[Wamvan] Panel this Friday: Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Television and Film

[Emily Yakashiro]

Hi WAM! folks,

I wanted to personally invite you to a panel I organized for the Vancouver
International Women in Film Festival. It is focused on portrayals of
violence against women in film and television. The panel is happening this
Friday, March 7th 1:00-2:30 pm at VIFF's Vancity Theatre downtown, and
among the panelists includes Natalie Hill, one of the core organizing
members of WAM! Vancouver, and Jarrah Hodge, a WAM! member and founder of
Gender Focus.

The inspiration for this panel came in light of our opening night
film--Karen Lam's supernatural thriller *Evangeline.* Lam is well-known in
the genre of horror and thrillers, a Canadian filmmaker, and a woman of
colour making intriguing films in a genre typically dominated by men.
Evangeline hinges on a brutal experience of violence that our protagonist,
the eponymous* Evangeline* goes through while attending university.

Whether its *Evangeline*, *The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo*, or*
Girls*, or *Game
of Thrones*, it seems that every TV and movie focused on women contains a
scene of violence against women. The reality of violence against women in
Canada is this:

   - Women are 5 times more likely to be victims of sexual assault than men.
   - The majority of sexual assaults reported to police are by individuals
   between the ages 15-24.
   - In 2007, 58% of sexual assault victims were under the age of 18, with
   children under the age of 12 making up 25% of this group. Of these young
   victims, 81% were female.
   - On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate
   partner. In 2009, 67 women were murdered by a current or former spouse or
   boyfriend.
   - boriginal women in Canada are five times more likely than other women
   of the same age to die as the result of violence.
   - 1 in 5 Canadian women experience some form of emotional or economic
   abuse in their intimate relationship.
   - In almost every province, 9 in 10 victims of spousal-perpetrated
   criminal harassment are women.
   - Only in one year, 427,000 women over the age of 15 reported they had
   been sexually assaulted in Canada.Since only one in ten sexual assaults is
   reported to the police, the actual number is much higher.

Statistics sources: here
<http://www.gotconsent.ca/statistics.html>and
here<http://www.bwss.org/resources/information-on-abuse/numbers-are-people-too/>

Should filmmakers and tv producers care about these realities? If so,
why--and what crosses the line? What does this mean for the women behind
the camera who are writing scripts and directing films containing violence
against women? Here to answer all your questions about portrayals of
violence against women in film and television is a panel of experts in
Vancouver including:

*INTRODUCTIONS*

*Irene Lanzinger*, BC Federation Women's Rights Committee

*MODERATOR*

*Angela MacDougall*, Executive Director of Battered Women's Support
Services (BWSS)

*PANELISTS*

*Jarrah Hodge,* founder and Editor-in-Chief of Gender Focus

*Hilla Kerner*, Collective Member and rape crisis worker of Vancouver Rape
Relief and Women's Shelter

*Arlana Green*, Victim Services Medical Support Worker and a Rape Crisis
Counsellor at Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) Rape Crisis
Centre and Feminist Activist

*Natalie Hill,* core organizing member of Women, Action, and the Media
Vancouver Chapter (WAM!)

Don't miss out on what promises to be an exciting, informative, and
engaging panel on a topic which is a first for the Vancouver International
Women in Film Festival. This panel is free and open to the public. It will
be taking place* Friday, March 7th from 1:00-2:30 pm at VIFF's Vancity
Theatre*, with one hour for the panelists' discussion and a half hour of
questions from attendees.

*Please note:* we are looking to discuss film and television specifically
and not other subsets of media (i.e., evening news reports, newspapers,
video games, music, music videos, or pornography). This is because the
mandate and mission of Women in Film and Television is just that--focused
on film and television.

For more information please email Emily at wiftvoffice(at)gmail.com

Thank-you, and hope to see you all there!


Emily

-- 
*Emily Yakashiro*
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