Cristina Berlini and Letizia Papi will open the sixth edition of the festival. Following them, Gerdien Smit from the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam will illustrate the historical context of the film Donna: Women in Revolt, produced and distributed 43 years ago by the Dutch feminist film collective Cinemien. Smit will explore Cinemien’s pioneering work in promoting feminist films. This film, along with the rest of the Cinemien collection, is now preserved in the Eye Filmmuseum’s archive.
The out-of-competition film Donna: Women in Revolt by Yvonne Scholten from 1980 opens the sixth edition of DocuDonna, which is rich in documentaries that differ greatly in both stylistic approach and themes: from the exploration of themes of loss, trauma, and the search for justice of the Palestinian people in the film Where The Olive Trees Weep to the utopia of Sultana’s Dream where women rule the country while men live in isolation; from the determination of the Scampia community in promoting the cultural growth of the neighborhood in Simme Tutt’uno to the reflection on birth, being parents today, and the journey that makes a woman a mother in its psychological and cultural aspects in Tempo d’attesa (Waiting Time); from the search in family experiences that cease to be private when they become handed down in Ma.tri.mo.nio (Marriage) to the sensation of living in a small picturesque environment that can only give an impression of reality in Diorama; from discovering that it takes courage to exist, even the courage that others didn’t have in Sette Minuti (Seven Minutes) to the reassuring awareness of the beneficial effects of trees on human beings in The walking forest.
Through these films, a non-ritual message of peace is propagated from DocuDonna, which by restoring value to beauty and love urges us to reflect in a non-superficial way on the value of life, to build a landscape of human relationships, places and experiences, toward a horizon of solidarity and cooperation in which it is women who eradicate wars and abuse.
Cristina Berlini
Artistic Director
2024 AWARDS
Sultana’s Dream
Isabel Heguera
Best International Documentary
Tempo d’attesa
Claudia Brignone
Best Italian Documentary
7 Minuti
Alessia Bottone
Best Short Film Documentary
Where Olive Trees Weep
Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo
Special Mention
OTHER DOCUMENTARIES IN COMPETITION
ma·tri·mo·nio
Gaia Siria Meloni
Diorama
Elena Conti
The Walking Forest
Rose Casella, Floris Leeuwenberg
Simme Tutt’uno
Alice Franchi
OUT OF COMPETITION
Donna: Women in Revolt
Yvonne Scholten
THE JURY
Yvonne Scholten
Yvonne Scholten is a writer and journalist, born in 1943 in The Hague, Netherlands. She studied Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. From 1969 to 1982, she worked in Italy as a foreign correspondent for Dutch newspapers, radio and TV. During her time in Italy, she introduced the work of Antonio Gramsci to the Netherlands with her book “Antonio Gramsci. Marxisme als filosofie van de praxis,” published by Van Gennep in 1972.
In 1981, she made the documentary “Donna: vrouwen in verzet” (Women in Revolt) for IKON TV. After returning to the Netherlands, she worked as an editor for Dutch radio and television from 1983 to 2004. Since 2004, she has been working as a freelance researcher on Dutch volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, publishing several studies on this topic. To learn more about Yvonne, see the biography edited by Franco Tirletti for the Encyclopedia of Women: https://www.enciclopediadelledonne.it/edd.nsf/biografie/yvonne-scholten
Lizzie Thynne
Lizzie Thynne is a film-maker and writer. She produces films for galleries, the web and television. Her work has been widely shown in in international festivals, major exhibitions, and on Channel Four. She often explores inventive and challenging ways of representing the past that underline its importance and fascination for the present. Her methods include drama, dance and the creative use of archive. She works with many talented collaborators and also shoots and edits her own films. Her feature documentaries Independent Miss Craigie, On the Border and Playing a Part: The Story of Claude Cahun explore the often neglected role of women in history and the history of the media. Her recent work has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and Brighton Festival.
Gerdien Smit
Gerdien Smit is a policy advisor and researcher at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She initiated and led an oral history pilot study on the Feminist Film Collective Cinemien (1974-1984), supported by a Museum Grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Together with Cecilia Valenti, she authored the article “Archivaktivismus mit Cinemien: Ein Gespräch über das Kuratieren und Bewahren der Geschichte eines transnationalen feministischen Filmverleihnetzwerks,” which appeared in the September 2024 issue of Frauen und Film. Her earlier research focused on cinematic representations of the ‘leaden years’ and the era of ’68 in Italian cinema.
