Debate with for International Women to speak up. They can send someone to. Thank you over on the welcome to this special edition of our twenty one at the Global Media Forum today here in bonn my name is karen homestead and its a great pleasure to be here eight months into the post me two era weve seen it spawn countless other protests most notably the times up campaign and the interesting thing and striking thing about these protests is that they started in the cultural sector which raises of course the questions how powerful is culture how powerful are women in culture in the wake of me to Time Magazine made the silence breakers its collective person of the year for two thousand and seventeen saying their actions and least one of the highest velocity shifts in our culture since the one nine hundred sixty s. Well wed like to see just how much that statement can hold up can this movement empower women globally or are we with our western perspective perhaps overestimating its reach. Thank you. Thank you and here are my guests from all over the world the renowned indian feminist author and publisher. She spent her entire career bringing womens stories and subjects like Sexual Violence into the public discussion and she says the Womens Movement in india is one of the strongest in the world please give her a warm round of applause thank you know her of winning poets publisher and journalist from lebanon is with us today breaking taboos and sparking discussions of womens sexuality in the arab world are her main beat since many years most recently she ran for a seat in the Lebanese Parliament welcome zoom on a high that thank i had yellow is the french journalist author filmmaker and activist such a long list i can hardly read it all has published racism a guide and shes very outspoken on issues of freedom of expression and how in her experience harassment can be closely related to racism or warm round of applause please thank you and last but not least Ellen Harrington is an american curator and film programmer in january she took over as director of the German Film Institute in frankfurt for over two decades she worked for the academy of Motion Pictures arts and sciences in los angeles and as such experience the need to debate out very close range a warm welcome to all of you round of applause thank you for joining us thank you coming on to thank you very much to our studio audience i mean wow ladies and gentlemen rather than fade out need to continue to have an almost daily Ripple Effect in the news and so before we get started were going to have a quick recap of the. Turbulent times of me two. Women in surely are protesting its become a huge demonstration like never before in this country against sexism and violence she may be the one who got the ball rolling inadvertently Harvey Weinstein once a powerful movie mogul now indicted on charges of rape he ruled over a cartel of silence. That is over no more shame no more silence he led me to his bathroom pleading that i just watch him masturbate time was up a world wide outcry followed a flood of revelations among them the Swedish Academy in stockholm it announced that the nobel prize in literature will be cancelled this year the Venerable Institution now a shambles after a Sexual Assault scandal. Across all industries cultural political or big business women are speaking out and men are forced to face up even if some wish it would all disappear sooner than later yeah right. We look into the future what will remain of me to end times up in five ten fifteen years. One thing certain hollywood will turn it all into a movie director Brian De Palma is currently working on a script based on the Harvey Weinstein scandal a real horror film. And we are definitely not going to put that one of the top of our to celestine pretty sure but just back from l. A. Ellen harrington you spent twenty five years at the academy of Motion Picture arts and sciences and so in the middle of weinsteins world so to speak how did you experience the weinstein affair and the ensuing need to debate well what i think is so fascinating is that what the journalists who discovered this story and got the women to go on record with the New York Times and the the new yorker magazine did. Was they broke through a cartel of silence and an actual system of intimidation that was incredibly pervasive and ironically Harvey Weinsteins attorney last week stated that his defense was that he didnt invent the casting couch and its true the entire history of the industry of the movie industry entertainment in general women are a product and generally men are the architects of whats being shouted and its always unfortunately didnt display ironically in the silent era there were more women directors and writers than there are now and so when you look at this this is the statistics and whos going to tell the story is what im really hoping its that the normalization of that kind of institutional sexism and abuse which really you know it from top to bottom people really did know about this and journalists tried to break that story for decades and there was a conspiracy of silence and a lot of intimidation tactics actually to prevent it from being told im hoping this flips that script and that the new normal and the new normalization is that women do get a seat at the table and they do get to start being the architects of stories that are told in the culture are we seeing any changes already whats the atmosphere now you were just in l. A. Its very different than six months ago i was definitely say in terms of who the agencies are submitting for director of jobs looking at the actual hard facts that you know theres three percent of films that are shot by women in Cinematography Department nine numbers are astounding its ridiculous nine percent of the top two hundred fifty films made