"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."- Arundhati Roy
Dear WOMEX community,
What a year it has been so far. What a year!
As we all experience and navigate our way through new personal and collective realities, we continue to find ways to move along in resilience, support and creativity.
And what better way to move forward, than through progressive stories and innovative storytelling? At WOMEX Film we believe that stories have the timeless power to connect us, germinate new ideas and play a crucial role in shaping our futures.
Earlier this week I read an interview which referred to stories as seeds, sown by storytellers. When someone engages with a story, they nurture it and help it grow, like giving water to a seed so that it may grow into a plant that can bear fruit, pollinate, provide shade and so on; and then maybe there is a different microclimate.
Powerful storytelling is what lies at the heart of the WOMEX 20 Film Programme. Through a carefully curated selection of 21 documentaries, the programme provides a space for reflection, re-examination and connection through a range of relevant stories told by diverse perspectives and voices that challenge the status quo.
With WOMEX going digital, the entire selection of films is made available to WOMEX 20 Digital Participants worldwide to stream online on the virtualWOMEX platform for an extended period from the 15 - 25 October 2020. We wanted to make sure you have enough time to go through all the films.
For this year's online programme we offer two formats: the digital market screenings and the digital film library. The market screenings are handpicked documentaries that push forth synergies between the film and music industry -introducing music, artists and the histories behind them. The latter features an extended selection of curated films, highlighting projects, cross cultural-collaborations and research-driven films along with previews of unreleased films.
We are immensely grateful to all the filmmakers, producers and distributors who graciously shared with us their incredible work and time through these tumultuous periods of uncertainty. Without each one of them, we would not have a programme.Get to know the people behind the films in our weekly film interview series - Reflections.
The WOMEX film programme as a platform is designed to get the independent music and film communities to further exchange with each other, so we urge you to use this year's films as a jump-off point to speak to each other in the virtual space of this digital edition of WOMEX.
Putting this year's expo together has been a learning curve for all of us, and we continue to explore ways to engage with you before, during and beyond the WOMEX days on virtualWOMEX.
Here is my virtualWOMEX profile and here is my colleague Luca's. We look forward to connecting with you and celebrating this year’s stories.
Take good care!
Sana Rizvi
Curator, WOMEX Film.
Film Programme Dates: 15 - 25 October 2020
Check the Complete WOMEX 20 Film Programme
PS: Make sure your virtualWOMEX profile is up to date with all your details and a photo so that other WOMEX 20 Digital Delegates can easily connect with you.
article posted by:Sana Rizvi, Piranha Arts