Femspectives – Glasgow Feminist Film Festival (Femspectives) is an organisation aiming to champion the cinematic contributions of womxn and people with marginalised gender identities who make films and to create safe spaces and foster conversations about their films and issues related to them. Femspectives is fully committed to equality and diversity in all its activities.
Films by womxn and people with marginalised gender identities are underrepresented in the UK and beyond, thus our festival ensures dedicated screen time for showing these films. While we do see an increasing number of films by womxn and people with marginalised gender identities at international film festivals and in independent and mainstream cinemas, Femspectives provides the relevant context for these films and their subject matters by fostering conversations and discussions around them.
When selecting films for the festival, Femspectives maintains an awareness that feminist, female or marginalised gender identities are not a homogenous notion – they are complex and diverse, and not only confined to the white Western concept of feminism, but a variety approaches towards feminisms due to histories of colonisation, religion, ethnicity, histories of oppression and slavery, differences of class, gender or sexuality and so on. We want Femspectives to reflect this diversity. We therefore make efforts to work locally with People of Colour (PoC), people with different gender identities, sexualities, class backgrounds, ethnic heritage, religions and so on, ensuring they are represented on screen and during events.
Our core principles include:
- Creating a welcoming environment in which all participants of our events feel valued, welcome and respected for who they are.
- Enabling participation in our events to a wide range of people and facilitating their participation by access measures, such as the sliding scale ticketing structure, BSL interpretation, mobility bursaries and so on.
- Creating a non-hierarchical environment in which all participants feel equally encouraged to contribute to discussions and conversations, and can freely speak their minds about their reactions to films and/or experiences with discussed issues.
- As such, promoting equality among staff members, volunteers, board members and participants.
- Making every effort possible to ensure accessibility requirements of staff members, volunteers, board members and participants are accommodated.
- Always paying contributors to the festival, such as speakers, discussion facilitators and artists for their work.
- Seeking out to work with organisations that share our core values and principles, including for example the principle to be trans-inclusive, among others.
- Minimising the ecological footprint of the festival where possible, for example by emphasising digital marketing strategies, using eco-friendly printing facilities and providing plant-based food during social events.
- Complying with the Equality Act 2010.
Also see our Safe Space Policy.