The project launch for the Gender-inclusive city design project – “Her cities” movie night took place in the Star and Shadow cinema in Newcastle on 29th April. Earlier afternoon, the research team put up the movie posters and collaborated with the cinema volunteers to set up the cinema room. Five additional posters were put up in the hallway for the participants to read, demonstrating the potential gendered issues in Newcastle city design, including access, reliability, convenience and comfort, safety, social and public life, violence and harassment.
More than 40 people came to the workshop on the day. Each participant was given a consent form and a short survey while check-in at the box office. Before the movie begins, Jennifer introduced the aim of the event, which is to gather knowledge and opinions from the local citizens about gender-related challenges in the city that might be evoked by the filmic female experiences in the metropolitans. The movies were clips chosen from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Run Lola Run (1998), Frances Ha (2012), Wadjda (2012), and Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 (2019). Each clip is about 20 minutes long. During the intervals, Dr. Jiayi Jin gave each movie a short introduction to its theme.
After the movie screening, Dr. Nadia Bertolino led the participants to fill out a short survey asking about what movie triggered them the most, their feeling while watching the film, and if they had similar experiences in the cities they live/lived in. We received a total of 34 completed surveys. Wadjda was the most chosen one among the five movies. It evoked a range of feelings in the audience, like empathetic, depression, sad and empowered. Interestingly, most women were triggered by Kim Ji-young: Born in 1982, while only one male participant responded to the movie. Participants also gave engaging remarks about the other three films.
The workshop received great feedback. The valuable knowledge and opinions from local citizens on gender-related issues and experiences in cities will be used for further research to set out a practical framework incorporating local needs in designing and planning an inclusive city of Newcastle.
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