Stop Violence Against Women Fim Festival a great success, vic, Amnesty International Australia

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Stop Violence Against Women Fim Festival a great success

Published on 28/11/2011

Vic Women's Rights Team
Members of the Vic women's team and volunteers at the SVAW Film Festival

The Victorian women’s team’s Stop Violence Against Women Film Festival held at Cinema Nova over the weekend was a great success.

The two-day festival featured a full programme of fictional features and documentaries, exploring issues around gender-based violence and discrimination and celebrating female empowerment and the women who have stood up against significant social and political barriers that incite violence. Panelists and speakers from the worlds of media, activism and politics discussed a range of the challenges faced by women today and how we can individually and collectively make a difference.

“Violence against women is a human rights issue that continues to occur every day, often behind closed doors, in our city and around the world. Events that raise awareness are so important because they start people talking, which leads to action, and hopefully, to change,” said Kelly Hinton, Executive Director of Project Respect, and festival panelist.

Introduced by Ming Yu, Amnesty’s women’s rights campaigner, Cairo 678, a fictional feature addressing the issue of sexual harassment faced by women every day in Egypt, opened the festival tying in with the event’s call to action around women’s political participation in Egypt.

An engaging panel followed the next film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which documents the courageous women’s peace movement that ended Liberia’s bloody civil war. On the panel were Karen Toohey, Acting Commissioner of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission; Maree Keating, Board Member of the International Women’s Development Agency and Melinda Tankard-Reist, founder of Collective Shout. These three inspiring women discussed gender-based violence and grass-roots activism as a mechanism for change in the local and the Asia-Pacific region touching on the role of militarism in gender-based violence, a strong theme throughout the film.

"It's never been more important to confront the persistent inequities facing women and girls around the world than at this moment and it is media that is the key to making the world change once and for all and for good. The unique ability film has to open and change the hearts of men and women alike offers a powerful tool for making permanent change," said Abigail E. Disney, producer of Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

Day two began with an introduction to the film Pink Saris, by the gregarious Reeta Verma, dressed for the occasion in a pink sari. She won over the audience by delivering a significant talk around issues faced by women in India today with a mixture of gravity and humour.

The Price of Sex saw a big turnout with panelist draw-cards Kelly Hinton and Kathleen Maltzhan from Project Respect led in discussion by media personality and feminist, Karen Pickering. Both drew on their experiences at Project Respect, an organisation that aims to empower and support women in the sex industry including women trafficked to Australia.

Bringing the issues raised in the film into the local context bared the reality for the audience, that sex trafficking is not just an international problem; it is also a local problem, taking place on our own doorstep and in order to create change we need to acknowledge that and stand up against it.

Closing the festival was the sold-out Australian produced and directed, My Tehran for Sale, after which human rights consultant, Samah Hadid gave the audience insight on what drives women to dissent and the role of women in the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. Dr Adele Murdolo, Executive Director of Multicultural Centre for Women's Health discussed some of the issues faced by migrant woman and the importance of different cultures working together to raise awareness and to act on violence and discrimination against women.

During the Q & A, the audience raised a question around whether an asylum seeker would automatically be refused refugee status in Australia on the basis that they were HIV positive, arising from the protagonist's situation in the film. The answer is no, someone's health can never be used to deny refugee status, however health issues like HIV status can be grounds for refusing resettlement in Australia if you are a refugee applying for protection from another country.

The event was one of many important examples of grass-roots activism taken as part of the 16 Days of Activism (Nov 25 - Dec 10), an internationally celebrated period where thousands of people and organisations across the globe take action against gender-based violence.

Thank you to sponsors, Cinema Nova, RRR and Readings, to artist Colleen Hoad and graphic designer Rachel Brown, to volunteers Caitlin, Petra and Holly and of course to the Victorian Women’s Team for their tireless work in putting together this wonderful event and great example of grass-roots activism, raising awareness in the local community on violence against women; Julia Berg, Tracy Castelino, Marle Tyrell, Ann Tran and Brianna Davidson.

Website: www.stopviolenceagainstwomenfilmfestival.wordpress.com