Raising the rights of Housemaids through cinema
Women and Media Collective (WMC) will screen a collection of short films that were short listed at the competition it conducted under the theme “Housework is Work: Value the Unpaid Care Work done by Women” in 2020.
The film screenings and the prize-giving for the winning contestants will be held from 2.00 pm – 6.00 pm on March 29 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.
The Women and Media Collective carried out a scriptwriting competition under the themes “Housework is Work: Value the Unpaid Care Work done by Women” in 2020. This included a workshop for selected scriptwriters, followed by a short film competition based on these film scripts. Men and women from all ethnic and religious communities had an opportunity to start a discussion on gender equality and unpaid care work through these competitions.
The short film screening will be followed by the screening of a Malayali film by Director Jeo Baby “The Great Indian Kitchen”.
In addition to the film screenings, the WMC has also organised an art exhibition at the same venue.
The WMC conducted an Art Competition for Children on the theme ‘How I understand Housework’. The Covid-19 pandemic forced children to stay at home for a long period of time. During periodic lockdowns, most household members had to stay at home. These factors resulted in women having to shoulder an even a higher burden of the care work at home. In order to start discussions on this theme, the art competition invited the following age groups. Ages 8-10, 11-13, and 14-16 to submit their art work. WMC received almost 200 submissions from children around the country.
Entrance for the film screenings and exhibition will be free and they are conducted under strict Covid health guidelines. Those interested can join the event by getting registered through the link- https://forms.gle/ 7Ez5PwyJzVXD7a6j7