in hollywood last year were directed by women and when you see films like that have there for example that not only address lots of strong women roles but you know minority and diverse performances those films actually get a very high amount of profit in a very high fever ship compared to their investment and the people in charge in the industry have been ignoring the business facts in order to stay comfortable. So have we i think weve been seeing some change though at some of that for instance can Film Festival the belly not in berlin were seeing actually a rise in whats being bought up by the Production Companies of female driven narratives yes already and absolutely having Cate Blanchett and that group of women on the jury in cannes all of them being at the staging of a protest on the steps of the Film Festival it is actually a change in Business Practices the inclusion waiver which is something where if someone has power in the industry a strong cast producer they can actually require that theres a certain amount of diversity in the below the line cast and in the staffing of the production and it makes a difference when women are in charge they hire more women when a Diverse Group of people are in charge they hire more Diverse People and thats how you get more representation in the industry people need the door open they need a job opportunity ok now youve been six months in germany its not a long time but im sure you have some impressions youve been condensing of a lot of weddings tell us how how you see things here is the industry moving here well germany already has a very different funding model and theres a lot more women directors here and when women who are getting their just about you know in narrative as well as documentary and the cultural political scene here is addressing me to quite directly certainly at the opening of the berlin wall and also at the touch of film prize the awards commentators and also the presenters and the government ministers who spoke very specifically addressed me to and times up and said its a big part of their agenda to make sure that this doesnt fade away ok so a relatively Seismic Shift in the us i suppose we can say me too of course started off as a protest of well to do hollywood stars but very quickly achieved a global dimension and across multiple industries how relevant was it in your country or vastly butalia because im thinking women in india are also looking to some other moments in history as perhaps. Seismic well for us actually what youre now calling the me too moment in the west wasnt what you addressed in your introduction or Ripple Effect to whats happening in the United States because much though you know i respect what the United States is doing in many respects but its not the center of the world from where things ripple out and there are things going on in other parts of the world which are born of the local histories so for us actually it was in the early ninetys that the process of giving a name to this really widespread problem began and it began because of the history of a poor village woman who performing her task as a government functionary was raped in the village where she was working by four men and they raped her because they didnt like her trying to stop Child Marriage and it led to a huge debate inside the Womens Movement about what comprises the workplace for women is it just the four walls of an office space or is it out in the fields inside or domestic space and so on and so forth and thus began the battle and we filed a petition with the government of india to bring in place a law on Sexual Harassment in the workplace that came in twenty thirteen after which it has become mandatory for all businesses universities educational institutions everybody who has more than ten employees to have committees in place and to deal with the subject and that has coincided with a sort of expansion in which women who are coming out into the public space and facing discrimination and seeing how male bias operates in the public space they are speaking out more and more and demanding change so its a very live subject its everywhere of course it is of course yet there are a lot of a lot of women to address the subject yes and the the momentum is on the uptick you mission of it is of course with. And over a nice women who can speak out and have access but its not to say that for all women in india im not complaining of the lack of safety and lack of security in in working so its said to be a big movement lets see what happens ok and its very rooted in the culture of the home being the women space and the public space belonging to men ok thank you russia for that lets come over to you jumana were talking about five hundred million women in india. Much smaller number in lebanon how relevant was me too in lebanon and has it has it had an impact tangible and well i personally didnt feel of real impact obviously there has been people talking about it but to tell you the truth. Even though i know that feeling starts with breaking the silence this is the first most important step in any culture in any problem but. We still lack the courage to address this issue in a very open open way i mean i know that Sexual Harassment is widespread that sexual intimidation is widespread as well at work because you know harassment is a very broad word what does it mean does it mean my boss trying to intimidate me into doing something just because im afraid to lose my job which happens a lot and many times and in my country and in other countries or does it only need you know touching someone or you know its about power its a power play the fact that you say it makes it easier for others to say it as well but unfortunately it always takes a famous person to say it in order to a lot of well theres a shame is there still are like a waitress