Hot Topic: The Menopause - Women Over 50 Film Festival
Centre for Ageing and the Life Course's Dr Elham Amini, Lecturer in Sociology, was invited to join the panel at the Women Over 50 Film Festival last week (23 September), to discuss her research on the gendered and sexual experiences of Iranian Muslim menopausal women. The Film Festival welcomed and celebrated the creative contributions of older women in the world of cinema, which produced an inclusive festival highlighting films made by and starring women over the age of 50.
Embracing the diversity of their experiences and perspectives, the festival provided a platform to showcase the talents of older women as writers, directors, producers, and actors who are driving the narrative through their vivid storytelling. The lived experience of menopause was well received, with three films on the topic, of which two were specifically on menopausal experiences of Black women.
Dr Amini’s research provided additional context to creative’s visual representation of the lived experiences, as discussed on the ‘Hot Topic: The Menopause’ panel. Elham was also joined by Karen Arthur, Producer and Presenter of the podcast ‘Menopause Whilst Black’; Fay Reid, Participant in WOFFF23 documentary ‘Menopause: The Movie’ by Alison Ramsey; and Karen Newby, Nutritionist and experienced Clinician in women’s health, and author of ‘The Natural Menopause Method – a nutritional guide to perimenopause and beyond’.
Speaking of the Film Festival experiences, Dr Elham Amini shared:
"I was delighted to join this ground-breaking panel event because of my own interest and research which lies in the intersection of age, gender, ethnicity, and health. Those three short movies (“Our Menopause”, “Cycle of Change” and “Menopause: The Movie”) by focussing on the lived experiences of menopausal women not only provide a space for especially marginalised and silent group of women such as menopausal women to speak up and to be heard but also assist us in gaining insight to relate their individual biographies to their socio-cultural structures."
The Women Over 50 Film Festival recognised the value of diversity in order to give voice to an invisible, marginalised group of women.