We're kicking off the Time Is Now – the season of women’s rights and fights in film in partnership with the release of Suffragette and He Named Me Malala. Inspired by the current passion amongst young women in feminism and the fight for equal rights, through this zine, the film season, and our online platform, we'll be exploring the role that women play in effecting change.
This season, (running from October 2015 until January 2016), hopes to bring together not only the films themselves but start a dialogue around how we see women on screen, as well as raise the profile of female writers, directors and actors and inspire the next generation. But it’s more than just a season of cinema. Over the course of the next few months we’ll be teaming up with some of our favourite film clubs, artists and activists to create events, workshops and special screenings for everyone to get involved with.
But attending an event isn’t the only way to get involved. Aside from this paper, The Time Is Now website will grow with interactive content. Curated by our editors, the site will feature articles, interviews, photo shoots & more, created by film experts, cool ladies, and YOU. We want to hear from every one of you so get involved and become a part of our community.
This paper serves as a taster of what’s to come on the site. We’ve been focusing on themes of education, protest, sport, law, and the media; curating and creating feminist ideas falling within these brackets and so much more. Across the pages of this newspaper you’ll find our Young Suffragettes feature, young feminist activists using new methods to make a difference. As well as think pieces on queer identity, Bollywood, interviews with multi-talented sports women and even a card game.
Ione Gamble, (right), is founding editor in chief of Polyester zine. A feminist and queer publication, Polyester is a celebration of all things trash, camp and kitsch. Running for a year and currently on its third issue, Polyester has worked with people such as Arvida Bystrom and Meadham Kirchhoff, with the publication focusing on online and alternative culture across print and the web. Through Polyester, Ione aims to create a space for marginalised people to celebrate fashion and identity while critiquing the industry and fighting for change.
ionegamble.com /polyesterzine.com
Cherry Styles (left) runs Synchronise Witches press and puts out quarterly girl zine the Chapess. She has been making zines for years but it's been through the Chapess that she has found herself at the head of a network of women writers and punks. Set to put out their first anthology in 2016, the Chapess has grown into a community of artists, writers and readers making the kind of media they want to see more of. The Chapess is a fanzine in the traditional sense and a love letter to all the women doing their own thing in the face of a society which is often actively working against us.
cherrystyles.co.uk / cherrystyles.co.uk/synchronise-witches
Illustrations by Brigid Deacon
