The Purple Meridians - 2023

Over the past two years, a total of 19 filmmakers based in the three countries have met, online and in person, to discuss obstacles they face as women and non-binary people in the industry, to exchange ideas and resources, and to create together.

The final events of the third edition of The Purple Meridians project took place on the 7^th of December, 2023, in Durango, Basque Country.

Filmmakers from Turkey, Catalunya, Italy were joined by new participants from the Basque Country, Palestine, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Buryatia, Greece, and Syria at the Durango Book-Music-Cinema Fair , one of the most important cultural festivals in Basque Country.

The program, funded from the Eurimages Gender Equality sponsorship and in collaboration with the project IMFilm, made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Durango Book Fair and Suargi Elkartea, strengthened and expanded the connections amongst women filmmakers in Europe and beyond – an objective at the core of The Purple Meridians project.

Two main themes were the focus of this third edition.

The first panel centred the experience of women filmmakers working in the context of war and conflict or who have lived in conflict zones before migrating, and what it means to make cinema in, and in relation to, experiences of conflict.

The second panel focused on the challenges, as well as the revolutionary potential, of conjugating filmmaking work and care work (defined as the care of children, parents, partners or other loved ones), as well as the exclusions women filmmakers with disabilities face in the sector.

The conference was accompanied by a meeting at the cinema department of the University of the Basque Country, a seminar in a secondary school, a seminar at the women’s house and the screening of a programme of the work of the filmmakers of The Purple Meridians extended network, including Palestinian filmmaker Mira Sidawi’s short film Al Jidar: The Wall (2020).

The Online Film Programme

From 7 to 10 December 2023, to coincide with The Purple Meridians’ participation in the Durango Fair, a free streaming programme was produced that could be enjoyed worldwide, based on the themes addressed by the participating female filmmakers in the 2023 Programme:
Women’s Cinema: War, Disabilities and Care

The programme consisted of four films:

Dust Cloths – Ahu Öztürk, 93′ – 2015

Rerooting – The Post (Film) Collective, 19′ – 2023

The Perfect Circle – Claudia Tosi, 73′ – 2014

Mal/Home – Sevinaz Evdike, 10′ – 2018

Films from the program visible on-demand on the page

Women’s Cinema: War, Disability, Care

purplemeridians.org