The #MeToo movement triggered many discussions about sexism, unequal power distribution and the working conditions of women in film and the media. Yet the focus of the debates remained limited. It was mostly women in (professionally) privileged positions who found their voices. How do other forms of discrimination such as classism or racism structure labour and (self-)exploitation in this area? Who can thematise work and working conditions in the film business, and how – on the screen and behind the scenes?
Farah and Nabila are the founders of LOST FILM, a film collective that makes horror short films on socially critical topics, working in front of and behind the camera in a gender-sensitive way that is aware of racism. Literatur and philosophy PhD student Farah Bouamar and sociology PhD student Nabila Bushra are convinced of the power of storytelling and stand for a paradigm shift with their productions.
Angelika Levi is a Berlin based filmmaker. Her work is shown at international film festivals, cinemas and exhibitions. Her short film Faust aufs Auge (1988) won the No Budget Video Prize Hamburg, and Desiree & Polylepis (1994) was rated “high quality” by the German Film Classification Board in Wiesbaden. MY LIFE PART 2, her first full-length documentary, won several awards and had its premiere at the Forum/International Berlin Film Festival 2003. Her essay film ABSENT PRESENT (2010) had its Premiere at The Women´s Film Festival in Barcelona. Children of Srikandi had its Premiere at the Panorama/ international Berlin Film Festival 2012 and won also several awards. MIETE ESSEN SEELE AUF (Rent eats the soul) was shown as a 3-channel film installation in the exhibition "Housing Question" in "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" in Berlin 2015. Levi is working also as an editor and dramaturgic advisor. Her film AHORITA FRAMES premiered at the 71st Berlinale in Forum Expanded in 2021.
Zara Zandieh is a Berlin based filmmaker:in. Zara's films are dedicated to a decolonial, queer gaze that weaves complexity and multi-layered representations of post-migrant and marginalized subjects into poetic narratives. Zara's work has screened and been nominated at numerous international film festivals. Zara is also part of the Queer Feminist Film Network.
Atlanta Ina Beyer teaches in the Gender and Diversity program at the Rhine-Waal University of Appled Sciences in Kleve and is currently finishing her dissertation on queer utopias in the aesthetics of queer, audio/visual punk productions. She is co-editor of "Queere Prekariat, Klasse und unteilbare Solidaritäen" (Münster: Edition Assemblage 2022, with Katharina Pühl and Lia Pecker) and of Perverse Assemblages. Queering Heteronormativity Inter/Medially (Berlin: Revolver, together with Barbara Paul u.a.).
