Khadidja Benouataf and Gabay Laura/Cécilia Cardoso
Photo: Aude Boissaye - Studio CuiCui
Khadidja Benouataf is president of the Impact Social Club, coordinator at BIM – Best Impact Movies and a member of the advisory board of the Global Impact Producer's Alliance. She firmly believes that films can change the world. The impact strategist develops ecosystems and brings together committed communities to bring films out into the world and spread their messages. To unleash this power for action in as many people as possible, she teaches impact strategies to filmmakers and students, participates in panels and moderates workshops at international film festivals (BERLINALE, FIFDH, ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL, etc.). She has developed campaigns for the following award-winning documentaries, among others: ‘Back to the Ice Age: The Zimov Hypothesis’ by Denis Sneguirev, ‘The Last Shelter’ by Ousmane Samassekou and ‘Shadow Game’ by Eefje Blankevoort and Els Van Driel.
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Cecilia Cardoso was born in Paris in 1983. She studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Bourges (France) and then worked for non-profit television stations as an editor and director. She has been leading workshops on visual arts and film in Uruguay for several years. From 2016 to 2021, she directed, produced and programd the Un Mes Corto International Film Festival (Uruguay) and was appointed Cultural Director of the Alliance Française de Rocha, a position she held from 2021 to 2022. She currently works as a producer at Écran Mobile. Laura Gabay was born in Geneva in 1987. She studied film at HEAD (Switzerland) and EICTV (Cuba) after previously studying sociology. She works as a director and producer at Écran Mobile. Her first feature film, Para no olvidar, was selected for Visions du réel. She leads Super 8 workshops at the University of Geneva.
Project
Our project tells the story of Melania, who suffers a violent homophobic attack in London in 2019 while travelling on a night bus with her girlfriend. The image of their bleeding faces quickly goes viral and is used by media outlets, politicians, celebrities and activists around the world. The film aims to reflect on the loss of social gains in some progressive countries, as well as on the virality and violence of social networks.
The work we will be doing this year with Khadidja Benouataf as part of the program will enable us to define the most appropriate and realistic strategy for the film's impact in order to raise awareness, promote understanding and, hopefully, encourage our audience to take action to fight for the social achievements of LGBTQIA+ communities and for the respect of human rights in general.
