Ageism in Film and TV: Will we ever grow out of our obses­sion with youth?

7. March 2020

10:30

Despite all dis­cus­sion about inclu­sion in the film indus­try, ageism doesn’t seem to get old. On the verge of Inter­na­tion­al Women‘s Day, Film­net­zw­erk Berlin, Berlin Fem­i­nist Film Week and Women+ Film Net­work Berlin present a dis­cus­sion on the top­ic that is often for­got­ten and yet has strong­ly been shap­ing the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of women* in the media.

Is it true that roles for peo­ple aged 50+ are scarce and old­er women* – espe­cial­ly when they are senior women* of col­or – become almost invis­i­ble on screen? Which chal­lenges do we face in terms of age dis­crim­i­na­tion in cast­ing and hir­ing? How does ageism deter­mine the choic­es we make as writ­ers, direc­tors and pro­duc­ers? And will we ever grow out of our obses­sion with youth?

Dur­ing out pan­el we will take a clos­er look at the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of age in cin­e­ma, speak about the ways in which ageism lim­its careers and dis­cuss pos­si­bil­i­ties to shift the nar­ra­tive around aging.

 

Pan­elists

Dr. Nataša Pivec is a cre­ative aca­d­e­m­ic, born in Slove­nia, now liv­ing in Berlin since 2017. Got her Ph.D. degree in soci­ol­o­gy of gen­der at Fac­ul­ty of Social Sci­ences (Ljubl­jana, Slove­nia), which focused on Oth­er­ing and film. Has pub­lished sev­er­al aca­d­e­m­ic papers on sex­ism, ageism and pop­u­lar media, runs her own blog “the Oth­er mat­ters” and lec­tured at sev­er­al insti­tu­tions (among oth­ers, HU Berlin). Ex-jour­nal­ist, copy­writer, DJ, but cur­rent cul­tur­al ana­lyst, film work­er, lec­tur­er, researcher and con­sul­tant.
theother​mat​ters​.net

Gre­ta Amend is a ger­man actress, direc­tor, lec­tur­er, researcher, for­mer cast­ing direc­tor, artist, and pro­duc­er for film and the­atre. She has been teach­ing actors and direc­tors in euro­pean film and the­atre schools, such as the Nation­al Dan­ish Film School, the Dan­ish Nation­al School of Per­form­ing arts in Copen­hagen, the Actors Cen­ter, Oslo, and the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin (DFFB). She was a cast­ing direc­tor for more than 50 pro­duc­tions in film and tele­vi­sion,  and is cur­rent­ly work­ing as a pro­duc­er for film and the­atre with her ger­man-skan­di­na­vian group “Super­bo­hemi­ans”.
www​.gre​ta​-amend​.com /​ www​.super​bo​hemi​ans​.com

Sema Poyraz has been work­ing as a film direc­tor, screen­writer and actress for film, tele­vi­sion and the­atre since 1980. She stud­ied direct­ing at the Ger­man Film an Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin, her grad­u­a­tion film Gölge (1980) is con­sid­ered an ear­ly pre­cur­sor of Ger­man-Turk­ish cin­e­ma. Since then, she has direct­ed sev­er­al fea­ture films, taught at the Bil­gi Uni­ver­si­ty in Istan­bul and been a fes­ti­val jury mem­ber. In 2013 she won the Gold­en Tulip as Best Actress at the Istan­bul Film Fes­ti­val and worked as an actress with direc­tors such as Hel­ma Sanders-Brahms, Tun­cel Cur­tiz, Sinan Akkuș and Hakan Savaş Mican. She is cur­rent­ly a mem­ber of the ensem­ble of Max­im Gor­ki The­ater.

 

The dis­cus­sion will be held in Eng­lish and the entry is free of charge. You are wel­come to stay for a get-togeth­er after the dis­cus­sion and have a cof­fee with the mem­bers of Film­net­zw­erk Berlin and the Women+ Film Net­work Berlin!

 

When: Sat­ur­day, March 7th 2020, 10.30 – 12 am
Venue: Berlin­er Union Film Ate­liers (BUFA), Ober­land­straße 26–35, 12099 Berlin