WANDA

Feminism and Moving Image

WANDA is delighted to have been invited to curate this selection of films. The archive represents the rich social, political and broadcasting history of Northern Ireland and is a trove of hidden gems. As feminist film programmers, a large part of our mission is to explore archive film in order to unearth 'lost' films by women and find a new audience for them. We also strive to show films that present women's history, which so often suffers from erasure.

This project has allowed us to delve into the archive, extract films we feel are meaningful and present them with our critical response, including two new video compositions 'Work' and 'Girls' accompanying essays.

We hope you enjoy the result and continue to investigate the archive!

ABOUT

WANDA is a feminist film festival that takes place annually in Belfast. It was created in 2016 to bring new and archive films by female-identifying filmmakers to a diverse audience, to support women working in the film industry and to raise awareness of women's rights issues in Ireland, north and south. Since then, WANDA has had three editions and welcomed guest filmmakers from across Ireland and around the world. Its two directors are Rose Baker, film programmer at Belfast Film Festival and Docs Ireland, and artist and academic Laura O'Connor whose work exhibits internationally and is currently resident at the Science Gallery, Dublin. 

We're thrilled to team up once more with illustrator Fiona McDonnell. She is a Belfast-based freelance illustrator with a distinct and colourful style of work. Often accompanied by commentary and self-reflection on social issues, music, film, or whatever else she may be interested in at the time. 

This collection was commissioned in 2020 by Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive. Visit the WANDA website to find out more: www.wandabelfast.com