The Engaged Female Gaze: Power & Perspective

15 Jun, 2025, 1.30 PM @ Atelier Gardens

Event language: English

From their roots in journalism to their evolution as filmmakers, three women share their transformative journeys, revealing what drives them both then and now. Working in high-risk environments, they’ve risked personal safety to capture the truth, often in perilous and unpredictable situations. Their stories challenge norms and highlight the significance of the women’s perspective in storytelling. Reflecting on their experiences, they discuss both the challenges and empowering moments of being women in this demanding field.

Tickets

Program Info

Conversation + Q+A

What happens when women take control of the lens? In this conversation, directors dive into how women in film and journalism challenge dominant norms, navigate personal and political risks, and harness the power of the female gaze. Together, they explore how women’s storytelling opens up bold, nuanced perspectives and reshapes the way we see the world.

Guests

Havana Marking

Havana Marking is a British producer and documentary director. Her best-known film is Afghan Star (2009), which won Best Director and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film follows participants in the Afghan version of American Idol, an unlikely endeavor after 30 years of Taliban rule and war. In 2013, she released Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, about an international jewel thief group involved in over 150 robberies.

Nanfu Wang

Nanfu Wang is an acclaimed filmmaker and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient, known for her documentaries exploring the tension between state power and individual freedom. Her works, including Hooligan Sparrow (2016), I Am Another You (2017), One Child Nation (2019), and In the Same Breath (2021), have earned widespread recognition, including Academy Award shortlists.

Karolina Lucyna Domagalska

Karolina Lucyna Domagalska is an activist, reporter, and documentary director. She trained as an anthropologist and holds a degree in gender studies. Author of the book "I Won’t Apologize for Giving Birth: Stories of Families with In Vitro", a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuscinski Award. She also created "Something for A", the first podcast about abortion in Poland.

Moderation

Aleksandra Nowak

Writer, cultural studies expert, and activist. Author of an essay collection on rage after Poland’s stricter abortion law, and co-author of a book on slut-shaming. Co-founder of the feminist magazine @grls_room and the @adelfi.space project. She collaborates with media, cultural institutions, and NGOs, creating journalistic, curatorial, and performative texts, and leading panels and workshops. Long active in Warsaw, she now lives in Berlin.