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Women Videoletters: a second text on war and globalizationInvitation
for an international women videoletter exchange. Women from all over
the world produce a short videoletter about their view on war and globalization
and exchange it with all the others. Watch the invitation-clip and see
the invitation text below for more information. Contact: videoletters@mail2world.com
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Klicke
auf das obenstehende Bild und siehe ein Video. |
What point of views do women, straight, lesbian and transgender women, have
on the daily life of war or on the 'normality' of war? How do we define what
war is?
the project
started during the war in afghanistan
The idea for this project came up at a meeting around video activism in Berlin
in October 2001, where there were about ten women from different video initiatives
from India, Germany, Mexico and Switzerland who felt the need to react to
the follow ups of September 11th: this was first of all the war in Afghanistan
but also measures like for example the installation of the racist security
laws in Germany. A great need was felt for the exchange of critical feminist
perspectives from women of different descents and contexts.
In 2002 the first edition of videoletters by women was produced by women activists
and filmmakers from India, Chiapas/Mexico, Berlin/Germany, USA and France.
This first compilation was shown at demonstrations, political events, university
seminars and filmfestivals.
"this
is not war" film work on the issue of war & the 'normality'
of war
We have discussed films like "Who hangs the laundry, washing, war and
electricity in Beirut" (by Tina Naccache and Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdottir),
"Asurot" ("detained" by Anat Aven and Ada Ushpiz), "News
Time" (by Azza El Hassan) or "Queer Documentary in Wartime: A New
View of the Israeli Palestinian Crisis" (by Ellen Flanders) as rare examples
which show the everyday life or the 'normality' of war from a personal point
of view of women.
In "Who hangs the laundry, washing, war and electricity in Beirut"
Tina Naccache is tells us about war while she is washing her clothes
a series of actions which is influenced by the shortage of water and electricity
as an effect of the war in Beirut:
"People who haven't gone through a war think that war is when shells
are falling on people's heads and people are being killed. This is not war,
this is just the beginning of war. War is when the canons have stopped, where
there is no more violence against individuals, when there are no more buildings
being destroyed, where there is no more fear and one looks around and sees
what's left over from the war. This is war, the leftover of what we think
is war."
In "Asurot" three Palestinian women live in a house in Hebron: the front part of the house belongs to Israel, the back part to the Palestinian autonomous territory. The Israelian soldiers force their way into the house whenever they like to and the women have to deal with the permanent presence of the soldiers. In "News Time" Azza El Hassan talks about Ramallah being a point of media interest. She shows the presence of lots of different tv-teams and -cameras. Her film describes how this effects her work as a filmmaker, the conflict itself and the construction of masculinity of the young Palestinian participants of the fights against Israel. In "Queer Documentary in Wartime: A New View of the Israeli Palestinian Crisis" (a documentary-in-progress) we hear how the ways queer Palestinians and Israelis live their lesbian and gay identities collide with the situation of occupation. Through these conflicts is thematized, what 'war' means. And Ellen Flanders connects the reflection of her own family story with her critique on the current situation in Israel and Palestine.
Videoletters can provide a means to document projects or political actions, to make statements or to analyse daily life.
Questions
that we're asking ourselves
In consideration of the urgency of war, what happens to the feminist and lesbian
structures, projects and networks we rely on? What happens to the desires
to create different practices and ways of living?
"In a moment of global crisis people don't know why they should care
about queer politics, about transgenderism and so on and it makes our
concerns seem as if they are petty. They are not and they need to be
folded into these anti-war-agendas. But we have to make explicit the
ways in which queer politics and anti-war politics and anti-capitalist
politics work together. And i think in many ways that's sort of a big
task."
Judith Halberstam, San Diego, USA, videoletter-videoclip
The videoletters
could connect the normality' of war and globalization with the agendas
of feminist or queer politics. They offer an opportunity to develop a
network where we can exchange our differing standpoints. In the places where
the videos are shown they could also function as a feminist statement against
war.
In our group we have different ideas of "feminism", "women's
perspectives", "queer or lesbian/gay/transgender issues". Some
of us understand videoletters as a project, where women from different parts
of the world exchange their differing experiences, analysis or ideas of resistance.
Others understand a feminist analysis as one, which makes visible experiences
or standpoints systematically concealed in the media and political representation.
Or there is an interest in the question how war and globalization produce
and construct special kinds of gender- or sexual positions and relations.
Some want to find out, how a genderspecific division of labour and sexualised
violence are related to war, the military and nationalism. Anne from Berlin
is especially interested to hear from Tejal and Natasha from Bombay about
their experiences with these issues, related to the religious-fundamentalistic
motivated genocid in Gujarat. And Nadja would like to hear from Ana and the
women from Mexico how this may be related to Chiapas with its ongoing low
intensity war. When we speak about "queer" perspectives we want
to address a common critique of sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia
and racism, which for some of us is covered by this term.
We would like to begin an exchange of interests and questions between the
participants of the videoletters project.
How can you participate?
The videoletters should be between 1 and 15 minutes in length. The character
of a video as a "letter" may be a starting point to think about
the format of your videos which could be addressed to women in all regions
of the world or addressed to women in a specific region. We think it would
be also a nice idea if we all showed ourselves in our videoletters
as it is interesting for all of us to get to know the makers, the "senders"
of the videoletters.
We copy all the videoletters, put them together in one compilation and then
send them back to the original senders (which means that you get all videoletters
made). Each author of a videoletter decides in what context she wants to show
the videoletters (at political events, festivals, exhibitions, feminist meetings,
cinemas
).
All videoletters
belong to all the women who contribute their work!
The first screening date is the World Social Forum in Bombay/Mumbai, India
on January 16 21, 2004. We could either meet there or/and organize
local screenings during the time of the forum.
Women who are part in the organization of the upcoming world social forum
want to discuss more feminist issues than it has been the case in the last
forums in Porto Alegre. Therefore we think it would be a good idea to support
this wish to change the focus of this critique on globalization in a way which
includes gender- and sexual politics. In advance of the forum some women in
Mumbai will organize a 2-3 days long international queer & feminist meeting
and during the forum they will provide a queer space and a film festival on
gender and sexual plurality.
A non-funded project
The project 'women videoletters' hasn't received any funding yet. Some of
us think that it is better to work on this project without official money
and be independent in a political and artistic sense. After consideration
however, we are in the process of trying to get at least some money for those
who can't do a videoletter without financial support and for costs of material.
But since it is difficult here to get money for a feminist film-project and
for a project quite open in form and content, we can't promise that we will
succeed in this. If some of you have access to funding please get in touch
with us.
If you want to participate in the project, here's some further information:
Write a note to videoletters@mail2world.com telling you want to participate.
And send your comments and ideas concerning the project and the issues mentioned.Please
send your tapes (preferably: miniDV, DV-Cam, Beta SP, otherwise VHS) before
November 15th, 2003 so we can manage to send the sample of videoletters back
to you by the end of December 2003. Please send one original version plus
the transcript and the written English translation and, if possible,
also a version with English subtitles.
If you cannot produce a videoletter this time but you are interested in the
project, please write us a note anyway!
This invitation comes together with a videoclip (if you haven't got it yet, please send us a mail and we will send you the clip as CD or VHS-copy).
All our best,
from Berlin
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