Mesto Žensk | City of Women - novice / objave, interviews with the authors, poročila - reports, memory - history

Nataša Pečnik: The king is naked - audience talks to Silvia Ferreri

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 07:54:36 +0200

A young director decided to shoot her first film about being a mother in contemporary Italian society. The documentary she made hit into the heart of capitalistic and patriarchal perception of woman just as a working force obligated to work as hard as could manage. This system denies a womans right to be a mother by various discriminations and mobbing and as well as ignores mothers on a work market. Silvia Ferreri discusssed some issues from film and life with the audience who came to see her documantary Uno virgola due (One point two), which represents some reasons for decreasing birth rate. Here are some of her answers to audience questions.

In a film you had interviews which do not seem as a social investigation, bit rather personal discussion with women. Were this women your friends or still is film some bigger investigation?

These are women I met during my research and the point of research was to make women to talk in front of the camera. Being discriminated when women are pregnant or already a mother gives them a feeling of intimate violation and some even talk about physical violence. The research began in an italian magazine, where I published a letter to invite women that had this kind of discrimination to write me a e-mail addres. In a few weeks I received hundred of letters, but when I went to these women to ask to talk in front of the camera, 99 percent said no. Research was really difficult I realised that is much better to have a kind of a confidential chat rather than a problem interview.

How much film material did you have at the end?

It was my first film and I had 53 hours. I'll never do that again! (laugh) You need to shot a lot and you never know what you are going to use. I think that editing the film is something that belongs to the process of creating. All the creation, research and time when I finished the editing took two years.

What were reactions to this film after you showed it?

The reactions were really strong. You see that it is a very low budget film where I had friends working with me and no one was really expecting that any big reaction. It was really strange because after first presentation in Rome there was a whole page talking about documentary that it is announcing this situation in La Reppublica. This are the numbers to look but the faces of the women are much stronger. Next thing was that the TV and radio talked about it but I could feel that the fact was a sort of a new discovery. Everybody pretend not to know and they could not believe that this happened in Italy. Everybody were surprised, but the feeling was that for the first time someone said the king is naked, so they could not ignore it anymore.

I think that success of this film was not only because of the theme but also in the way how you put it togenther was very strong and consisting. What tye of montage did you use?

About the editing: it was difficult. When I arrived to an editor with 53 hours of material, he would say to look for someone else, but he was my friend and it took a very long time for all the material we put together. I was clear about what I want to tell and editor helped me a lot to put my ideas on video. He showed me the line you have to respect. I wanted a film that was really hard to look at. It was not to make the public suffering but I thought documentary concerning this theme must be as hard as living this kind of discrimination. It is difficult to explain, but I didn't want anything to be easier for the public. In didn't want music through the whole film. I really wanted the public to stop at a very single frame and word.

When we were deciding in which order to put story we arrived to »crescendo« of pain with giving birth. The woman that talks in the end about mobbing she really seems calm but the things that she is saying are so strong and hard. How she decides not to go through that door anymore, it is the hardest decision she mad in her life. But in the end she will be reborn, she went through much pain and sickness, she took medicine and drugs to get better, but she will be reborn and find another job. The end of the film is beginning of life.

Are you an activist in any feminist movement? What was the background of your idea?

It was as simple: I was talking to a friend and she told me what was happening to her and I couldn't believe. Then I talked to other mothers and they said the same things. I realised which media I could use to talk about this theme. When you see something really bad in your country why do not announce this thing? Is everybody lying?

Will you make a documentary about another theme or a continuation of this theme?

I wrote a book about this theme. It is about the research and my way of reproaching it. I think people are expecting more documentaries in that way but there are many things I would like to denounce or to let people know about them. I am not a director and I am not into making another film just straight after this. This film was born from a really strong need to talk about this. I prefer not to make another social documentary because I know how much energy you have to put into it. It only works if you need to talk.

How much do you consider yourself as a feminist?

Not at all. What is good for that film is that everybody liked it. The catholics liked it because it was about family and the left party liked it, because it is a social theme film. I do not share feminist idea about women making it alone. This film is made with many man and it is special, beause all were working with this film for free. They wanted to make the film and talk about injustice and I do not have a feeling that we are on a different sides with men. We can fight for rights if we work together. Most of the time men fight for our rights as much as we do.

Did you see how much man do take maternity leave instead of the mother?

In a time of the research there were six percent of man to take maternity leave and many of them had problems in Italy. Father is a father and he goes to work and if you stay home to be with your baby you are considered either you don't want to work or you are not a man. Man wages are much higher and if you take maternity leave your wage goes down. Man goes to work, because he earns more money. I think is more that man »has« to go to work and woman stays at home with baby. I had an interview with a father who took a maternity leave and at the end he was fired.

Was it much easier for women to have babies hundred years ago and why it was if it was?

