Solidarity in Cinema: When Art and Workers’ Struggle Meet
December 6, 19:00, EET
Conversations are held in English and Ukrainian with two-way consecutive interpretation, and with Ukrainian sign language.
Join us for a discussion between Magda Maria Malinowska, the director of The Women’s Strike Continues, and Tatiana Mazú González, director of Rio Turbio. Along with artists and dedicated social activists, we will delve into the impact of their activist approach to filmmaking. Our conversation will explore their interaction with protagonists, selected material from their films, and the various formats used in films about labor rights. We will also address the role played by grassroots activist movements in the ongoing fight for labor rights, shedding light on why their contributions are often silenced or misappropriated by more mainstream organizations.
Recording of the conversation
Participants
Magda Maria Malinowska is a director and activist. Since 2005, she has been a member of the Inicjatywa Pracownicza (“Workers’ Initiative”) labor union. She has authored dozens of reports on social issues for the union. She worked in an Amazon warehouse for six years, fighting for labor rights locally on behalf of the Inicjatywa Pracownicza and internationally within Amazon Workers International (AWI). In 2021, she was fired for her union activities.
Tatiana Mazú González is a documentary artist and experimenter, feminist and left-wing activist. As a child she wanted to be a biologist or geographer, and today, her creative work explores the links between people and spaces, the microscopic and the immense, the personal and the political, the innocent and the dark. She films, photographs, draws, designs, and sews.
Moderators
Tonia (Ton) Melnyk is a queer feminist, grassroots activist, and artist specializing in various media such as textiles, clothing, theatrical and performative practices, street art, video, and collective initiatives. Their work is centered around such issues as workplace standards, fair pricing, alternative economies, discrimination and the exploration of ways to address and overcome it, the prevention of burnout, ecology, the examination of relationships between humans and non-humans, and anti-war themes.
Masha Ravlyk Lukianova is a queer feminist, grassroots activist, artist who uses textiles, clothes, performance, video, dance, and collective practices as artistic media. Their work is centered around such issues as workplace standards, fair pricing, the experience of migration, ecology, sexuality, the queer future, criticism of capitalism and patriarchy, and anti-war themes.
In 2015, Ton and Masha co-founded the Shvemy sewing cooperative (Kyiv – St. Petersburg) and in 2016 the ReSew sewing cooperative (Kyiv). They continue to work as part of both organizations.