#19: film.macht.kritisch. Screenings: Practicing Curatorial Justice

Following up on Episode #9, which introduced the 6 Key Elements of Curatorial Justice, this episode moves from theory into action. We explore what it means to take curatorial responsibility seriously — centering context, authorship, ethical representation, and political clarity, rather than relying on supposedly “universal” or “neutral” perspectives. To bring these ideas to life, I reflect on five international short films from the first film.macht.kritisch. Screenings: Eid (12 min | Canada / Palestine | 2024 | Rame Ibrahim) Forest Echoes (19 min | Canada | 2024 | Eva Grant) Cow Heavy and Floral (15 min | USA | 2024 | Richa Rudola) Nightbirds (14 min | Philippines | 2024 | Maria Estela Paiso & Ashok Vish) Holy Curse (16 min | India | 2024 | Snigdha Kapoor) These works illuminate how borders and burials, motherhood, myth and agency, care and Indigenous environmental resistance, non-binary/trans identities, and cultural specificity become sites of curatorial responsibility. If you want to see these films in dialogue, join us on February 1, 2026, at 8 PM for the launch of film.macht.kritisch. Screenings: Bodies, Borders, Resistance at BIWOC* Rising — tickets available on Eventbrite. Special thanks to Egyptian filmmaker and producer Nada Riyadh for inspiring deeper exploration of curatorial justice in this series. This episode also includes a brief excerpt from a panel I already included in #9, “Unpacking Sovereignty and Curatorial Justice: The Filmmaker’s Perspective”, moderated by Rico Johnson-Sinclair (Cannes Docs – Marché du Film 2023, curated by DAE).