Ground-breaking Norwich Women’s Film Weekend celebrated in online archive
A significant online archive showcasing the UK’s longest running women’s film festival is being launched this February.
The Norwich Women’s Film Weekend (NWFW) was a two-day annual event that ran for 10 years, from 1979 to 1989, at Cinema City in Norwich. It was organised to promote the making, distribution and exhibition of women’s films by a group called Cinewomen.
Each year, the NWFW screened films by women filmmakers and organised talks, workshops and discussions. Among the guests were Sally Potter, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Ngozi Onwurah, Catherine Breillat, Kay Mander, Wendy Toye, Laura Mulvey, the Berwick Street Collective and many others.
The NWFW remains the longest-running women’s film festival in the UK. The event forms a vital part of the history of women’s cinema and feminism as well as a landmark in Norwich’s cultural history.
The Norwich Women’s Film Weekend archive was gifted in 2021 to Norfolk Heritage Centre at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library by Cinewomen. The following year the posters, leaflets, and programmes were digitised thanks to a grant from NORAH, the Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation.
On Friday 3 February, from 5pm, Cinewomen and Norfolk Heritage Centre are hosting the launch event of the digitised online archive.
You are welcome to attend the launch at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library,
The Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich NR2 1AW
Archive contributors, partners and stakeholders will be in attendance and speakers will introduce the project. Four of the original Cinewomen will be there. All media are welcome. Please RSVP to rachel.ridealgh@norfolk.gov.uk.
For more details of the launch event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/norwich-womens-film-weekend-online-archive-launch-tickets-519636485717
View the online archive: https://norwichwomensfilmweekend.wordpress.com/ Media Contact: For high res images or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Rachel Ridealgh, Community Librarian for Local Studies, rachel.ridealgh@norfolk.gov.uk, 01603 774781
Women's Film and Television History Network - UK/Ireland 