International Women’s Day

By Hope Cook, Film Programmer

Wednesday 8 March marks International Women’s Day, a day for celebrating the achievements of women and increasing the visibility of inequity. This year’s national campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity encouraging us all to start talking about why "equal opportunities are no longer enough."

The subject of equity in the film industry is a hot topic. Particularly in the era of #MeToo and Oscar 2023 awards’ failure to recognise a single female director this season. Despite Sarah Polley (Women Talking, Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), Nana Mensah (Queen of Glory) and Alice Diop (Saint Omer) and more, receiving enormous critical acclaim for their work. When films made by women aren’t being celebrated at the awards (big hurray to Charlotte Wells for her outstanding Debut award for Aftersun at the Baftas), it’s important that they’re supported at the box office.

The films that Showroom Cinema has programmed for the day highlight women’s stories and are made by women who have been overlooked despite their wit, creativity and resourcefulness. Highlighting where resources for women are not yet equitable within the film industry and wider society. We look at a wide variety of women’s stories and lived experiences to consider some intersections but encourage you to do your own digging on films which explore women’s experiences such as; Girl Picture, Breakfast on Pluto, The Drovers Wife, Skate Kitchen and Girlhood.

To start the day, we begin with the incredibly short, yet complete film works of Fronza Woods, a director whose work has been hard to see in the UK and even more devastatingly unheard of, The films of Fronza Woods have since been restored together with a newly recorded interview with the director. Comprising Killing Time and Fannie’s Film, Fronza’s work brings to the fore the lives of two individual black women, one working class and one middle class, showing both to be memorable and clever with rich inner worlds and desires. The films were created at a time when black female filmmakers began to make inroads into the film industry across America through the mediamaking activist movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s which included artists Julie Dash and Kathleen Collins. Fronza Wood's two self-contained shorts are no less impactful today and are extraordinary cinematic achievements.

In the evening, we are hosting a one-off feature screening of Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman, presenting Cassatt’s (1844 – 1926) astonishing prints, pastels and paintings. This film introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted. The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars help tell this riveting tale of great social and cultural change; focusing on a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely rewritten. 

Afterwards, we return to the 1970s with Agnès Varda’s French folk-pop musical One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (L’une Chante L’Autre Pas). Filmed on stunning 35mm silver stock and restored in 2K this film is dreamy with a glistening resolution. Beginning in 1962, this is the tender story of an enduring friendship between two wildly different women – Pauline, who later changes her name to Pomme (Valérie Mairesse) and Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard), are brought together during the struggle of the rights movement in 1970s France. Told with Varda's wonderful wit and playful artistic style. Pomme, is impulsive and outspoken in her self-expression. Suzanne is deeply thoughtful but has difficulty acting on her desires. Magnificently the film holds space for both women to be themselves, embracing maternity whilst advocating for the freedom of choice; all the while maintaining a constant female friendship. Its a welcome reminder to the women in my life who have held me up, helped me out and stuck around even though there may be long periods of separation. 

Director Agnes Varda was one of the most distinguished voices of The French New Wave, herself, an advocate for the Viel Law, releasing One Sings the Other Doesn’t when the law legalising abortion in France was still at risk of repeal.

Throughout March, Showroom Cinema will continue to play F-rated films which are created by women and that tell women’s stories including; The Quiet Girl, Joyland, Women Talking, Aftersun, Rye Lane and 1976.