be part of the program, in addition to the open call in which this time they received approximately 90 nominated films.
Explain that to select them they take into account the context of the Ecuadorian reality. “What are the current relevant issues, within our feminist approach, which films best address certain issues (…) We pay a lot of attention to ensuring that they are good quality films, that they are well made ”, he says.
“We take great care that they do not reinforce gender stereotypes, that they do not revictimize”, adds, for his part, Sotomayor.
X in person
Quito and Cuenca are the cities where the festival’s face-to-face functions will be held.
On OchoyMedio three functions will be developed. On Thursday, November 18, a cycle will be presented posporno with the screening of 5 short films under this theme. The activity will be from 18:00 to 20:00. On Sunday, November 14, at 6:00 p.m., the Ecuadorian short film program, among which are Growing up is just as dangerous as leaving a razor unattended (Ecuador, 2021), by the director Manuela Vasquez Guayasamin and Muyu Warmikuna: defenders of seeds, builders of sovereignty and reclaimers of identity (Ecuador, 2021), from Stephanie Andrade Vinueza. Finally sunday November 21, at 6:00 p.m., will play the tape My name is baghdad (Brazil, 2020), which tells the story of a skater who finds a support network in the women around her. The entrance of each function will have a cost of $ 5.
On November 20, a special feature film will be held in Quito at a drive-in movie Yellow glasses (Ecuador, Brazil, 2021), led by Ivan Mora Manzano. The event will take place in the Bicentennial Park (av. Amazonas y av. La Prensa) and will cost $ 15 per car, with a maximum of 4 people.
Meanwhile, the outdoor functions in Cuenca will take place on Saturday 13 and Saturday 20 November at the Central School of Cuenca (Gran Colombia and Benigno Malo). Will be screened Culottées / Courageous (France, 2019) by Mai Nguyen and Charlotte Cambon De La Valette. The Ecuadorian Short Film Program will also be presented, and the tapes My name is baghdad and Delphine and Carole.
“Face-to-face performances for a festival are super important, because it is that moment in which we also feel accompanied, in which they can ask questions, comment on the films, on the themes”, says Sotomayor.
Virtual Xs
Your version online, available for the whole country, bears the name Virtual Xs and it is made up of 38 films, grouped into 12 functions.
Among these movies, that will be available in festivalequis.com, stand out Threshold/Threshold (Coraci Ruiz, Brazil, 2020), autobiographical documentary made by a mother who follows her son’s gender transition; Jungle (Louise Mootz, France, 2019), an intimate, energetic portrait of Parisian women who break stereotypes. Are also found Seeds: Black women to power (Éthel Oliveira, Júlia Mariano, Brazil, 2020), Foreplay (Anne van Campenhout, The Netherlands, 2019) film that portrays students from five secondary schools while receiving sex education classes; and Cut the Chit Chat / In the living room (Léa Forest, Francia, 2020).
The cost of each virtual function is $ 5. Meanwhile he purple pass, which allows access to all functions, has a cost of $ 22; and the green pass, which allows access to 7 functions of your choice, has a value of $ 12.
Live forums and discussions
Six forums will be broadcast live through the EQUIS Facebook account, which, as mentioned in a statement, invite you to learn more about the reality of women scientists, black women and girls in Ecuador, as well as to talk about the possibility of other masculinities, the importance of care and the process that has led to the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape.
In the same way, the third edition of the Conversation on Women in Ecuadorian Cinema, in which they will participate Isabel Arrate, director of the Bertha Fund; Lucila Moctezuma, Director of Programs for Chicken & Egg Pictures; and the filmmaker Maria Campaign, as moderator. “It will deal with international sources of financing for feminist films or films made by women”, Mention the organization of the festival.
All virtual forums and discussions will have a sign language interpreter, say the co-directors.
Finally, during the two weekends the festival will take place the third phase of the Autobiographical Stop Motion workshop, dictated by Bernarda Cornejo and María Fernanda Borregales; and aimed at adult women in a situation of human mobility who live in Quito.
Arregui note that the workshops end with a short made by the participants. Thus, the two shorts made in previous editions will be screened this year. In fact, these audiovisuals will be part of a film and human rights festival in Montevideo. “We are getting this content that was generated at the festival to circulate”, mentions. (I)
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