“Beyond Resilience” e Focus on Iran ‘Women, life, freedom!’

Date:April 20th and 21st at 16h15
Venue: Casa Comum

In this edition the conversations mark a strong presence, based on the two special programmes, “Beyond Resilience” and Focus on Iran ‘Women, life, freedom!’, after the screening of the films, there is a conversation between one of the curators Valeriya Golovina and Leslie-Ann Coles about activism in cinema.

Giving body to the intention of sharing and promoting cinema in women, Porto Femme, hosts a special programme dedicated to female directors who act on the frontline of crises and who address important social, human rights, political and environmental issues.

 

Biographies

Leslie-Ann Coles

Leslie-Ann Coles is an award-winning screenwriter/ director, and actress. She is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, ACTRA, and the Writers Guild of Canada. Coles is currently in post production with her short film, “The Curtain,” which she wrote, directed and starred in.

Her feature screenplay, “Soiled Dove” is on Coverfly’s Red List having garnered numerous accolades, and awards in international script competitions. In 2021, Telefilm Canada awarded Coles two script-development grants for “Soiled Dove,” and “Love in Vein.”

Her award winning documentary “Melody Makers,” was released (along with a companion app)in 2019 in Canada, the United States, and the UK. Coles has received several best-film awards for “Melody Makers.”

In addition to her own work she has executive-produced 46 short films directed by at-risk female youth through FeFF’s Young Filmmaker Development Workshop (YFDW). In her capacity as festival director for the past 20 years, she has overseen the rigorous evaluation and selection of independent films from more than 2,500 entries every year.

Coles is an alumnus of Women In The Director Chair, and the recipient of the Lois J. Weber Legacy Award for her dedication as a director and mentor. She’s also the winner of the 2019 Waterfront Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Media Arts.

 

Valeriya Golovina

Valeriya is a Ukrainian cinematographer, documentary filmmaker and educator. She holds BA from NYU Abu Dhabi and MFA from Victoria University of Wellington. Her creative interest lies in the intersection of photography, writing and documentary based projects that reveal personal narratives and complicate official stories with fixed perspectives. She has a strong interest in the international narrative power of images which has made her travel around the world collecting knowledge from different cultures in visual storytelling.

Valeriya’s work has been screened in over 30 countries from Japan to Argentina, and awarded Grand Jury Award for Best Doc in Guam, Best Short Doc in Reykjavik, Asian Cinematography Award Best Short Doc (Our Love), Best Short Doc at NFFTY in Seattle. Valeriya also manages educational partnerships with various film programs aiming to increase the number of women working in film and digital media. Her varied background of working and living between Ukraine, UAE, New Zealand and the US has shaped her unique mix of visual attitudes, perspective and approaches.