International Programme

Friday, May 4

7 pm

This year’s International film selections present moving stories, which despite their geographic distances, are strikingly similar in their deeper resonance into the common experience of all women.

Transnational Tradeswomen
Director: Vivian Price
2006 - 62 minutes
Distributor: Women Make Movies

Investigating current and historical roles of women in the construction industry worldwide, former construction worker Vivian Price discovers that women in many parts of the Asia have been doing construction labour for centuries. But now, development and the resulting mechanization are pushing them out of the industry. The stories of women workers from Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Pakistan, and Japan disturb the notion of “progress” that many people hold, demonstrating that modernization, education and technology don’t always result in gender equality and the alleviation of poverty.

Magana
Director: Stephanie Pihery
2006 - 37 minutes
Distributor: GIV

Magana is the voice of hip-hop in Niger. This documentary explores the contact between a western girl and the rap movement that she used to see the expression of cultural imitation and as the standardization of the planet. Behind a trend that incites, above all, reluctance, she discovers a genuine willingness of social implication and commitment for the fight of freedom of expression and for the wake of the social conscience in Niger, Africa and everywhere in the world.