# Cinenova > Feminist Film + Video ## Posts - [Robina Rose (1951 - 2025)](https://cinenova.org/robina-rose-1951-2025/): Cinenova is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Robina Rose (29/05/1951 –  26/01/2025). Born in 1951 to Danish and German parents, Robina grew up in Notting Hill, London. After leaving school, she became a film projectionist at the Arts Lab on Drury Lane, Covent Garden. She later attended the Royal College of Art, graduating […] - [Nightshift by Robina Rose: restoration & festival premieres](https://cinenova.org/nightshift-by-robina-rose-1981-restoration-festival-premieres/): Cinenova is delighted to announce the festival premieres of the newly restored Nightshift (1981) by Robina Rose. The film will be screened on the opening night of Arsenal’s Archival Assembly on Tuesday, 17th September, with Rose attending in person, followed by screenings at the New York Film Festival, beginning on Tuesday, 8th October.   Nightshift […] - [August closure](https://cinenova.org/august-closure/): Cinenova is having a pause for the month of August. Distribution requests and research inquiries will not be processed during this time. Please get in touch with us again from 1st September onwards. Image credit: Loss of Heat – Noski Deville, UK, 1994. Courtesy of the artist. - [The Work We Share at the Essay Film Festival](https://cinenova.org/the-work-we-share-at-the-essay-film-festival/): Join us for a weekend of film screenings in partnership with the Essay Film Festival at ICA, 19-20th March. We’re excited to screen a few newly digitised and captioned films from The Work We Share programme.  We will be joined by Nydia A. Swaby, Lola Olufemi and Christie Costello from Bare Minimum Collective, Rehana Zaman, […] - [THE WORK WE SHARE: A new programme from Cinenova](https://cinenova.org/the-work-we-share/): Cinenova presents The Work We Share: a public programme of newly digitised films from the Cinenova collection addressing representations of gender, race, sexuality, health and community. The films are captioned by Collective Text, and supported by response commissions from contemporary artists and writers.   The Work We Share gathers a number of films which previously […] - [Cinenova Supporters Scheme](https://cinenova.org/cinenova-supporters-scheme/): Donate here or here to become a Cinenova Supporter for the coming year. Your contribution will be greatly valued. Since 2001 Cinenova has been run by volunteers dedicated to the constellation of films, histories, and politics that make up the collection, believing in the necessity of keeping it autonomous and in active distribution, rather than dispersed into larger […] - [Featured Film: The Haircut – Veronica Martel](https://cinenova.org/featured-film-the-haircut-veronica-martel/): Text by Tracey Francis, Cinenova Working Group This year, 2020 which is already infamous, has challenged us in more ways than we could have ever expected. Everything has shifted and even if we want to remain still we can’t. So, for Black History Month I have selected from our archive The Haircut (1992) by Veronica […] - [Featured Filmmaker: Alix Mumford](https://cinenova.org/featured-filmmaker-alix-mumford/): Director of Back to Josie (UK, 1997, 8mins) distributed by Cinenova. Text by Tracey Francis. In March 2016 I curated a short film night for International Women’s Day at Deptford Cinema. This Event was called Landscapes of Girlhood. During the process of researching films for the event, I wanted to find a film that captured […] - [Preview works online from the Cinenova Collection](https://cinenova.org/online-preview-of-cinenova-archive/): A digital collection of selected works from Cinenova are available for online previewing for research purposes only. The preview account is valid for a two week period and costs £20.  To request an preview account login, please contact infoATcinenova.org Please note that not all works are available for preview online so please do let us […] - [Featured Work: Leila and the Wolves - Heiny Srour (Lebanon/UK, 1984, 93mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-works-leila-and-the-wolves-heiny-srour-lebanon-uk-1984-93mins/): Drawing on the Arab heritage of oral tradition and mosaic patterns, Leila and the Wolves is an exploration of the collective historical memory of Arab women. Shot over seven years, and in often treacherous conditions, Srour’s film is a masterpiece of filmmaking, mixing together archival footage, fairy-tale storytelling, aesthetically bold imagery, and dramatisations of situations […] - [Temporary Closure | Ways to stay connected](https://cinenova.org/temporary-closure-ways-to-stay-connected/): Due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 Cinenova is closed for bookings until the end of April when we will review the situation. We are still able to allow digital access to the collection for remote viewing.  