On May 28, researchers from the FEMglocal - glocal feminist movements: interactions and contradictions research project, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through national funds (PTDC/COM-CSS/4049/2021 / DOI 10.54499/PTDC/COM-CSS/4049/2021), participated in the XIII AIM International Congress, held at Escola Superior Artística do Porto.
During the panel on “Women in Cinema”, Ana Sofia Pereira (post-doctoral fellow) and Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues presented “Olhar Ativista: O Cinema do Real e a Representatividade Feminina no Porto/Post/Doc – Insights para o Documentário FEMglocal” (“Activist Gaze: Documentary Cinema and Female Representation at Porto/Post/Doc – Insights for the FEMglocal Documentary”). This presentation used documentary cinema's role as artivism and the Porto/Post/Doc festival as starting points to analyze the award-winning films from the last nine editions of the festival. The researchers focused on three key factors: the gender of the film’s director, the thematic axes addressed, and the countries of production. They examined how Porto/Post/Doc has favored or given greater visibility to activist documentaries and how the festival’s inherent activism incorporates the gender factor in the representation of women, both as narrative subjects and creative individuals. Their insights shed light on the intersection of activism and cinema, highlighting the crucial role of documentary film festivals in promoting gender representation and feminist narratives.