being harassed by a bar owner and i am a small american town. We wouldnt have heard about it maybe as much as we did because of who Harvey Weinstein as and who the actresses are yes exactly ok agenda or going to come over to you because of the reaction in france or initially in france or rather uncomfortable backlash in the sense about that yes it was candor of description see between the reaction that you could see on social media among the Younger Generation of feminists and the generation of the most famous french actually see. Yes there was so there was there was a journalist name and some harm you know who started the ball which was the local translation isolation of the Media Movement but there was also a column that was written by several actresses including get in the narrative and many of the many other i mean you get in year eighty seven clearly and some other leading french women who were saying that there who were rather supportive to men and saying that they were defending the freedom of bothering of annoying women in the public spaces so i was quite difficult because they have a white echo our friend so it was difficult for us french women is to say that we you know there was not an animals voice against me too in france but i have to say that before to me to have many friends that they have been kind of first wave of reaction related to something that happened to a woman it was in two thousand and eleven when the diminished was can yes i was running for. Father french presidency was you know involved in a rape in new york that was something that philly had white core in france that made us understand that many that there was a much sort of very t. Between some men that were standing with them in it once again but to me it was the start of you know a new generation of women used to raise and to be to go public and the mutual movement. Finally make people made people able to say and to prevent harm and pronounce q four for example hosting a very prestigious ceremony in cinema exactly now you mentioned obviously famous people need to speak up in france of course we also just saw the process the protest a very high profile women in film and black actresses also took advantage of the cannes Film Festival to stage a protest which was also widely reported. Do you think need to as we see it become more and more inclusive can be leveraged for more change in terms of women of color women and women of color being taken seriously in terms of and as artists as creative agents is it helpful actually that dimitry movement is attached to celebrities major yes it means that there are some women who do work on the ground at the Grassroots Level and who are not buying you know the media and we really need to choose to say and to tell that its thanks to them that were here today and the movement can really inspire a very diverse type of womens shoes kind of. Tackle their very specific position i was being you know women whether they care whether theyre women of color or you know the women no other kind of womens im just wondering if their thoughts on why the time was right so right now for this to just take off the way we had house yeah but before that i would like to say one thing because you mentioned that i was saying that more famous people should have the guts to speak up and i was actually saying the opposite we should pay more attention to regular people speaking up i think thats why there needs its very important unfortunately they seek without generalizing the sensational part of any story so an actress a famous actor saying that this producer has asked me or rape me is way more sellable than. Regular person a regular woman saying that while it happens every day to regular women and they do try to speak up but no one is listening so its very important for us to learn to listen and not just length give importance to those who are famous to the shiny part of any story because its also deprives it of its strength and. You know depth i mean of course they have suffered i mean all these actresses have suffered but in no way am im going to be the bad woman saying that they also have waited all these years in order to speak up while it would have been a way better to many others to just say you know what earlier i mean im not i dont want to blame the victim but i have to speak about a certain responsibility thank you very much for that comment. Or round of applause for that to me too obviously was all about speaking up and jumana very early on and long before me too as well you were breaking taboos and bringing the body and issues of womens sexuality into the conversation in the arab world not an easy task lets have a quick look at this. Shattering taboos in the arab world the art magazine just side celebrates the female body and female sexuality. Jumana her dad is founder of the provocative magazine and is demanding selfdetermination for women she says womens power lies in their femininity and radha says them in her books puts an end to the traditional arab image of women she says i killed. The malleable playmate and want emancipated combative women and angry reckoning with patriarchy revolutionary in the arab world. And the mess. The silent submissive. Killing show heroes trying to create a new model what reactions did you get to work that well obviously which was very much expected i had the haters and you know the threat mares and i had the supporters i mean its because i mean these issues were not only for me about challenging my own society and what they have been telling me to be or say or do since my Early Childhood because this was i think depriving me of one of my most basic and sacred rights which is my freedom but it was also about challenging that the stereotypes and the wests you know and not all arab women are submissive or oppressed or veiled or i didnt