Feminista Film Festival 2019: The Power of Setting Goals

This year’s Feminista Film Festival took place on September 27th - 28th in the Soho Hotel, London, and sold out on all three events! The festival screened a series of shorts as well as feature-length films that dealt with empowering female characters that came from the worlds of sport and art. The films involved young girls in northern Pakistan who continue their battle in fighting for their right to go to school, the establishment of the first Afghan women’s national football team, Greta Thurnberg voicing her opinions on the current climate crisis, Fiona Oakes competing in the Marathon Des Sables, and many more stories of inspiring female role models. The last event on Saturday evening closed with a Q&A session with Fiona Oakes herself, moderated by Katie Goldfinch. 

The whole purpose of Feminista Film Festival is to inspire women and girls to raise their voices and make a difference. Their purpose was to allow the audience to identify and connect with the amazing female characters in the films, ultimately getting the courage and motivation to think and act differently themselves. Through engaging storytelling, teeth-clenching scenes, and heavy subjects, the film festival sparked empathy and inspiration, encouraging women and girls to develop a stronger voice in society, and challenge their limits. 

While taking in the moments between these breath-taking films, I came to realise that all of these empowering female protagonists had one thing in common - they had a goal. And for this goal they possessed deep passion and a strong drive to pursue it. Motivation, focus and the ability to set goals is something we all possess, regardless of our gender. This has no biological conditions attached to it, it is merely an attitude, a mindset, a conviction we can all develop in our minds to make our dreams a reality. 

The way the film festival chose to convey the importance of a stronger voice was through their selection of films. They mainly dealt with female protagonists who were professional skiers, rock climbers, football players and women who questioned their region’s norms. These are things that are usually expected from men, but never from a woman. It is common to justify these beliefs by saying that men are just more physically capable of achieving these goals, or are stronger in spirit, which allows them to successfully stand up against authority. Perhaps these assumptions are not ill-intentioned, however, these opinions have been impacting our perspective on gender roles for centuries. Even I, as a woman, find myself guilty of agreeing with such assumptions subconsciously, especially when it came to sports and extreme physical activities. 

Seeing these women maximise their strengths and test their limits to achieve such big dreams, such as resolving the Earth’s climate crisis, or competing in a 250km race through the Sahara Desert, was extraordinary. It proved my inborn preconceptions to be misconceptions, allowing me to truly believe that anything is possible, but only if you really want it. And that is the determining factor - to really want it. 

Really wanting something means you have a deep motivation that keeps you focused on achieving your goal. So, you will do anything it takes to get to your destination. This does not mean however, that you won’t feel discouraged, or you won’t fail at times, but because you really want it, at the end of the day you will keep trying. It is not about how many times you failed, or how many times you experienced setbacks, but it’s about how many times you got up and tried again. And this is what these female protagonists did: they kept going until they made it. They dreamed big. It did scare them, but they kept trying. 

Setting a goal is the first step to reaching your goal, and the art of achieving it is through focus and never giving up. These screenings empowered me to test my boundaries and challenge the norm, to let go of society’s misconceptions of our role as a woman and go for the impossible. These women made history, began a revolution, and moved a nation. Now, they’re inspiring you to do the same, for it is merely up to us to decide what we choose to do with our time here on Earth.