Description
Our body can be a source of pleasure or perpetual dissatisfaction with ourselves, a tool for success, or even a platform for experimentation. How does the society we live in determine our attitude to our own body? The film director "The Body Fights Back" Marian Võsumets and the director of the Northern Lights Volia Chajkouskaya will meet for an honest conversation about body shaming and body positivity.
Language of the event: English with Belarusian subtitles
Participants
Marian Võsumets. Documentary film director, journalist and broadcaster (Estonia)
Marian Võsumets is Estonian journalist and broadcaster. Her independent documentary The Body Fights Back is produced and funded by her production house Lola Productions. Marian first began her career as a health journalist, then moved on to directing television documentaries and presenting news reports for Estonia’s Channel 2, with a focus on international politics and factual entertainment. Her two most notable documentaries tap into Brexit protests in London and Eurovision fandom in Israel, both aired in 2019. In 2020, Marian was awarded Best Television Reporter at the annual Estonian Film and Television Awards (EFTA) gala in Tallinn. The Body Fights Back is her debut feature film. Marian holds a BA in History from Tallinn University, having decided from the start that this is the field that will help her become the journalist with a broader scope. Her thesis focused on the execution and manifestation of Soviet propaganda in the Estonian Radio during 1940-1941, and questioning the impact of political agendas has been the backdrop to much of her later work. She currently studies at the London Film Academy. With an intuitive sense for storytelling, she combines visuals with narrative, drawing attention to meaning in places often overlooked in daily life. She believes and proves that novelty appears where disciplines overlap – in her case history, journalism and filmmaking.
Volia Chajkouskaya. Director of Northern Lights Film Festival, producer, film director (Estonia/Belarus)
Volia Chajkouskaya was born in Belarus, currently living in Estonia. She started off with journalism studies and has 11 years of working experience in media. Volia also obtained a Masters Degree in directing and producing documentary films in Baltic Film and Media School (Tallinn, Estonia). She launched Volia Films production company in 2016, the company is registered in Estonia and Belarus. Volia Films produced a full-length documentary “The Road Movie” (dir. Dmitrii Kalashnikov) in 2016. The Road Movie was world premiered at IDFA First Appearance Competition the same year and was screened at more than 80 festivals. Volia is a voting member of European Film Academy and a board member of the Producers and Film Production Guild of Belarus and is a founder and program director of Northern Lights Film Festival. In 2019 Volia joined Allfilm production company as a producer and director. Currently has three projects in active stages.