Motherhood on Trial looks at public reaction to the case of Susan Smith/ the young mother who confessed to drowning her two sons in a South Carolina lake after claiming they were abducted by a black man. The documentary combines multiple layers of audio and video to create a complex tapestry of sound and image that emphasizes the complexity of the issues and explores how the background/ experiences and agenda of each character influences his or her telling of the story.

The public presentation

The Purple Meridians is a joint project by three organisations in Spain, Italy and Turkey that brings together eighteen women filmmakers, six from each country, to debate the difficulties faced by women working in the filmmaking industry and wider screen sector. The aim is to share strategies for overcoming common obstacles and set up a support and exchange network for future partnerships crisscrossing Europe from east to west.

The project is made up of three workshops, an online roundtable, onsite screenings in Barcelona, Turin and Diyarbakır and an online programme featuring a selection of films by the participating filmmakers. The films, subtitled in English, will be made available on the streen.org platform, free of charge on the first day (to be decided on the basis of the onsite screenings) and then on a pay-per-view basis for three months.

Once the onsite and online workshops have been held in Barcelona, Turin and Diyarbakır,  each group will watch the videos of the workshops held by the other two groups and draw up a set of conclusions to share at the online international roundtable.

The filmmakers resident in Catalonia ( Anna Giralt Gris, Raquel Marques, Pilar Monsell , Ro Caminal, Lara Vilanova i Lili Marsans) will meet at the Centre Cívic Pati Llimona , where they will connect with Turin (as part of the Torino Film Festival) and Diyarbakır (Turkey).

OVNI, Mostra de Films de Dones i l’Alternativa will present a programme of films made up of two films by each of the eighteen participating filmmakers.

The remaining shorts will be screened on the same day on a continuous loop on a monitor at the Pati Llimona Civic Centre.

All the films will be available from 3 December in their original language with English subtitles on purplemeridians.org .

1- Spain Workshop (onsite)

     Monday 15 November , 4 pm to 8 pm

    Sala Raval, CCCB, Not open to the public

2- Spain Workshop (online)

    Monday 22 November , Not open to the public

3- International Roundtable (online)

    Saturday 27 November, 11 am to 12.30 pm

    Open to the public, The roundtable will be held in English

4- The Purple Meridians Screenings

    Thursday 2 December , 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm

    Centre Cívic Pati Llimona, Free admission

    Films in their original language with Catalan subtitles

The Purple Meridians is a joint project by three organisations in Spain, Italy and Turkey with the support of 2021 Eurimages Gender Equality Sponsorship.

http://purplemeridians.org/

http://purplemeridians.org/

The Purple Meridians III

The Purple Meridians III

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 audiovisual industry, to exchange ideas and resources, and to create together.

Preparations are underway in Italy , Turkey , Catalonia and the Basque Country for the third edition of The Purple Meridians 2023 , with the Gender Equality sponsorship by Eurimages .

This year, the project will have its public and main event at the Durango Book-Music-Cinema Fair on 7 December . Durango is a city in the Basque Country and has been chosen by the organizers of The Purple Meridians to expand even further – as is the purpose of this project – the connections among women filmmakers in Europe and beyond.

The choice of the Basque Country was therefore a ‘natural’ development as Basque filmmakers followed the first two Purple Meridians albeit ‘from a distance’. The program in the Basque Country will be possible thanks to the collaboration with the Durango Book Fair and Suargi Elkartea.

Two main themes would be the focus of this third event:

the difficulties, responses, proposals for women in the audiovisual industry to conjugate work and care work (maternity, care of children, care of elderly, care of ill partner/family member etc) and for women with disabilities.

These two themes will be discussed in a 2-session conference in Durango to be held on 7 December 2023.

Two filmmakers directly and most affected by this situation will be leading the discussion, Lisa Çalan and Ahu Ozturk . The two filmmakers, both Kurdish, will work with Basque filmmakers (who are exploring these issues in their films and who this year will be presenting a manifesto about ‘care’), as well as with the other filmmakers of The Purple Meridians (from Italy and Catalonia), not only in exposing the problems, but also in proposing answers, keeping in mind that one of the pillars of The Purple Meridians project is creating networks among women filmmakers in different countries.

The speakers will be:

Lisa Çalan, Ahu Öztürk (from Turkey, TPM), internationally acclaimed Basque actress Itziar Ituño (La Casa de Papel), Basque directors Ainhoa Olaso (winner of the Aukera program) and Estibaliz Urresola (awarded in Berlin 2023), Catalan director Lara Vilanova (TPM), Italian director Claudia Tosi (TPM), Argentine scriptwriter based in Belfast Luciana de Mello , Lebanese director Mary Jirmanus Saba , Kurdish director Sevinaz Evdike (Women Filmmakers Collective Kezi), and director Elli (Post Collective - Buriatia, Greece, Syria, Belgium).

The day will be accompanied by the screening at Irudienea (12:30h-13:30h) of Estibaliz Urresola's short film, Cuerdas , and a Work in Progress by Mary Jirmanus Saba.

At 19:00 h, the filmmakers will present to the press a summary of the conference's work.

The press conference will feature also an intervention by a Palestinian filmmaker.

Five women's stories are interlaced with scenes of work and the resplendent festivities, music, poetry and paintings of the region. They show how economic independence, community, friendship, cultural pride and respect for "women's work" not only give a woman self-esteem and a sense of purpose in life, but contribute to the well-being of whole society. 6th Independent Vídeo & Interactive Phenomena Show