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Film Festivals and War: A Fe-Male Perspective (1939–present)

Project description

Women in wartime film festivals

Despite women’s involvement in wartime film festivals (FFs), no global study has yet analysed their roles in FFs during ongoing wars or theorised what we can learn from them. In line with the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, the FESTWAR FM project analyses FFs and war from a gender perspective. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the project will investigate the role of FFs as places of memory in conflict situations, focusing on women’s positions and comparing global responses to three armed conflicts: WWII, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine. It will analyse five prestigious ‘A-list’ FFs and the major FFs operating in Yugoslavia and Ukraine and will provide a monograph, two academic articles, and an online digital archive (ODA), including a podcast.

Objective

A transdisciplinary project traversing cultural history, film and film festival studies, gender studies and digital humanities, FESTWAR FM will offer the first sustainable analysis of film festivals (FF) and war from a gender perspective. Despite numerous examples of women’s involvement in wartime FFs, no global study has yet analysed their roles in FFs in the context of ongoing wars, nor theorised what we might learn from it. The project will break new ground by investigating FF’s evolution as places of memory in conflict situations with a specific focus on women’s position within this process. This will be done through three case studies connected to three armed conflicts that have occurred in Europe since the creation of the world's first FF in Venice in 1932: WWII (1939-1945), Yugoslavia (1991-1999), and Ukraine (2014-present). The research will compare global responses to these wars through analysis of the world’s five most prestigious ‘A-list’ FFs (Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance), with the European and local response of the major FFs operating in the war affected Yugoslavia (Pula, Belgrade, Sarajevo) and Ukraine (Kyiv, Odesa). The analysis will be organized around three categories (CAT): CAT1 – (wo)men on the screen and behind the cameras; CAT2 – (wo)men in decision-making structures; CAT3 – (wo)men on the stage and the red carpet. The project will produce a monograph, two academic articles and an online digital archive (ODA) including a) a data visualisation chart, b) a selection of film extracts, photographs and archival materials illustrating each case study, and c) a podcast with interviews with women engaged in analysed FFs during wars in Yugoslavia and Ukraine. In doing so, it will introduce a gendered innovation in the field of war-related FF studies, enable digitisation and digital distribution of knowledge, data and sources, and provide a public space for (marginalised) women’s voices in line with the EC Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Net EU contribution
€ 280 202,88
Address
DORSODURO 3246
30123 Venezia
Italy
Region
Nord-Est Veneto Venezia
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)