Festival Guests at Femspectives 2021

Each year, Femspectives invites speakers and guests to participate in the festival. They may share their experiences with the audience, participate in or facilitate post-screening discussions and reflect on the films in the programme.

In 2021, there will be 6 discussions – one for each feature film or short film programme in the festival – and four of these will include guests. All discussions will take place over Zoom.

Here are this year’s festival guests:

Invisible Women

Rachel Pronger and Camilla Baier from Invisible Women will be joining the discussion of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH on Saturday, 24 April at 4.30 pm.

Collage of headshots of Camilla Baier at the top and Rachel Pronger at the bottom.
Camilla Baier (top), Rachel Pronger (bottom)

Invisible Women is an archive activist film collective which champions the work of female filmmakers from the history of cinema.

Since their pilot screening in 2017, Invisible Women have presented titles sourced from collections around the world at cinemas, festivals and galleries across the UK. IW regularly publishes original writing and criticism, and in 2018 presented their research at the EYE Annual Conference in Amsterdam. In 2021, IW was invited to be part of Berlinale Talents.

Alongside our screenings, we research and write extensively about women in film history and send out a monthly newsletter. We also regularly participate in Q&As and panels, give presentations about archive, feminism and activism, and deliver education workshops for schools and universities. Check out the Invisible Women Manifesto.

Camilla Baier is a Programmer and Curator based in Edinburgh.

Rachel Pronger is a curator, writer and producer based in Berlin.


Take One Action & Guests

Tamara Van Strijthem of Take One Action will facilitate the discussion of OUR PEOPLE WILL BE HEALED on Saturday, 24 April at 6 pm. The discussion will also be joined by guests Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson and Gehan Macleod.

Take One Action nurtures communal exploration of the stories, ideas and questions at the heart of positive social change. Through film screenings, conversation and enquiry, we bring people together to inspire a fairer, more sustainable and more fulfilling world, in Scotland and beyond our borders.

Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson is a critically acclaimed Iñupiaq/Norwegian/Sami filmmaker and educator. Her History of the Iñupiat was the first Native-funded, produced, written and directed history documentary series in the United States. Rachel has worked in native educational reform across Alaska, led educational initiatives with communities across Australia and worked alongside native education reform colleagues in Hawaii, Canada and New Zealand.


Be Manzini

Be Manzini will be joining the discussion of DREAMING WHILE BLACK, a short film programme curated by Tanatsei Gambura, on Sunday, 25 April at 4.30 pm.

Headshot of Be Manzini.

Referred to as ‘the film-poet’, Be Manzini has found ways to uniquely combine her passion for poetry, film and well-being.

Be is known for her ability to create universal and nurturing spaces as a workshop facilitator she teaches adults and children alike. 

A writer and speaker who has been resident at the Southbank Centre, a regular panelist for film, Judge for the innovative Visionary Honors awards, Manzini is also the Director of Caramel Film Club spot-lighting Black talent and supporting diversity. 

Her published work appears in various anthologies including ‘Red’ edited by Kwame Dawes, she has been commissioned to write for The Theatre Royal, Hoxton Hall, Autograph B, Tamasha as well as performing leading poetry organisations such as Apples & Snakes.


Maria Sledmere

Maria Sledmere will be joining the discussion of one dream, square metre, a short film programme curated by Ane Lopez on Sunday, 25 April at 6 pm.

Black and white image of Maria Sledmere.
(c) Fraser Young photography

Maria Sledmere is an poet and artist, working on a DFA in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and member of A+E Collective.

Recent publications include Chlorophyllia (OrangeApple Press) and neutral milky halo (Guillemot Press). With Rhian Williams, she co-edited the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene (Dostoyevsky Wannabe).