Feminist Useful Cinema: Women’s Films, Activism and Global Networking during the UN Decade for Women (1975-85), par Dalila Missero
Séance à 18h à l’Ecole nationale des chartes, 65 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris – Salle Delisle
Pour la visio: écrire à recherche@chartes.psl.eu
In this talk I propose the concept of “Feminist Useful Cinema” as a framework to investigate the multiple uses of film in the context of feminist activism and advocacy during the UN Decade of Women, a period characterized by growing transnational exchanges and the so-called ‘NGO-isation’ of the women’s movement. The Decade was also marked by Cold War tensions and the increasing visibility of ‘Third World’ feminisms, with media playing a considerable part in fostering solidarity networks across geopolitical divides. In this seminar, I will discuss the role played by inter-governmental bodies, like the United Nations and UNESCO in the production of women’s films, particularly non-fiction films by women from the Global South, and how the motivations of these institutions to support women filmmakers differed/clashed with those of other actors, like broadcasters, independent producers and NGOs, which were often involved in co-producing the same projects. To better illustrate this, I will present my research on two UN-sponsored film series, “As Women See it” (UN/Faust Films, 1983) and “Time of Our Lives/Female Focus” (Channel 4/UN, 1985) which involved women filmmakers and television practitioners from countries like Peru (Maria Barea), Senegal (Safi Faye), UK (Broadside), Italy (Annabella Miscuglio), India (Deepa Danraj). By analyzing these case studies through a feminist approach to “useful cinema”, I will illustrate how these films supported different institutional, political, and artistic goals, representing sites of struggle and negotiation as well as tools to build/disrupt alliances and networks.
Dalila Missero is lecturer in film studies at Lancaster University. Her research interests include feminist filmmaking, critical archival studies, digital humanities, audiences and reception, transnational cinema. She is currently working on a book project reconstructing the film and media cultures of the UN Decade of Women (1975-85). In 2022, she published her first monograph Women, Feminism, and Italian Cinema. Archives from a Film Culture (Edinburgh University Press), which won the runner-up award of the BAFTSS 2023 Publication Awards.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Stéphanie-Emmanuelle Louis (24 mars 2025). Séance du 3 avril 2025. Histoire culturelle du cinéma. Consulté le 15 juillet 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/13k5w