Flying Broom International Women Film Festival to open on May 5th

Flying Broom International Women Film Festival to open on May 5th

Flying Broom (Uçan Süpürge) International Women's Film Festival will run this year from 5 to 12 May. The festival has reached its 14th edition and as every year it will offer a variety of films, features, shorts, documentaries shot by women.

The first women's film festival in Turkey, the Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival has been organised by Flying Broom annually since 1998.

The festival is an international organization where feature-length, short, documentary and animation films by women directors from Turkey and around the world are presented to the audiences in a framework of specific themes, panels, discussions and exhibitions In addition to the film screenings, local and international directors, press members and film critiques are hosted in Ankara as a part of the festival.

The festival aims to appeal to wide audiences with the activities it organizes every year. It has been further enriched by the addition of an International Feature-Length Film Section in its 6th year (2003) which is evaluated by the International Federation of Film Critiques (FIPRESCI). The competition section made Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival the first women's film festival in the world with a FIPRESCI jury.

In addition to this, from its 6th year onward the festival established the Honour Award and Bilge Olgaç Merit Awards to remember the women who have made great efforts for cinema.

Flying Broom (Uçan Süpürge) was founded and began its activities in 1996. The organization’s initial aim was to establish a network between women’s NGOs and to function as an information and documentation center. Over the years, our organization has raised many funds from both national and international sources towards the implementation of projects under the scope of improving women’s status and capacity. Flying Broom is supported by a large circle of volunteers from women’s NGOs, the media, universities, individual activists etc. By promoting women's empowerment, Flying Broom also aims to contribute to the process of democratization and the development of a civil society in Turkey, in accordance with the international gender equality norms and principles formulated at Beijing (1995) and other international conferences and summits.

Flying Broom was established officially on November 1996, with the aim of bringing together women's organisations and individuals sensitive to the women's movement, increasing the communication, cooperation and solidarity amongst them, transferring their experiences to the next generation, and establishing a national and international communication network. It has implemented a number of projects to increase sensitivity on gender equality since the day it was established and continues to do so.

Flying Broom is a women’s organization working for the improvement of democracy and civil society. Flying Broom aims to enhance gender equality consciousness, provide information and training to empower women, and contribute to the development of efficient policies for solving women’s problems stemming from inequality. Our main objectives are to contribute to the advancement of the women’s movement, to assure gender equality, to develop new possibilities of communication and cooperation, and to create common fields of action among women’s organizations. Flying Broom, which has been working continuously since 1996 in line with these aims and objectives, is improving and strengthening its national and international networks year after year, consequently monitoring closely and evaluating the Turkish as well as global women’s agenda. The organization effectively utalizes the media and all means of communication for increasing women’s visibility and creating sensitivity and awareness pertaining to gender equality within the society. Additionally, Flying Broom is working for the internalization of women’s rights and the streamlining of these rights in all decisions and implementations.

THE VISION OF FLYING BROOM

Flying Broom aims at contributing to the overall gender equality in Turkey and the institutionalization of gender equality. Within this framework, Flying Broom:

- Tries to implement the gender equality norms and principles formulated at the Beijing Conference and other international conventions in every aspect of life.

- Supports newly established women’s organizations, believing that the empowerment of women’s organizations is the first step towards the empowerment of women.

More information at:

www.ucansupurge.org

[email protected]

Telephone: +(90)312 427 00 20

Fax: +(90) 312 466 55 61