Active Archive
The Future of Feminism, 2008
30’11”
Directed and edited by Cara Holmes
Photography: Emily Aoibheann, Cara Holmes, Shell Sheddy, Google
I moved to Berlin in 2007 with my band ‘Party Weirdo’, an all-screaming queer feminist punk band from Dublin. [1]
I had been making my way in the TV and film world in Dublin, as well as playing gigs with the band around Ireland. I had decided to move to Berlin for a year. A time out. A pause. The band decided to join me. Myself and the drummer Emily Aoibeann stayed in the housing project Liebig 34 in Friedrichshain for two months, before moving into apartments. It was here that I decided to make The Future of Feminism. I wanted to start using the DV camera that I had bought in Berlin, but also wanted to explore what was going on with queer musicians, artists and feminism at the time. It led to chance meetings and encounters, and both the film and the band brought us on strange and wonderful adventures. Regretfully, in October 2020, the Berlin police cleared Liebig 34, one of the city’s last remaining squats.
–Cara Holmes
In this short documentary which introduces concepts of feminism, Holmes interviews various feminist and queer activists, academics and artists in Dublin, Berlin, and Vienna, and conducts street surveys in the streets of Dublin. Reflecting on histories of feminist struggle, and the challenges in both the present and future, the film collapses different approaches to feminism(s), the complex issues they embrace, and the variety of movements and forms of cultural and political action and grassroots activism. It features, among others: members and organisers of the autonomous queer living space Schwartzer Kanal Berlin and Ladyfest Vienna; Dublin’s queer, feminist, DIY promoter Magical Girl Gig; and residents of the female, lesbian and transgender housing project Liebig34/XB in Berlin.
NOTES
[1] Party Weirdo toured Poland and Lithuania in August 2007. Filmed entirely on a digital stills camera by Richard Davis, the documentary features the band on the road, and is accessible online here. Holmes was also part of the queer punk band Fierce Mild.
BIO
Cara Holmes is a director and film-editor based in Ireland.
Her own work is predominantly documentary (both independent and broadcast), and she has also worked on various TV dramas, award-winning observational documentary series, experimental films, and short films. Holmes’ interests lie in feminism, disability rights, and LGBTQI+ stories. Currently, she is working on a documentary about the herstories of Dublin Lesbian Line, which is a confidential support helpline, operated by a group of enthusiastic female-identified (LGBTQAI+) volunteers since 1979.