When women hold the camera, the perspective changes. “Female Lens” is one of the focal points of this year’s Doxumentale: films, books and podcasts in which women are the source of the narrative, not just the subject.
Soraya was 16 when she began filming her own life. As an Afghan artist living in Iran, she was in a state of double exile, persecuted by a regime that did not want her, in a country that did not protect her. The camera, usually her mobile phone, was her personal tool, and over the years her perspective emerged, eventually forming the documentary A Fox Under a Pink Moon. In parallel is also the live podcast Azizam: My Mother’s Revolution, where Aida Amini traces the Iranian protest movement set in motion by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in 2022. She provides a personal perspective on the feminist revolution and how it has impacted the diaspora and her own family. Both works feature the women of Iran who are meant to be made invisible, yet who remain visible nonetheless.
The festival program shows that there are many different forms of resistance. In Dear Fátima: A Special Sneak Preview, Lorena Gutiérrez fights for justice for her twelve-year-old daughter, who was murdered. A battle that has been going on for ten years already, she takes it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Diana Jobson, a lawyer over 80 years old, also fights in the courtroom in the film Miss Jobson. It’s a stirring portrait of an extraordinary woman: a Rastafarian icon, once Bob Marley’s attorney, and to this day Jamaica’s lawyer for the poor.
Day Trip: Escaping the Taliban, making its world premiere at Doxumentale, depicts two journalists who attempt to fulfill their responsibilities. Afghan women whom they had interviewed for editorial pieces suddenly find their lives in danger following the Taliban’s takeover. The struggle to get them out of the country is a race against time and bureaucracy.
“In putting together our program, these beautiful, powerful, and gripping stories simply came to us. They all show how the personal and the political are often inseparable.” – Anna Ramskogler-Witt, Director of Doxumentale.
But Doxumentale also showcases the quieter stories of everyday life.
The Oscar-nominated short film The Devil is Busy celebrates its international premiere at Doxumentale. The film centers on a women’s clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, besieged by anti-abortion activists since the nationwide right to abortion was overturned in the United States.
Truck Mama follows Eva, a Kenyan long-distance lorry driver, as she juggles life on the road with family life. This is a film about freedom, responsibility, and a woman who stands her ground while taking her own path.
Maintenance Artist chronicles the life of the New York artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Through her art, she sought to shine a light on the work of New York City’s municipal workers, whose labor often remains hidden, even though society depends on it. This reminded Ukeles of her own life as a mother and the care work she carried out alongside her work as an artist. Through her collaboration with the New York City Department of Sanitation and its employees, she found her own artistic voice, which made her world-famous.
In Whispers of May, we meet a group of young female friends in China who search for their own path amidst cultural expectations and the challenges of coming of age.
The Doxumentale book programme also brings feminism and women’s perspectives into the literary sphere. In Wo die Kaffeekirschen leuchten, an author follows in her parents’ footsteps to Colombia, investigating migration, family history, and female self-assertion. A History of the World in Six Plagues asks whose voices are heard in times of crisis.
Numerous female directors and protagonists will be in Berlin for Doxumentale. We would be happy to arrange an interview for you.
