FemDoc: Women & Documentary

Films that provoke, engage and challenge audiences regarding gender equity and representation throughout Quebec, Canada and abroad.
About the Program

September 01, 2015 – October 31, 2016

FemDoc is a provocative program of film screenings, public discussions and interpretative material that showcases works by and about women (both cis-women and trans* artists or subjects included), as well as the social, economic, cultural and political issues that affect their lives and work. Like other Cinema Politica programs, with FemDoc we seek to engage documentary audiences, artists, experts, intellectuals and the public at large with an under-served or narrowly represented topic. In this regard FemDoc has three goals: (1) To increase the visibility of women filmmakers; (2) To highlight women’s issues and women subjects in documentary cinema; and finally (3) To create a program that invites discussions around the above topics, as well as feminism as it relates to documentary culture and politics. FemDoc, continues to strengthen and expand Cinema Politica’s larger mandate to bring together documentary and social justice, to foster fair and equitable representation on screen and behind the camera, and to create audience spaces and platforms for inclusive, critical engagement with independent film.

We launched FemDoc during a moment of great socio-political upheaval, as citizens in Quebec and Canada remain intensely divided on questions directly affecting women, such as reproductive justice, rape and sex-work. The mainstream media often ignores women’s voices and marginalizes women’s perspectives by relying heavily on male perspectives to frame those stories. A good example for such misrepresentation is the topic of rape culture, where sensationalized or two-dimensional reportage often forecloses on engaged discussion around these complex issues. We also feel that by focusing on women in documentary cinema an opportunity to open up critical dialogue around Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women must open up, one that can be uniquely engaged in artistic practices, representation, and spectatorship.

FemDoc seeks to offer a more robust, dynamic and critical lens through which audiences and publics can approach these charged issues, as well as an inclusive public platform free of commercial imperatives from which to launch conversations that cut across social, economic, political and cultural lines, ultimately fostering a multi-vocal, healing and productive discussion on topics all too often misrepresented or under-represented by other media channels.

With this in mind, in 2016 Cinema Politica circulated a program of Quebecois and Canadian works that provoke, engage and challenge audiences regarding gender equity and representation throughout Quebec, Canada and abroad. These exceptional films are listed below.

Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Featuring

Still from Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos
Still from Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos

On Demand

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril  ·  2011  ·  50m

On Demand

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril  ·  2011  ·  50m

A young woman is on a journey to revive the ancient Inuit tradition of face tattooing, an art-form forbidden by the Canadian government for a century and almost forgotten.

Still from Sol
Still from Sol
Susan Avingaq & Marie-Hélène Cousineau  ·  2014  ·  1h16m
Susan Avingaq & Marie-Hélène Cousineau  ·  2014  ·  1h16m

A quiet meditation on the devastation of Inuit suicide, SOL confronts the legacy of colonization and urgently demands justice for Canada's Indigenous Peoples.

Still from Miners Shot Down
Lonmin employees gather on a hill called Wonderkop at Marikana, outside Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa August 15. The miners are calling for the minimum wage to be lifted from its current R4,000 a month to R12,500. The men are mostly Xhosa and Pondo speaking, and the strike was initiated by the drillers. Photograph Greg Marinovich

On Demand

Rehad Desai  ·  2014  ·  1h26m

On Demand

Rehad Desai  ·  2014  ·  1h26m

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages.

Still from Hand On Women Climate Change
Still from Hand On Women Climate Change

On Demand

Liz Miller, Nupur Basu, Mary Kiio, Iphigénie Marcoux-Fortier & Karen Winther  ·  2014  ·  48m

On Demand

Liz Miller, Nupur Basu, Mary Kiio, Iphigénie Marcoux-Fortier & Karen Winther  ·  2014  ·  48m

A film featuring women tackling the issue of climate justice with a focus on the Canadian Tar Sands.

Still from Guilda Elle Est Bien Dans Ma Peau
Julien Cadieux's documentary Guilda: Elle est bien dans ma peau is a profile of Montreal drag queen Jean Guilda. The closing film of Image + Nation film festival. Credit: Image + Nation.
Julien Cadieux  ·  2014  ·  52m
Julien Cadieux  ·  2014  ·  52m

The story of Guilda, the timeless beauty of the golden age of Montreal cabaret culture

Partners

FemDoc is a project supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettre du Québec.

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