5th women film festival in Tuebingen, Germany 2005
 

Plakat des Filmfestes 2005 From the 17th to the 23rd of November 2005 TERRE DES FEMMES will organize the 5th film festival for the international day "NO to Violence against Women". The event will take place in Tuebingen/Rottenburg in cooperation with the Women's Representative of Tuebingen and the German-American Institute Tuebingen.  
 
 
Detailed information (PDF):

This year the insights into foreign worlds of women allow us to develop empathy not only towards the lives of women, whose human rights are seriously violated, but also into the eventful, exciting lives of women, who fight for their rights. We also get a chance to see and feel the complex reality of girls and young women in different countries all over the globe, who try to find a balance between traditional societies and modern global development.


Szenenfoto Stray DogsThere will be documentaries and feature films from over 20 countries. Among these are several productions from Asia -Korea, China, Indonesia, India- and independent productions from North America, most of which will be seen in Germany for the first time. In the presence of the director of "When Ruoma was 17" a touching story will evolve in front of  breathtaking landscapes of field terraces in the Chinese mountains, around a girl called Ruoma from the tribe of the Xjani would like to go into the city and ascend to the sky in a huge elevator; the many times awarded Indonesian Film "Whispering Sands"  follows the evolution of a complex mother-daughter relationship in a remote desert village on Java.  "Zulu Love Letter",  accompanies a politically active woman journalist in her confrontation with a traumatic past under Apartheid and "Dirt" discovers the illuminating insights of a Salvadoran Immigrant woman, who is cleaning the luxurious apartments of some of the most successful residents of New York.

Szenenfoto A particular emphasis of the special activities will be the focus on human rights of women in Afghanistan. The official in charge of human rights of the Afghan government Dr. Samar, as well as directors and activists from Afghanistan, will be our guests. The focus will be put on the current situation of Afghan women in the post Taliban society, who are still exposed to extreme limitations. The chances to defend these rights through films, in our case via social engagement in local women projects will also be discussed. Parallel there will be screenings of feature films and documentaries referring to the situation of Afghan women in different epochs of the crisis-ridden country.  


ImageThe visit of Marziyeh Meshkini from the famous Iranian family of film directors Makhmalbaf, is a special highlight. Her last film "The day I became a woman" was shown at the film festival in 2002. Now she will present her new feature film, "Stray dogs" - about straying children in Afghanistan, who do everything in order to accompany their imprisoned mother as night prisoners. This film was also awarded at the Venice film festival. Her husband, Mohsen Makhmalbaf will also be present to introduce his film Kandahar, which before the 11th of September, played an important role in calling world attention towards the situation of Afghan women under the Taliban-regime. 
A special highlight among the documentaries screened in the cinema "Arsenal" will be the German Premiere of Oscar-winner 2005 "Born into Brothels". It deals with the children of prostitutes in an Indian red-light district and at the same time with an admirable project offering them the chance to escape from the vicious circle of the brothels through art and education. There will be films referring to the current TERRE DES FEMMES campaign against honour crimes like "Bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan", as well as to different aspects of women's realities in warlike conflicts, for example in the Israel-Palestinian conflict; A Canadian Indian in "One of many" remembers the time when children of natives were torn out of their families and put into Christian foster homes. And in "El velo de Berta" a very old Chilean woman of the Mapuche-Indians offers the most stubborn resistance against the plans of a big enterprise, to flood and destroy the land of the natives for the construction of a dam. Extremely different realities of lesbian women enable a fresh, undogmatic insight into complex situations of discrimination: mixed Israel-Palestinian couples in "0 degrees of separation", lesbians in orthodox Jewish communities in "Keep not silent", and the often humorous history of 70 years of lesbian biographies in Switzerland in "Katzenball". For the screenings of the documentaries different directors will also be present for dialogue with the audience, as will  Kristina Konrad, who introduces her film "Our America" about Sandinista women who once participated in armed struggle against the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980´s.

The films are being screened in the cinemas "Museum" and "Arsenal" in Tuebingen and "Waldhorn" in Rottenburg. A selection of the films will be shown in Heidelberg and Göttingen in the communal and arthouse cinemas.

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