24TH FLYING BROOM INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING!
24TH FLYING BROOM
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING!
The countdown has begun for the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival by Uçan Süpürge (Flying Broom) Foundation with the support of Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism General Directorate of Cinema. There are films with the theme Leaving Limbo in the festival which tell the stories of women who resist, inspire and act with unity all around the world. The festival of this year will be screened in two parts. Online screenings can be watched on Festivalscope platform starting with the press conference on May 27. After the online screenings are over on June 3, Flying Broom Awards will be received by the artists with the ceremony taking place on June 4. Festival films will be screened in the open air movie theatres of Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center and CerModern on June 4-11.
The festival will take place with the generous support of over 20 organizations, with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in the first place, and also Çankaya Municipality, Yenimahalle Municipality, The City Council of Ankara, European Union Sivil Düşün Programme, UN Women, Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Ankara Chamber of Industry 2nd Organized Industrial Zone, The Association of Women Employers and Industrialists (KAISER). And also, Kendine Has, CerModern, Penti and MG Agency, which is in charge of the advertising campaign, are among the organizations which have supported the festival. The embassies of the countries, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and Norway, whose films are shown in the festival have given their support as they do every year.
12 Films Competing for FIPRESCI Award
The films competing for FIPRESCI Award will be screened in the section of Each Has a Different Colour both online and in the festival venues. As I Want, the documentary shown in the Berlinale by Samaher Alqadi, which is about the riots of Egyptian women against the sexual assaults in the streets taken place during the 2nd anniversary of 2011 Egyptian Revolution; Amanda Kernell’s film Charter, which is about Alice’s kidnapping of her children to Canary Islands by taking every risk after a difficult process of divorce when she can’t see her children at the end of the custody trial; Rubaiyat Hossain’s film Made in Bangladesh, which is about the story of a textile worker, Shiumu, who feels oppressed by her employers at work and her husband at home and decides to form a union with her female colleagues; both written and directed by Nisan Dağ, When I’m Done Dying, telling the story of Fehmi and in a poor neighbourhood of Istanbul where rap and addiction walk hand in hand, and featured with its music composed for the movie; Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, telling the story of Sam Ali, who is a Syrian refugee letting his skin turn into a work of art of a well-known artist in order to go to Europe, are among the movies which will be reviewed by the FIPRESCI jury.
The other movies which will compete for the FIPRESCI AWARD are Bettina Oberli’s movie shown in Tribeca Film Festival, My Wonderful Wanda, created out of the stories of the Hungarian and Polish immigrant women, narrates the story of Wanda, who works for the wealthy families in Switzerland as a caretaker; Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu’s Restless River, during colonist occupation in Nunavik, in the southern Canada, setting in the 40s, follows the journey of Elsa who doesn’t surrender the oppression of the colonists or the traditions of Inuits, her own people; Icíar Bollaín’s Rosa’s Wedding, in which she got inspired from the news of women getting married to themselves in Asian countries, created her character Rosa, who is in the midst of her 40s deciding to change her life she dedicated to her family, played by Candela Peña who’s a Spanish actress and known for her specific characters in the movies “All About My Mother”, “Take My Eyes”, “Princesas”; Anne Zohra Berrached’s movie Copilot narrates the story based on one of the perpetrators of 9/11, Ziad Jarrah and his girlfriend Aysel Şengün’s life, Aslı, who is on the way to be a promising scientist and Saeed, who studies to become a dentist, they want to get married despite their families’ objections and Saeed’s getting more radical; Writing with Fire directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh tells the story of Dalit women who are seen as the lowest of the lowest in India’s caste system forming a weekly newspaper in India’s different dialects, Khabar Lahariya, focuses on the reporters and their going into digital, was shown in the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary and Special Jury Award for Impact for Change; Małgorzata Szumowska ve Michał Englert’s Never Gonna Snow Again, which tells the story of masseur Zhenia, an immigrant who walked through the border of Ukraine into Poland, finding a job in a site changing the world of the residents in a dark and humorous way; Chloé Mazlo’s using animation in Skies of Lebanon is about a family whose lives were destroyed due to the civil war in Lebanon in 1975 inspired by her grandmother.
Chloé Mazlo, the director of Skies of Lebanon, and Nisan Dağ, the director of When I’m Done Dying will join the screenings in the open air theatres and answer the questions.
Women’s Memory reaches from London to Beirut, from Naples to Betlehem!
