Seeing differently, with or without COVID 19
The Sustainable Development Goal 5 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda is "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls". Thus, parity is a human right and a duty of humanity everywhere in the world and in all spheres of life. This is a complex process that has evolved through the stages of history, and thus the adoption of feminism and its declines are diverse in each country. Fortunately, in 2020, all over the world we were experiencing a peak of feminist action... until COVID 19 came and the pandemic brought everything to a standstill.
That's why we believe that this festival is more necessary than ever, not only because of its support for creative women, but also because of the urgency of resuming our "frozen" lives, returning to the cinemas and, at the same time, taking advantage of the possibilities of online formats. Perhaps this global shutdown will help us to take the unavoidable steps to rewrite the history of women, of their creations, of their achievements, of their position in society and... in the cinematographic narrative.
Critic Pilar Aguilar recently pointed out: "Quotas have always existed: the male ones". This was the "natural" thing to do, as we are immersed in a value system that does not recognise what 50% of the population does, legitimising only the work carried out by men and attributing false premises to femininity, such as fragility and submission.
These prejudices have also been present in the audiovisual language, which urgently needs to get rid of these clichés, as well as the self-impositions that many women assume during our lives: we have to unlearn what we have learned.
III edition press conference. From left to right, Diego Mas Trelles, co-director; Inma Flor, head of communication and institutional relations at the Polish Institute of Culture; Rebeca Guinea, director of programming at Casa de América; Carlota Álvarez Basso, co-director; Beatriz Gimeno, director of the Women's Institute; Andrés Pérez Perruca, head of programming activities at Espacio Fundación Telefónica; Azucena Rodríguez, film director; and Manuel Cristóbal, audiovisual industry advisor at the Madrid Regional Board of Culture and Tourism.
Fortunately, both in Spain and internationally, there is a new generation of female directors and professionals fighting for an equal place in an industry that should apply the same support, budgets, criteria and demands to them as to other filmmakers. This is evident in the movies you can see in this festival: great works from different countries that show this creative diversity, telling stories with original points of view, with other ways of filming roles and telling with emotion relevant themes for all audiences.
With or without COVID 19 we must continue to feminise the whole chain of cultural value production: creation->production->promotion->distribution->consumption. To this end, we women will continue to build alliances with women and men who want to make room for the multiplicity and diversity of views that enrich us. Like the entities and companies that support this festival: a community of people who, with their efforts and resources, are contributing to change the situation. They are joined by our allies, the creators and the audience, who help us to change and build the future with the name of equality.
Carlota Álvarez Basso and Diego Mas Trelles, co-directors
November 2020 III edition
