Every Cinema 

TEXTS BY:

LINA BEMBE is a Berlin-based porn film performer, filmmaker and writer. She has appeared in a wide range of pornographic narratives, spanning from mainstream and feminist to DIY queer post-porn. Alongside porn, Lina writes and curates film programs about feminism, culture and sexuality. In her text titled “[Sheer] Representation Doesn’t Matter”, she describes her experience from a workshop that took place during Pornfilmfestival Berlin. This workshop brought together different BIPOC performers in order to analyse the issue of representation in the porn sector.

HILDA KAHRA was born in Sweden and mostly works on subject matters that pertain to issues of class and the historical dimensions of belonging. She is interested in slow creative processes. Hilda contributes with the text “WE’RE FLOATING”, which is dedicated to mothers, cinema and whales. 

NIKOLETA LEOUSI was born in Athens and studied chemical engineering and film. Her films present narratives that combine storytelling with elements of political documentary film. Her text “Nights When the Numbers Don’t Add Up” is a poetic account of the way in which she understands motherhood in relation to filmmaking. Listing the late hours when she wakes up in the middle of the night, the rushes she shot during her nine-month pregnancy, and finally, taking a breath to keep on writing.

GELI MADEMLI studied journalism and film theory and is writing her dissertation on the notion of crisis in different manifestations of Greek film heritage. In her text titled “How Not to Lose One’s Marbles: Takes for the Virtual Life of the Moving Image”, she presents some personal narratives on film cultures, marbles, virtuality and the moving image. Narratives written on the foothill of the Acropolis rock or upon arrival at the Athens airport, examples of untranslatable texts, metaphors and metonymies, build an environment inhabited by vulnerable subjectivities. 

SOFIA SECIN is a Mexico-based woman writer and literature teacher. Her experience in film production made her realise the complexity of being a woman in film – a topic she also negotiates through her writings and audiovisual projects. In her text titled “Work in Progress”, she describes her encounter with a woman who had recently become a mother and was planning to shoot a film about motherhood and pregnancy. Sofía collaborated with her in writing a funding proposal, she entered the everyday life of the family, and is now sharing her own perspective on motherhood. 

UBUNTU FILM CLUB is a film club in Helsinki, founded in 2019 by Alice “Mutoni” Dusabe, Rewina Teklai, and Fiona Musanga. Their goal is to reveal and celebrate Black cinema and to create a community around it. The club has screened films in different venues around Helsinki, followed by conversations and panels. In this publication, we present a transcript of a group discussion during which they introduce themselves and present the club’s vision. 

MUSIDORA: on the occasion of Every Cinema’s publication, we have digitised the first two issues of “Musidora”, the first Greek independent publication on women and film. The first issue was published in the summer of 1984 and the second in the winter of 1984–85. On the publication’s back cover, you can find the QR Code which will take you to the archived material.