OSI Releases Films on Women in Post-Soviet Countries

The 2006 Gender Montage films premiered at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival in Prague, March 2–5, 2006. The screenings were sold out days in advance, and special presentations were organized for filmmakers and film experts, including a daylong panel presentation on films addressing labor migration (highlighting the Tajik film New Penelope) coorganized by the International Organization for Migration. The Gender Montage films have already been broadcast on television in four countries, and will be screened on television in the Czech Republic as well as other countries in the region. During the festival many film teams were interviewed by Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe journalists and newspaper journalists from the Czech Republic and the region.

The films will continue to be promoted nationally and internationally in the coming months, including in the following ways:

In Georgia, the film on domestic violence, Return, is being used to lobby for the adoption and implementation of a draft domestic violence law and will be screened during a Parliamentary hearing on domestic violence. Return has been screened among rural women’s organizations and antiviolence networks, which will use the film for domestic violence–awareness training for police and judges. The films have also been distributed among universities. Radio Liberty conducted an interview with the filmmaker, consultant, and producer, which was broadcast March 10 in Georgia, and on March 16 the State Radio Channel of Georgia broadcast another interview on the film and to highlight the problem of domestic violence in the country.

In Kyrgyzstan, the film on polygamy, Elechek, will be screened at an upcoming Parliamentary hearing to highlight the increasing problem of gender discrimination in the family, and will be used by antiviolence crisis centers as part of the international 16 Days Campaign Against Violence Against Women. The films are being promoted and screened by gender studies and resource centers, including at a cross-regional Gender Studies Summer School in Issyk-ul. The heroine of the film was interviewed and will be featured in the Czech Republic edition of Marie Claire magazine. The film crew and gender expert of the film were interviewed by Radio Liberty and the program was broadcast in Kyrgyzstan in March.

In Ukraine, Who Will Sing a Lullaby, which promotes fathers as family caregivers and encourages choices among families not based on traditional roles, was widely presented at the national level to the general public; representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament; the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport of Ukraine; as well as to lawmakers, gender experts, journalists, and representatives of civil society. The film has been broadcast twice on national television and on a regional station. In May, the film will be screened at the Human Rights Documentary Films Days in Kyiv, followed by a roundtable discussion on “new men in Ukraine.”  Starting in May, the film will be screened on the regional TV channels followed by a public awareness campaign in cooperation with press clubs and journalists in all 25 regions of Ukraine. The film has been screened at an international conference on paternity leave in Lithuania and conference on new masculinities in Estonia. In addition, it was included in curricula of sociology courses in two universities in Ukraine.

In Lithuania, Kristina and Christ, on discrimination against women in the Lutheran Church, was selected by the Ministry of Culture as the best Lithuanian documentary of the year, to be featured at the BERLÍNAR film festival in Berlin, Germany. The film premiered nationally at the opening of the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival in November 2005. A screening and presentation of the film collection will be coorganized with Amnesty International in Malme, Sweden, later in the year. The films will be screened at the conference “Gender in Post-Soviet Space: Capitalism and/or Patriarchy” in June, hosted by the Centre for Gender Studies at the European Humanities University International in Vilnius, Lithuania. Gender Montage experts from Lithuanian and Kyrgyzstan will present at the conference. Films will be screened on national television in Lithuania, and plans are being made for a national film festival to premiere all films in the country. At a recent conference promoting fathers on paternity leave, the Gender Montage film from Ukraine was screened. The entire film collection will be distributed among universities and gender studies centers across the country.

In Tajikistan, New Penelope, on the challenges of wives whose husbands have migrated to Russia, has sparked public debates on labor migration in the country. The film will be shown in three regions in April to help change public discourse on women’s economic roles in the family. The film has been used to discuss challenges of labor migration for women and men in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration in Dushanbe and Prague. New Penelope will be distributed among universities in the country and broadcast on a private television station in the country. The film crew and experts were interviewed by Radio Liberty and the program was broadcast in Tajikistan in March.

In Russia, There Are Women in Russian Villages, which addresses the situation of rural women by highlighting domestic violence and the feminization of poverty, was screened for the Donor's Forum community, including representation from the Ministry of Labor, in Moscow in August 2005 as part of a presentation of the report "Gender and Innovations." The film was screened by Internews-Russia and on the national television channel in Kazakhstan, and is scheduled to be screened on 125 national television stations across Russia. The film producers and experts were interviewed by Radio Liberty and the program was broadcast in Russia in March. The film will be distributed among all major universities in the country, particularly targeting gender studies centers. The film will also be screened at a journalist roundtable in Domzhur later in the year to create a public dialogue on women’s poverty and domestic violence.

In Armenia, Woman’s Happiness or Man’s Dignity, addressing traditional women’s roles in Armenia, will have regular screenings throughout the year in collaboration with the Partnership for Open Society, a network of 60 Armenian NGOs that promote human rights advocacy and democracy. Three film festivals are being organized in the country to promote the film among mass audiences.

Collectively, the Gender Montage films aim to show an authentic, honest, and introspective look at women’s lives, and ultimately express the need for governments to fully realize and implement their commitments to women’s rights. On the anniversary of the 10-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action launched at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and the 25-year adoption of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Gender Montage coordinators dedicate these seven films to women’s rights advocates everywhere who work tirelessly to help implement, monitor, and hold their governments accountable to the commitments they made.

For more information, screening schedules, questions, or to request copies of the films, please contact:

Elena Vitenberg
Manager of Gender Montage
Institute for Social and Gender Policy
Email: vitenberg@lfond.spb.ru or mmgp@genderpolicy.ru
Website: www.genderpolicy.ru

Phoebe Schreiner
Program Officer
Network Women’s Program
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
USA
Tel: 1-212-548-0162
Fax: 1-212-548-4616
Email: women@sorosny.org

Monika Ladmanova
Chair of the Executive Board
International Gender Policy Network
Borivojova 105
130 00, Prague 3
Czech Republic
Tel: +420-222-540-979
Fax: +420-222-540-978
Email: monika.ladmanova@osf.cz
Website: www.igpn.net