Tribeca Festival 2022 documentary Hidden Letters chronicles how women in Chinese society navigate a patriarchal culture and find solidarity and independence through a secret language. Women filmmakers and artists around the world face a parallel challenge in navigating industries that are codified by male decision makers and storytelling customs. This panel will explore how women and marginalized genders work to support one another to recodify a more equitable system through investment in storytelling. This InMaat Foundation, Chicken and Egg Pictures and Independent Lens sponsored panel will bring together artists and leaders of social change to discuss film, patriarchy and the ways in which art and language has created solidarity in the past and in the present. Panelists include Gloria Steinem and special guests. Moderated by Malika Zouhali-Worrall.
Violet Feng is an Emmy® winning documentary filmmaker and a 2018 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow. Her producing credits include Singing in the Wilderness, Confucian Dream, Maineland, and Please Remember Me. Her career started as a co-producer on the 2007 Sundance and Peabody winner Nanking. Hidden Letters is her directorial debut.
An award-winning poet, author, international feminist leader, political theorist, and journalist, Robin Morgan has published 23 books, including the now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful, Sisterhood Is Global, and Sisterhood Is Forever. Her latest books include Saturday’s Child: A Memoir, her best-selling The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism, and her new novel, Parallax. Morgan co-founded The Sisterhood Is Global Institute, (www.SIGI.org) with Simone de Beauvoir, and The Women's Media Center with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem.
Gloria Steinem is an American activist, journalist, and leader in the global feminist movement. Steinem contributes to feminism internationally as a writer, lecturer, organizer, and media spokeswoman on the issues of equality. At the age of 88, she continues her work towards a more just world through her support of both seasoned and budding activists, and organizations such as the Women’s Media Center, the ERA Coalition, and Equality Now. She is a co-founder of Ms. Magazine.
Malika Zouhali-Worrall is an Afro-Arab/British filmmaker based in New York. An Emmy Award-winning director, her directing credits include the feature-length documentaries, CALL ME KUCHU (2012, Netflix, BBC World) and THANK YOU FOR PLAYING (2015, POV/PBS), both of which were theatrically released to critical acclaim in the U.S. Malika is currently in development on a hybrid feature-length film. Malika is a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow, a 2020 Firelight Media William Greaves Award recipient, and a 2021 Adobe Women at Sundance fellow.
Sarah Kay is a writer, performer, and educator from New York City. She is the author of four books of poetry and a class of 2022 New Arizona Fellow at New America. Sarah is the founder and co-director of Project VOICE, an organization that uses poetry to entertain, educate, and inspire students and teachers worldwide. Kay was born in New York City to a Japanese American mother and a Jewish American father.
