Women's History Month
March 2023
The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago celebrates Women's History Month with an initiative that presents Italian women-run projects, which actively support and promote women's voices and artistic practices. The initiative is developed in collaboration with RadiOsa, web radio of Casa Internazionale delle Donne, and Immaginaria, an independent film festival dedicated to lesbian and feminist themes. Each week the Institute will publish new content from the portfolios of RadiOsa and Immaginaria on its own social media pages. All content is in Italian language and accessible online for free.
RadiOsa is an open initiative and the voice of everyone.
A collaboration of a network of Women’s Shelters and Centers on site and throughout all of Italy, RadiOsa conveys the needs and questions emerging from women’s movements and collectives of women across the country. This initiative maintains, reinvigorates, builds and connects local, national and international women’s movements and events, starting at those aimed at members of a young age.
RadiOsa avails itself of its proximity to and partnership with the news sources present in the Casa Internazionale delle Donne, such as Donne, quali Noi Donne, Il paese delle Donne, DWF, InGenere, DonneXDiritti, Radio Voicebook.
RadiOsa is an internet radio station geared towards high school students. It operates in collaboration with Radio Bullets, which provides national and international news and specializes in podcasts; Sveja, an online radio station based in Rome; and Frisson, based on the independent newspaper founded in 2019 as a source for speaking about sexuality, feminism, rights and intersectionality.
On the occasion of Women's History Month, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago and RadiOsa will present a selection of podcasts from the columns that are part of the project. Each column explores different topics and themes, all dedicated to women's voices and stories.
The columns of RadiOsa
Cose di casa. RadiOsa presents the associations housed in the International Women's House in Rome and also tells about the houses and places of women scattered throughout Italy. Home things, everyone's things.
Fermenti. Initiatives, festivals, performances, incursions from the feminist world and from places similar to us: RadiOsa tells them so as not to forget what is promoted and organized, weaving networks and intertwining relationships, placing its microphones at disposal to amplify the voices of all.
Frammenti. Voices of female artists for RadiOsa read passages by novelists, poets, activists. But also the voices of feminism that express themselves through theater and the arts.
Microfono Aperto - the messy future. This is a free space open to the solicitations of the new generations: how they experience the themes dear to feminism, what they are trying to do and plan. But also what they want and what they tell each other in their chats, what they want to be when they grow up or how they imagine messing up their future.
Movimentate. RadiOsa recounts the transfeminist movement starting from the roots of the Casa Internazionale delle Donne that hosts it and from radio stories written by women for women.
Sottosopra. Feminist news, reread news, reverse news: this is the RadiOsa column that offers a review of gender news in collaboration with RadioBullets and rereads the news that remains in the corner. A program also to report the many events involving the networks that surround us.
Streghe - The characters. Stories of characters we like: pioneers, glorious, fabulous, brave and uncomfortable, real and fantasy. RadiOsa also intends to participate in the reconstruction of a Story that has yet to be told through a different gaze and voice.
Immaginaria is the first independent international film festival dedicated to lesbian and feminist themes in Italy. Founded in Bologna by Associazione Culturale Visibilia APS in 1993, this festival has repeatedly obtained the support of local and national institutions, as well as the partnership of foreign Embassies and cultural institutes. While the first twelve editions took place in Bologna, the Festival has been based in Rome since 2018. This year marks its XVIII edition.
Immaginaria presents films directed by women with the aim of promoting the artistic production of both emerging and established female directors in Italy and throughout the world. The aim of the Festival is to depict the lives, culture, art, history and politics of lesbians and feminists alike, as well as bold, courageous and rebellious women from our history and those alive today committed to building a different world. Rebelling against forms of oppression, creating new lifestyles and intersectional paths are the common themes of this Festival
Contest: Donne in Corto
Submission deadline: March 15th
In order to promote the independent female filmmakers and directors' production and their works diffusion, Immaginaria launches “Donne in Corto” (“Women in Short”), its first Short Italian Contest, dedicated to shorts with a lesbian or feminist theme.
The selected shorts will be projected during the 18th Festival edition in Rome, and then proposed inside the international LGBTQ Festivals circuit, with the “Immaginaria Official Italian Shorts Selection Prize”. During the Festival, a dedicated jury will proclaim the winner of “Donne in Corto” Italian Short Competition.
On the occasion of Women's History Month, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago and Immaginaria present a selection of short feature movies from the festival's portfolio. The movies will be available online for the month of March.
In Her Shoes, directed by Maria Iovine, 2019, Italian with English subtitles, 19’
An upside-down world where women are in power, and men look after the family. Domenico retells his daughter his story. He relives the joys of her childhood, but also of the painful sacrifices of a father and husband, that suffocated his real aspirations and desires. Using archival footage, In Her Shoes rewrites History: men united in a liberation movement. What would men have done if they found themselves in women's shoes for centuries? And would women have remained indifferent or would they have recognized their privileges?
Tutti a Casa, directed by Geraldine Ottier, 2018, Italian with English subtitles, 7’
In 1972, a University Professor of Mathematics, Maria Silvia Spolato, loses her job and the affection of her loved ones when she comes out publicly as a lesbian during a demonstration for women’s rights. She is the first woman in Italy to do so. Not being able to find a job or a place in society, she spends the rest of her life on the streets as a homeless woman, cultivating her undying passion for mathematics, until her death on October 31st, 2018.
10percent, directed by Silvia Novelli, 2015, Italian with English subtitles, 28’
The cinematographic director’s cut of “10percent” presents the first lesbian-themed web series created for Instagram. Two strangers stuck in a lift, no lighting, no signal. Originally portrayed through 100 10-second episodes, the Italian title refers to the idea that 10% of the population is queer, and also to the 10-second by 100-episode structure of the series.
This program is part of Chi Siamo: (Re)presenting Italian Culture, the theme selected for 2023 by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. This year-long series will explore the topics of representation and inclusion in Italian arts, with a specific focus on cross-cultural contamination in contemporary and modern Italy.