We also wanted to say that the Cinenova Working Group will continue to work remotely and are […] - [Featured Works: A Comedy in Six Unatural Acts by Jan Oxenberg (USA, 1975, 25mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-works-a-comedy-in-six-unatural-acts-by-jan-oxenberg/): Jan Oxenberg’s charmingly raw, politically-charged and remarkably funny celebration of the American lesbian experience validates the nuanced voice of a community otherwise underrepresented in the Wild West of mid-’70s independent filmmaking. In an attempt to combat the pervasive misconception of the “humorless, angry feminist,” the vignettes in A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts experiment with […] - [Featured Work: Clotheslines - Roberta Cantow (USA, 1982, 32mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-clotheslines-1982-roberta-cantow/): A film that takes laundry seriously as a form of folkart, a fraught social signifier and lens for women to reflect on the joys, pains and ambivalences of household chores. Affectionate and witty, Clotheslines is on the one hand a documentary on laundry and a social portrait of an America literally strewn with clotheslines, and on […] - [A Selection of Animated Works](https://cinenova.org/a-selection-of-animated-works/): A selection of animated works in our collection from Jazvinder Phull, Ayoka Chenzira and Nina Sabnani. Ayoka Chenzira is a filmmaker, producer and animator, More information on their current work and practice can be found here Nina Sabnani is an artist and storyteller who uses film, illustration and writing to tell her stories. More information […] - [Featured Work: Sistren in Photography- Second Sight (UK, 1991, 26mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-sistren-in-photography-second-sight-uk-1991-26mins/): Five photographers from Birmingham talk about their practice, experience and what inspires them as photographers. The documentary looks through examples of their work as well as questioning prospective work and aspirations in the future.  Wider discussions on gender and race are intertwined within each segment. There is also a deeper look into each photographers process, […] - [Featured Work: Bikini Kill in the UK: It Changed My Life (1993, Lucy Thane)](https://cinenova.org/bikini-kill-in-the-uk-it-changed-my-life-1993-lucy-thane/):  Bikini Kill in the UK: It Changed My Life (UK, 1993, 30mins) Lucy Thane “In 1993 I was lured by the bright lights of Punk Rock club toilets and excited fifteen year olds in Brownie uniforms to make a film about the U.S. Riot Girl band Bikini Kill It changed my life (1993).” (Lucy Thane) […] - [ESSAY FILM FESTIVAL 2019: YOU’LL NEVER WORK ALONE, CINENOVA AT THE EFF, CELEBRATING THE FEMINIST FILM COLLECTIVE](https://cinenova.org/essay-film-festival-2019-youll-never-work-alone-cinenova-at-the-eff-celebrating-the-feminist-film-collective%ef%bb%bf/): Date: Tuesday 2 AprilTime: 09:30-17:00Venue: Birkbeck Cinema BOOK HERE This one-day interdisciplinary public screening and symposium celebrates Cinenova, a volunteer-run, non-profit collective preserving and distributing the work of feminist film and video makers. The event showcases the work of Cinenova in the area of archiving and preservation, as well as their mission to keep a feminist […] - [open call Aphrodite* 2019](https://cinenova.org/open-call-aphrodite-2019/): Aphrodite* queer feminist festival continues with its second edition and will be realised between the 23rd and 26th of June 2019 as part of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival under the title: Aphrodite* – her* magic, her* work, her* desire, her* power, her* care Aphrodite* and Cinenova first worked together for the 2018 festival, with a desire […] - [August Distribution Closure](https://cinenova.org/august-distribution-closure/): Throughout the month of August Cinenova will take a break from all distribution work. If you have a request for a hire, research enquiry or preview that might be affected, please get in touch before 1st August, or please save it until after 3rd September 2018. Cinenova’s work is almost entirely carried out on a voluntary basis by theCinenova Working […] - [if you can't share no one gets any | Cinenova with Carolyn Lazard and Collective Text](https://cinenova.org/if-you-cant-share-no-one-gets-any-cinenova-with-carolyn-lazard-and-collective-text/): if you can’t share no one gets any | Cinenova with Carolyn Lazard and Collective Text 15 August—8 September 2018, at LUX Wed – Sat 12pm–5pm Opening: Saturday 18 August, 2pm–4pm if you can’t share no one gets any is an exhibition by Cinenova taking place at LUX, Waterlow Park. Cinenova has invited artist Carolyn Lazard […] - [AHRC/CHASE Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London and Cinenova](https://cinenova.org/ahrc-chase-collaborative-doctoral-award-phd-studentship-in-collaboration-with-goldsmiths-university-of-london-and-cinenova/): Circling Cinenova: A history of an evolving feminist arts organisation We are very excited to be working with Dr Catherine Grant at Goldsmiths, University of London and Chase DTP on a collaborative doctoral award on the history of Cinenova as an evolving feminist arts organisation. This CDA investigates an important history of collaborative feminist organising in the arts. Tracing […] - [Featured work: ekleipsis - Tran, T. Kim-Trang (USA, 1998, 22mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-ekleipsis-tran-t-kim-trang-usa-1998-22mins/): In 1992, Tran T. Kim-Trang came across a New York Times article about a group of hysterically blind Cambodian women in Long Beach, California, known as the largest group of such people in the world. Hysterical blindness is sight loss brought about by traumatic stress, and has little or no physical causes. ekleipsis delves into […] - [Featured work: Reservaat by Clara Van Gool (Netherlands, 1988, 8mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-reservaat-by-clara-van-gool-netherlands-1988-8mins/): Reservaat by Clara Van Gool (Netherlands, 1988, 8mins) Originally shot on 35mm, Reservaat depicts a duet by two young women in a desolate park. Reservaat was Clara van Gool’s first film on leaving the Dutch Film Academy in 1985. - [Featured work: Some Protection - Marjut Rimminen (UK, 1987, 10mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-some-protection-marjut-rimminen-uk-1987-10mins/): Some Protection by Marjut Rimminen is an animated documentary based on the true story of Josie O’Dwyer, and using her own voice as personal commentary. This animation was part of the series Blind Justice. The series, made by four different animation directors, but commissioned as one project by Channel 4 in the UK, looks at […] - [Featured work: Chameleon - Tanya Syed (UK, 1990, 4mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-chameleon-tanya-syed-uk-1990-4mins/): ‘This film creates a visual dialogue between the seen, recognised and unrecognised’. – Tanya Syed.   - [Featured work: Who Takes The Rap – Immigration by Lai Ngan Walsh with Women & the Law Collective (UK, 1986, 38mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-who-takes-the-rap-immigration-by-lai-ngan-walsh-with-women-the-law-collective-uk-1986-38mins/): Who Takes The Rap – Immigration covers the history of immigration law in Britain from 1903 to 1986. The video describes how different groups of immigrants arrived for work in the UK, only to find increasingly restrictive laws which kept them in low-paid, unskilled work and identified them as ‘undesirable’. Footage of the Garners’ Steak […] - [Featured work: Uranium Hex - Sandra Lahire (UK, 1987, 12mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-uranium-hex-sandra-lahire-uk-1987-12mins/): A memory-using location film of a stay with a uranium mining community. Using a kaleidoscopic array of experimental techniques, this film explores uranium mining in Canada and its destructive effects on both the environment and the women working in the mines. A plethora of images ranging from the women at work to spine-chilling representations of […] - [Featured work: 17 Rooms (Or What Do Lesbians Do in Bed?) - Caroline Sheldon (UK, 1985, 10mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-17-rooms-or-what-do-lesbians-do-in-bed-caroline-sheldon-uk198510mins/): What do lesbians do in bed? with a star-studded soundtrack, we’re shown women doing everything in bed from knitting and drinking tea to having raucous pillow-fights. - [Featured work: Privilege, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1990, 103mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-privilege-yvonne-rainer-usa-1990-103mins/): Yvonne Rainer’s sixth feature is a genuinely subversive movie about menopause. Out of a subject that has been virtually invisible on film, Rainer has fashioned a witty, risky work about sexual identity and the unequal economies of race, gender and class. - [Featured work: A Place of Rage, Pratibha Parmar (UK, 1991, 54mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-a-place-of-rage-pratibha-parmar-uk-1991-54mins/): A documentary film celebrating African American women and their achievements. Features interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. Within the context of the civil rights, Black power and feminist movements, the trio reassess how women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionised American society. - [Featured work: Casual Shopper - Judith Barry (USA, 1981, 28mins )](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-casual-shopper-judith-barry-usa-1981-28mins/): Casual Shopper presents a female protagonist wandering through a seemingly endless array of product displays. The woman both follows and is followed by a male figure, who appears to exist somewhere between reality and fantasy, within a carefully structured and intoxicating elevator-music-filled department store.  The piece conflates romantic desire with consumer desire, as both figures […] - [Featured Work: Now Pretend - Leah Gilliam (USA, 1991, 10mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-now-pretend-leah-gilliam-usa-1991-10mins/): Now Pretend is an experimental investigation into the use of race as an arbitrary signifier. Drawing upon language, personal memories and the 1959 text, “Black Like Me”, it deals with Lacan’s “mirror state” theories of beauty and the movement from object to subject. - [Saturday 4th February: SQUIFF presents Lesbian With A Movie Camera](https://cinenova.org/saturday-4th-february-squiff-presents-lesbian-with-a-movie-camera/): SQUIFF presents Lesbian With A Movie Camera at Transmission, Glasgow. As part of LGBT History Month, the Scottish Queer International Film Festival presents a lovingly-curated selection of indie, punk and DIY lesbian shorts from across half a century century of filmmaking, featuring known names and unsung (s)heroes alike.  