Yes, it was easier, I think. Women were not working and they lived in big families ... They had many problems, but not this problem. When you live in a big family and a lot of women around you had babies before, they stay and teach you how to do it. It was their job to make children and to take care of them and their man. Very big change came in fifties and sixties when women started to work but they were not ready to work. My mother was the first generation in my family that became both - mother and worker. They had to learn how to deal with both of these things. In my generation we share housekeeping and babies with men, but in sixties my father went to work and children were not his problem. For her generation was much more difficult than for us.

Alenka Perpar: Kaj si boste sposodili? (komentar)

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:25:54 +0200

    Vi se ne slišite več. ... Radi bi bili Uslišani. Intermezzo Irena Tomažin. Grozljivka pokvarjenih robotov in imitacija lutke. Tudi lutka je uničena. Enkratnost predstave je v tem, ker je razbita v prikazovanju razbitosti. "Ne maram svoje predstave." Smo slišali ob demoliranju postavljene scene.
    Predstava se latentno giblje na različnih ravneh (katera raven vam je najbolj všeč, stvar okusa) kljub elementom, ki smo jih vajeni. Konceptualno, instrumentalno, improvizacijsko in vsebinsko se staplja in razbija skozi zamegljenost, kar daje predstavi svojevrsten pridih. Predstavo lahko dojemamo predvsem abstraktno intelektualno, ne čutno afirmacijsko, čeprav ponavadi težimo k temu. Intelektualno se skozi to abstrakcijo izgublja v umetniškem in tudi preko tega v lepem (kaj je lepo?). Konceptualno je razbito, uničeno v abstraktnem. Ko bruhne glas iz nas, kateri je to izraz? Ujetost izraza v telo: tvoje, moje, v čigavo telo? Če ne morete umeti, če je nerazumljivo o čem govorim, vam Irena Tomažin posodi resnični odraz na (S)pozabi kaprice.
    Predstavo in performativnost v njej lahko dojemate in občutite na več načinov, odvisno do česa čutite afiniteto.
    Nekateri si ogledujejo vse predstave v tehnični izvedbi; kako je izvedeno prikazano. S tem se lahko igrate tudi tukaj. Pogled skozi retrospektivo ti. sodobnih umetnosti bi na tem mestu zgrešil glavno noto prikazanega. Estetska linija je popolnoma razsrediščena in je težko podati neko izjavo. V tem je tudi čar, ki pripelje do sladkega glavobola.
    Če ste si ogledali Kaprico, avtorica tega komentarja si je na žalost ni, ste ujeti v njeno panoptiko. Sled Kaprice je seveda tudi tukaj in v tem primeru ne morete preko primerjave in dojemanja na prejšnje. Avtorica tega komentarja si je ni ogledala, kot smo že rekli, zato ni ujeta v to primerjavo. Govorim v tretji osebi tako kot Irena Tomažin v napovedniku. Norost, ki ni norost. Os je v furstraciji telesa, glasu in predvsem izraza, ki daje videz norega, norost v kateri ni nič "norega", temveč je samo furstrirajoče. Navajenost na perpetuum mobile tragične logike današnjega sveta.
    Gibljemo se na dveh ravneh: na prikrito politični, v smislu vi ste izposojeni, lutke skozi izposojo glasu (izraza) in na telesni/plesni ravni, telo kot metafora za ples življenja, skozi katerega prihaja glas. Na začetku te predstava zapeljuje z navidezno, lažno repeticijo in slow-motionom. Nato sledi počasno, a vztrajno razbitje ravne linije. Če ima kdo averzijo do nezloščenosti, naj ne hodi na take predstave, ki sprožajo razbitost odgovora, odgovora na. Linija v večplastnost in razdvojenost osebnosti v spomin, pozabo in tuje. Ne gre samo za spremembo tona, od časa do časa se Irena Tomažin igra tudi z barvo glasu. Prevzema vloge iz spomina, sedanjosti in tebe (če povzamemo nekatere koncepte te predstave). Posoja vam svoj glas, vi ste lutka, se ne slišite več. Tako dobimo njen glas in njen izraz tudi v napovedniku, knjižici Mesta žensk, ko nam Irena Tomažin sama napove kako slišati njen glas, njen izraz. Subverzivnost proti lastnemu v dugo. Razcep samega v drugo.
    Kaj si boste sposodili, kje si boste sposodili, da boste uslišani, ko ste izgubili lastno, ker samo še sledite?
    V okviru Mesta žensk se ta predstava s svojimi zamaskiranimi vsebinami v mnogočem navezuje na nekatere tematike in vprašanja, ki jih odpirajo tudi vsebine drugih dogodkov na tem festivalu. Zato je komentar na to predstavo nedokončan; tukaj je samo kratek izbruh.

