Shorts Collection: International Women’s Day

Historically, science shaped by patriarchy has treated female existence as secondary: responsible for reproduction, sidelined in research, and stripped of desire. Marking International Women’s Day, this sharp short film programme probes those blind spots, asking how science, medicine, technology and society might finally begin to care for women’s bodies on their own terms. The films will be screened in the following order: It’s Different For Girls, Taboo: The Unspoken Truth About Women’s Health, and Girls are made to make love.

TALK

In collaboration with LUX Nijmegen, InScience – International Science Film Festival presents a special programme for International Women’s Day, exploring the boundaries of intimacy through the lens of health, gender, and power.

On Health brings together film, science, and conversation to examine how gender roles, prejudice, and systemic inequality shape our experiences of health, reproduction, and bodily autonomy. Through short film screenings and moderated discussions with invited experts, the programme creates space for critical reflection on vulnerability, care, and the political structures that influence them.

The afternoon is structured around three film screenings followed by an in-depth conversation. Taboo: The Unspoken Truth About Women’s Health confronts persistent inequalities in healthcare, highlighting how women — particularly women of colour — are disproportionately affected by systemic neglect. The second film, It’s Different for Girls, looks toward the future of contraception and reproductive responsibility, questioning how care, power, and accountability might be redistributed in a changing political landscape. Moderator Iris Romeijnders will discuss the urgent themes in these films with the audience and with doctor and professor primary care at the RadboudUMC Sabine Oertelt-Prigione. The programme will conclude with the film Girls are made to make love. 

InScience and LUX invite audiences to reflect together on urgent questions surrounding health, the body, and equality, not only as scientific or medical issues but also as profound social and political ones. After a short break, the programme continues with International Women’s Day: Exploring Our Role in the Patriarchy, a workshop led by Suus ter Braak in which participants reflect on their role within the patriarchy.