One of the movies in the section of Women’s Memory, directed and starred by Maïwenn, ADN has some facts about her own biography, and narrates the story of an extended family coming together around Neige’s grandfather who has Alzheimer’s staying at a nursing home despite their compelling relations. Nunzia De Stefano was inspired by the container neighborhood she lived in during her childhood while she was writing Nevia. Nevia is a 17-year-old girl and she tries to support her family doing trivial jobs and her world changes when a circus comes to her neighborhood. Natalie Erika James narrates the process of sickness and death from an emotional perspective in her movie Relic. James brings the story of the girl whose mother gets lost facing her dementia on the big screen.
You can watch Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis Aida? in which Aida, the interpreter of BM in Srebrenica, tries to save the lives of her husband and children during the war. This movie was nominated for International Feature Film category in Academy Awards. Ghosts, another film in this category directed by Azra Deniz Okyay, in which the director narrates the story of four different characters’ encounter on a day of power cut around the country through an innovative and outstanding language. Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman is a personal movie in which she included some pieces from her childhood. She was also praised with her movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire before. Other movies that are included in this section are Memory Box and I’m Your Man which were screened as a part of the competition in the Berlinale in February. Memory Box, directed by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas tells the story of a young girl who learns things that she has never known about her mother through letters, photographs and voice recordings from the 80s in a box. I’m Your Man by Maria Schrader is looking for some answers about how much technology that we are addicted to can satisfy our emotional needs.
Women’s America is not the same old America!
In Women’s America section of the festival, Chloé Zhao‘s Nomadland takes inspiration from real events and tells us a story of being ‘home’less. Adapted from Jessica Bruder’s book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century”, Nomadland is the winner of the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress in the Academy Awards and tells us the story of 60-year-old Fern, who after losing her job and husband tries to survive doing odd jobs.
Josephine Decker‘s Shirley, featuring Elisabeth Moss, is an adaptation of Susan Scarf Merrell’s book of the same name and shows us a slice of famous horror novelist Shirley Jackson’s life.
Filled with emojis, Gia Cappola’s Mainstream presents us a critique of what social media can bring into our lives.
Emerald Fennell’s film Promising Young Woman won the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay and caused a lot of discussion in feminist circles. It tells us the story of Cassandra, a student with great promise who leaves school in order to dedicate herself to avenge her raped friend.
Kitty Green‘s The Assistant shows us a day in the life of Jane, who works as an assistant for the head of an independent film company, and presents us with an inside look at #MeToo.
Women’s History is written by women!
This year’s festival features documentaries where female directors look back on history and pass it through their own sieves.
Rubika Shah is a director whose films were shown in Berlin Film Festival and her film White Riot, taking its name from The Clash song, sheds light on the anti-fascist struggle carried out with a punk aesthetic in the 70’s in London, where the “Black Lives Matter” movement today resonates with.
In Street Out, Sofía Rocha shows how the sex workers in Argentina cross paths with feminism and focuses on their struggle for their rights. This documentary will make its world premiere at the festival.
Shengze Zhu‘ s film, A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces, was shot by the river before the pandemic started in January 2020 and Wuhan, the city that was first hit by the Covid disaster, was closed. In this film Zhu pays tribute to those lost in Wuhan with the letters they sent each other.
Nebiye Arı‘s documentary Both Feminist and Muslim focuses on Konca Kuriş’s feminism, and on the development of Islamic feminism in Turkey and the struggles of the Muslim feminists.
Patrida by Ayça Damgacı and Tümay Göktepe, focuses on Ayça Damgacı‘s visit to the lands where her 87-year-old West Thracian father İsmet Damgacı was born and left due to forced migration.
In Invisible to the Eye, Zeynep Dadak follows the writings of the traveler Eremya Çelebi Kömürciyan and looks at one of the most layered cities in the world, Istanbul, 350 years later.
In Faya Dayi, Jessica Beshir, who escaped with her family from the conflict in Ethiopia to settle in her mother’s home country, Mexico, returns to the country where she spent her childhood and films the daily life and people there.
In As Milk Makes Money, Nihan Gider Işıkman tells the story of women who revive the production of milk and cheese while protecting biodiversity despite all the harsh conditions in the village of Boğatepe in Kars.
In Gurbet is a Home Now, Pınar Öğrenci focuses on the current effects of discriminatory urban policies towards guest workers in Berlin by letting the immigrant women speak and share their experiences.