Julijana Božič: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - a situation for dancing / situacija za plesanje

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:59:35 +0200

Stara Elektrarna
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - a situation for dancing / situacija za plesanje
Even Steven / Tudi Steven
Antonija Livingstone (Kanada) in Heather Kravas (ZDA)

Prvi vtis:
Meditacija o
enakem in različnem
skozi medij dveh različnih teles.
Ponavljanje. Ponavljanje. Ponavljanje. Ponavljanje.
Varijacija vsebin, občutkov.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kontinuiteta, prehajanje, rojevanje. Kontrastni detajli.

Andreja Kopač: Mesto žensk – med Cankarjem in Metelkom

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:39:55 +0200

Festival Mesto žensk je med slovenskimi festivali, ki se ukvarjajo s sodobno umetnostjo, gotovo nekaj posebnega. Njegovo poslanstvo je včeraj ob otvoritvi jedrnato ponazorila Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik, ko je dejala, da festival, ki ga sestavljajo ženske avtorice, ne govori zgolj o ženskih, temveč o splošnih, univerzalnih temah. Festival prav tako ni omejen z nobenimi koncepti in konceptualizmi, niti kar zahteva vsebine, prostor, niti publiko. V tem smislu predstavlja kar nekakšen zarez čez celotno sodobno umetnost: tako scensko, glasbeno, filmsko, vizualno in literarno na relaciji od mainstrema do obrobja kulturno-umetniških vsebin, kontekstov in prostorov. Od Cankarjevega doma do Metelkove.

Rdeča nit letošnjega festivala je judovsko-nemška politična teoretičarka Hannah Arendt. Letos mineva stota obletnica rojstva ženske, ki se je ukvarjala izključno z moškimi temami – vendar je to počela po žensko – in zmagala (z jezikom festivala: ostala zapisana v zgodovini in ušla pozabi spomina.) Arendtova ni marala, da jo imajo za filozofinjo, saj je menila, da se filozofija ukvarja izključno z esencialnimi problemi človeka, medtem ko je njo zanimal človek v skupnosti. Tako kot festival Mesto žensk zanima ženska v skupnosti. Mesto žensk pomeni skupnost, v kateri so ustvarjalke in organizatorke ženske – z izjemo (ki potrjuje pravilo) Joa Valenčiča, ki bo imel predavnje o ameriških Slovenkah. V tej skupnosti je tako prostor za vse teme, ki se bolj ali manj dotikajo vprašanj zgodovine in spomina, letošnje popularne teme na področju sodobnih umetnosti. Mnogo gostujočih avtoric je na svojih specialističnih področjih svetovno priznanih (na primer klaviaturistka Maud Nellison, vizualna umetnica Sanja Iveković in teoretičarka Svetlana Boym), vendar so širši publiki manj znane. Zato je temeljni princip delovanja festivala, ki je v enaki meri namenjan tako teoretičarkam, filmarkam, gledališčnicam, pesnicam, filozofinjam, glasbenicam, političarkam kot njihovim moškim kolegom in potom-kam/cem, princip Aktivnosti. Tako je treba iti stvari, ki so v tem tednu skoncentrirane na več dogodkov prav vsako popoldne in pozno v noč na različnih koncih Ljubljane, enostavno pogledat in se prepričat – kaj počnejo Ženske pri delu. Pozor!

V soboto, 30. septembra 2006, so v varšavski Palači kulture izbrali novo Miss sveta. Najlepša med 104 kandidatkami je postala 18-letna svetlolasa Čehinja Tatjana Kuchanova, ki je za nagrado prejela 35 milijonov tolarjev in kup dragocenih daril. Tatjana Kucharova, ki je še dijakinja, se je rodila v Trnavi in odraščala v Opočnu, rada pa ima jahanje in tenis. Želi si študitari, rada pa bi postala tudi manekenka. Tudi njo čaka veliko dela.

Vir: Miss sveta 2006 prihaja iz Češke (povzeto po AP, STA) Delo, 2. oktober 2006, str. 28

3. 10. 2006

Lada Stevanović: Tradition and Resistance

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:46:40 +0200

Lada Stevanović:
Tradition and Resistance: Elements of Funeral Rite in the Pacifist Movement of Women in Black during the Yugoslav wars

Abstract: From the antiquity on, the presence of death requested women’s presence. Through the participation in the funeral ritual and lamentation on the grave, women actually intervened in the public sphere. The Ancient polis introduced laws to restrict women’s role around death, because lamentation and other funerary rituals opened a large space of power, access to public discourse and presentation to women. This paper is an attempt to analyze and compare the Ancient and the contemporary death rituals, and to establish certain structural similarities in the public/political impact of women using these rituals to present their view on war. The contemporary parallel, Women in Black activism in many parts of the warring former Yugoslavia, but also elsewhere in the world, should offer some patterns of anthropological practices which can be interpreted as continuities.