'They came here to discuss': A Film Screening Celebrating Women's Voices

is a women's charity based in East London, with a sister project in Sheffield. We run conversation workshops, providing space for women to come practice English with other women who are learning, fluent and confident.

Xenia welcomes all women, including migrant, refugee, asylum seeking and native English women. We operate an open door policy, collecting minimum data, providing childcare and travel support. Our sessions focus on conversation as the means to share, learn and raise our consciousnesses together.

Please join us for Xenia's first public fundraising event. We are raising money for our first summer trip to the seaside. We will be heading to Margate for some much needed respite and joy.

60% of funds raised from tonight will go towards Xenia's trip; 40% will go towards venue costs at Newington Green Meeting House, with thanks to New Unity.

Doors will open from 6pm with a start time of 6.30pm. There will be a bar with drinks and snacks.

A short film exploring the life and activism of Thakin Htein Win, one of the architects of the Burmese independence movement, through the voice of his granddaughter. Her grandfather's house, and the everyday rhythms of domestic life, frame her memories and stories of political organising, philosophical debate and plans for a new future.

Shunn Lei (she/her) is a multidisciplinary cultural worker, whose area of interests are displacement, rebel memories, feminism, militarism and labor movements. She is an organiser with Xenia, a grassroot multilingual women group based in Hackney.

In 2008, Italian artist and feminist activist, Pippa Bacca was murdered in Gebze, western Turkey, while hitchhiking from Milan to Israel. Wearing a white wedding dress, Bacca had intended to raise awareness for world peace, before her life was violently cut short. Filmmaker Bingöl Elmas dons a black wedding dress and continues Pippa's intended journey, starting in Gebze and ending at the Syrian border. Hitchhiking alone across Turkey, Elmas tries to make sense of Pippa's death, reflecting on processes of trust, power, symbolic acts of protest and the everyday reality of violence against women and girls.

Bingöl Elmas (she/her) is a filmmaker and writer based in Turkey. Her practice centres on human rights, social issues and the urban environment, utilising the documentary as a platform for advocacy and storytelling. She is the director of Turkey-based production company, Asmin Film Productions.

A short documentary exploring the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people living in Turkey, through and with the neighbourhoods in which they live. Focussing on the perspective of Tolga, the collective life and architecture of his neighbourhood becomes a second character in this meditation on acts of daily resistance, joy and life.

Ada Aysę İmamoğlu (they/them) is a documentary filmmaker and a chef based in London. Ada seeks to empower women, migrants, refugees, and LGBTQI people through a roaming practice of storytelling, advocacy and hospitality. Ada teaches cookery courses at Migrateful Cooking School and is the chef at Pulse and Pickle, a radical cultural centre and community hub, based in east London.

🎤 Followed by a conversation between filmmakers Shunn Lei Swe Yee and Ada Aysę İmamoğlu, exploring shared themes of resistance, memory and women's experiences across cultures and geographies.

Wrap up with a raffle of donated prizes.

The event will be held in the Main Hall, accessible through the double doors at the front of the building.

There is step free access and a ground floor toilet.

There will be a quiet space arranged away from the main screening space.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please email [email protected]/.

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Host or Publisher Xenia