In their movie Four Mothers, the directors Dana Keidar Levin and Rephael Levin focus on the peace movement of four mothers who raise their voices to prevent more soldiers from dying in the security zone created by Israel during the occupation of Lebanon.
Directed by Janna Ji Wonders and critically acclaimed at the Berlin Film Festival last year, Walchensee Forever tells the story of four generations in the director’s family through the eyes of women who, in their own way, stood against the patriarchal structures of their respective eras.
Dying to Divorce, shot by Chloe Fairweather over the course of five years, looks at the legal aspects of the movement against male violence against women in Turkey, and tells about the struggle for justice of two women and their lawyers who have been attacked and injured by the men they live with.
The directors Ayça Damgacı, Tümay Göktepe, Nebiye Arı, Zeynep Dadak, Pınar Öğrenci and Nihan Gider, whose documentaries are shown in the Women’s History section of the festival, will meet with the audience after the screenings.
In the Short Wave section, short films will be screened. Aylin Kuryel‘s The Balcony and Our Dreams, Raşel Meseri and Aylin Kuryel‘s CemileSezgin, Büşra Bülbül‘s Bleach, Burcu Görgün Toptaş‘s 40 Candles, Irmak Karasu‘s Mamaville, Ayşe Nur Gençalp‘s The Names Are Lost First, Umut Alaz Kökçü‘s Best Actress and Nursel Doğan‘s Hûşbe!/Hush! will be screened. Twelve short films shot by women will also be screened as part of the “Ear to Ear” Collective Video Production Workshop within the framework of Anadolu Kültür‘s BAK project. In addition, Farah Nabulsi‘s BAFTA Award-winning, Oscar-nominated short film The Present will be screened in this section. The Present is about Yusuf passing through the checkpoint set by the Israeli state between Bethlehem and Jerusalem every morning to go to work. The film is about Yusuf’s passing from this military zone with his daughter this time. The directors of the films in the Short Wave section will also meet with the audience after the screenings.
Rocca Changes the World, directed by Katia Benrath with the contributions of Cüneyt Cebenoyan Children’s and Cinema Platform, will be shown in the section “Whatever Girls Want, Will Happen”. It is about a brave 12-year-old girl standing on her own feet. Film will attract the attention of both children and adults. The film will meet with the audience free of charge on June 9 at 17:00 in the open area in front of the City Council.
Awards will be given on the evening of June 4th!
The awards given by the 24th Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival every year to emphasize the importance of women’s labor in our cinema and to encourage new generation women filmmakers will be given at the ceremony to be held on the evening of June 4. This year’s Honor Awards goes to actress Nur Sürer and actress-singer Zuhal Olcay, Bilge Olgaç Achievement Awards to actress-singer Ayta Sözeri, actress Demet Evgar, musician Ekin Fil and Meetings on the Bridge Manager Gülin Üstün and Young Witch Award to actress Ahsen Eroğlu.
Among the films to be screened at the festival are The Cherry Blossoms, starring Nur Sürer, one of the actors to whom the Flying Broom Awards will be presented, Secret Face starring Zuhal Olcay, In The Family starring Demet Evgar and Ayta Sözeri, and Inflame with the music of Ekin Fil.
This year’s Theme Awards are presented to the “EŞİK – Women’s Platform for Equality”, which was established to protect the vested rights of women, “Ni Una Menos” (Not One [Women] Less), which started in Argentina and whose struggle against femicide spread all over Latin America, and Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike), which emerged from the struggle of Polish women for the right to abortion, defending the basic rights of women by the women’s strike.
When and Where Are Festival Tickets Going On Sale?
Tickets for the 24th Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival will be available on the online screening platform Festivalscope from May 25th. Each film will be screened on the day and time determined in the program, and will remain for three days. Tickets for the screenings to be held at the Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center and the open-air movie theater in CerModern will be sold on Biletix as of June 1st.
Ticket prices
Online screenings between May 27 and June 3 will be held on https://www.festivalscope.com/page/ucan-supurge-uluslararasi-kadin-filmleri-festivali/ and tickets can be purchased there from Tuesday, May 25, at 11:00.
Single ticket for an online screening is 12 TL; Combined package of 16 films is 150 TL.
Tickets for physical screenings to be held between 4-11 June will be available on Biletix as of Tuesday, June 1st.
Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center: Student price, 12 TL. Regular price, 20 TL.
CerModern: 25 TL.
