In her 1979 text “Whose History?”, filmmaker Lis Rhodes focuses her attention on a question that has lost none of its relevance more than forty years later: “the problem of who makes history for whom.” Rhodes underlines the importance of historical inquiry to feminist advocacy and insists that repopulating the old structures with new heroines is not enough: feminist film history should be told in a feminist way. In dialogue with the Open City Documentary Festival programme, this study day will feature presentations by and conversations with artists, scholars, and curators that will explore how this might take shape in the present.

With contributions by Erika Balsom, Teresa Castro, Deepa Dhanraj, Ja’Tovia Gary, Elena Gorfinkel, Shai Heredia, Madeleine Bernstorff, Lakshmi Padmanabhan, Charlotte Procter, Isabel Seguí and Shilyh Warren.

* UPDATED SCHEDULE *
(Please note that unfortunately the conversation between Ja’Tovia Gary and Onyeka Igwe is no longer taking place)

11h Introductions
11h15-12h45 Roundtable: Deepa Dhanraj, Shai Heredia, Charlotte Procter & Isabel Seguí
12h45-14h15 Lunch Break
14h20-15h20 “Cinematic Grandmothers, Feminist Historicity” – Elena Gorfinkel’s illustrated lecture
15h30-16h30 Erika Balsom and Teresa Castro in conversation