Ranging from the hilarious to the experimental, […] - [Featured work: Suspense - Lois Weber (USA, 1913, 13mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-suspense-lois-weber-usa-1913-13mins/): An early comedy, which tells a tale of marital strife – mutual suspicion comes between a woman and her husband. As the relationship between the couple takes a turn for the worse, the position of women in the family and at the office, in relation to the man of the house and the boss, is […] - [Featured work: Loss of Heat - Noski Deville (UK, 1994, 20mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-loss-of-heat-noski-deville-uk-1994-20mins/): Focusing on two parallel lesbian relationships this film reflects the reality of living with an ‘invisible’ disability, challenging preconceived notions of the illness to reveal how it operates outside the epileptic fit on a daily basis. - [Featured Work: Video 28 - Vera Productions (UK ,1988, 20mins)](https://cinenova.org/featured-work-video-28-vera-productions-uk-1988-20mins/): A celebration and a record of some of the many fight back events against Section 28 of the Local Government Act. - [Featured work: Eat the Kimono - Kim Longinotto (UK, 1989, 60mins)](https://cinenova.org/eat-the-kimono-kim-longinotto-uk-1989-60mins/): Eat the Kimono is a brilliant documentary about Hanayagi Genshu, a Japanese feminist and avant-garde dancer and performer, who has spent her life defying her conservative culture’s contempt for independence and unconventionality. She denounced Emperor Hirohito as a war criminal, and dismissed death threats made against her by right-wing groups. “You mustn’t be eaten by the […] - [Upcoming Screening: Bikini Kill in the UK by Lucy Thane at London Short Film Festival](https://cinenova.org/63/) - [Viewing films from the Cinenova collection](https://cinenova.org/hello-world-2/): A digital collection of selected works from Cinenova are available for previewing at LUX. Anyone wishing to preview works for research purposes only can book a time to view works at LUX for £20.00. Onsite viewing is strictly by appointment only, bookings must be made at least a week in advance. A login, valid for a […] ## Pages - [Homepage](https://cinenova.org/homepage/) - [Audio](https://cinenova.org/audio-resources/): As part of CCA Brighton’s online exhibition COMMUNAL in April 2020 two films from the Cinenova collection were screened online within their Front Room film programme. A transcription of this audio introduction can be read here The films selected for screening were: Adriana Monti Scoula Senza Fine (Italy, 1983, 40minutes) Thursday 16 April 2020. Susan […] - [Booking Info](https://cinenova.org/booking-info/): PLEASE NOTE ORDERS MUST BE PLACED SIX-WEEKS IN ADVANCE OF THE SCREENING DATE AND ALL PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE IN ADVANCE OF CINENOVA DISPATCHING THE WORK, ANY LATER BOOKINGS MAY INCUR A CHARGE OR NOT BE POSSIBLE TO COMPLETE.  All digitised titles can be previewed at LUX, London and we also offer an online previewing […] - [Resources](https://cinenova.org/resources/) - [Support Us](https://cinenova.org/support/): Since 2001 Cinenova has been run by volunteers dedicated to the constellation of films, histories and politics that make up the collection, believing in the necessity of keeping it autonomous and in active distribution, rather than dispersed into larger and more general archives. Rent and Storage – £3000 – An effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has […] - [Projects](https://cinenova.org/project/): The Cinenova Working Group carries out projects – some ongoing, others one-off exhibitions – that widen the scope of distribution. Our projects aim to bring the collection to new audiences, whilst seeking to make public the contemporary conditions of the organisation and wider questions about the contemporary status of feminist film distribution. - [About](https://cinenova.org/about/): Cinenova is a volunteer-run organisation preserving and distributing the work of feminist film and video makers. Cinenova was founded in 1991 following the merger of two feminist film and video distributors, Circles and Cinema of Women, each formed in 1979. Cinenova currently distributes over 300 titles that include artists’ moving image, experimental film, narrative feature […] - [Collection](https://cinenova.org/collection/): Cinenova currently has over 400 feminist film & video titles in its collection, made up of an assortment of works that range from experimental film and artists’ film and video, to narrative feature film, documentary work and educational video. Made between 1912 and 2001, the titles cover oppositional histories, post-colonial struggles, reproductive labour and the […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)