Industry Talk: Women at Risk

In this Industry Talk, we focus on filmmakers from different regions who face risks and dangers when doing their work. What happens when you find yourself at risk as a filmmaker and may not even be able to return to your home country because of your film? A panel of women filmmakers will share their personal stories and give their insight into how the international film community can support filmmakers at risk.

Speakers:

Zhanna Maksymenko Dovhych is a film director and screenwriter from Kyiv, Ukraine. Having her master’s degree in journalism, she worked with different Ukrainian TV channels as a creative producer, director, and editor. Today Zhanna mostly works in the documentary field. Her short films were presented at various national and international film festivals. She is the director of Peace for Nina, which has been selected for our Take on Film & Impact programme.

Elaheh Nobakht is one of the pioneer women in Iranian Cinema. She has produced six feature films amongst which the feature documentary Dreams’ Gate - selected at Berlinale 2023 - and The Apple Day - selected at Berlinale 2022. She is the CEO of the International Production and Distribution Film Company, ELI Image. She is also an active member of the Iranian Producers Association (IPA) and a member of the Iranian documentary producer Association (Aoidp) , and a Jury member for various International film festivals such as International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva Switzerland 2018, President of Juries in Beirut International Women Film Festival 2023. 

Zainab Al-hariri is a UK-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. Graduated in Film and Media Production, she worked for several years as editor and post-production supervisor at Human Film (UK) on films such as Path of Mariam and Kingdom of Garbage. She is the protagonist of 40 Years of Silence, which has been selected for our Take on Film & Impact programme.

Rintu Thomas is the Academy Award nominated director and producer of Writing With Fire. Thomas is an award-winning director-producer from India whose work is supported by the Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, IDFA, SFF Film Fund, Doc Society and Bertha Foundation, among others. Over the last 10 years, Rintu’s films have been used as advocacy tools for social impact, included in the curriculum of universities and exhibited globally.

Maryam Ebrahimi is a Swedish-Iranian documentary filmmaker, producer and director, and one of this year's main guests. She studied art and art theory at the Faculty of Arts in Tehran and continued her education in Sweden at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design. She later started working as a producer and director in the field of documentaries. She co-directed No Burqas Behind Bars (winner International Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary) in 2012, set in an Afghan women’s prison, and produced I Was Worth 50 Sheep (2010) and Prison Sisters (2016). Her latest film as director, Stronger Than a Bullet, premiered at IDFA 2017.

Moderator: Margje de Koning (Artistic Director Movies that Matter)
Language: English