Gender and diversity are central aspects of the mission statement of the ifs internationale filmschule köln. We promote equal cooperation in teaching, research and administration in order to ensure equal opportunities and participation for all students, teachers and staff regardless of their socio-cultural, educational, physical or cognitive background.
The ifs is aware of its special responsibility as an educational institution for the artists and cultural workers of tomorrow. The future filmmakers have the task of depicting the diversity of our civil society both in front of and behind the camera and thus setting impulses for social renewal.
Through a series of internal and cross-university initiatives, ifs aims to anchor the topics of gender and diversity more firmly in curricular and institutional terms. The gender-specific measures to attract female applicants to the traditionally male film trades and to promote female university members are laid down in the Equality Plan and are regularly reviewed for their effectiveness.
Diversity at ifs – Overview
We welcome cultural diversity and support all students and university members in their individual situations.
We provide all university members with equal opportunities – regardless of gender, origin, position, age, sexual orientation, family commitments, religion, disability or illness.
We see ourselves as a family-friendly university and therefore strive for an optimal compatibility of studies / career and family.
GEECT Conference »Embracing Diversity in European Film Schools«
GEECT Conference »Embracing Diversity in European Film Schools«
In March 2019 (6.-8.03.), the ifs hosted the second part of the GEECT conference “Embracing Diversity in European Film Schools” in Cologne. In lectures and workshops, the conference focused on the question of how film schools can and should deal with topics such as cultural and social diversity, migration, demographic change and gender justice – both in research and teaching and in the cinematic work of students. After the first part of the conference at the Nederlandse Filmacademie in Amsterdam was about taking stock of European film schools, the focus of the Cologne conference was on how concrete changes can be implemented in curricula and university structures. Keynote speakers at the conference were Mark Terkessidis (author, journalist and migration researcher) and screenwriter and media artist Prof. Sylke Rene Meyer (California State University, LA).
Teaching
Diversity in Teaching
The working group Diversity in Teaching is a voluntary association of employees*, professors* and students, which was founded by the CED of the ifs, Simone Stewens. The aims of the working group are: To sensitize teachers, students and staff to the relevance of gender parity and diversity in film teaching and their representation in the films produced at ifs. The working group is also developing teaching formats that explicitly address the criteria of gender and diversity.
Courses
- FilmLektüreKlub: feministische und rassismuskritische Texte als Dialoggrundlage zu Spiel- und Dokumentarfilmen, die alternative Bilder und Sichtweisen ermöglichen (SoSe 21)
- »The Pleasure of Feminism!« Workshop mit der Filmwissenschaftlerin Laura Mulvey (WS 2020/21)
- Seminar »Genre and Gender« (2019)
- Film series »Fucking Stereotypes« (2018)
- Seminar »(Re)Presentations of Gender in Film« (2018)
- Documentary film project on the topic »Identity concepts in multicultural societies in Israel and Germany« with the Beit Berl College (BBC) from Israel (2016/17)
- Workshop with Dagmawi Yimer on Cinema & Migration (2016/17)
Cooperations
- »ifs Encounters« Gender & Diversity – Together with the International Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne (IFFF), ifs internationale filmschule köln invites you to the series »ifs Begegnung« Gender & Diversity. Once a year, the IFFF is the platform for current developments and trends in the work of women in all parts of film production.
In order to stimulate discussion in the cultural sector and at film schools on the topic of gender and diversity, the series shows selected feature and documentary films as well as experimental works and presents their makers in a subsequent discussion.
- European research project »future.film.education« –The European project aims to contribute to a more innovative, inclusive and diverse film and higher education – both online and offline. future.film.education was initiated by the ifs internationale filmschule köln in cooperation with the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in Hungary and the Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural (COFAC) of the Universidade Lusófona in Portugal. The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
Start of the project is in 2022 with the launch of the website www.futurefilm.education
- Gemeinsam für Gender-Gerechtigkeit/ Together for Gender Equality – An initiative of the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb), the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, the Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF), the ifs internationale filmschule köln and the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM), with the aim of creating an awareness of the on-screen representation of gender identity, to empower women for the movie business, and to signal, within university structures: The thought and work performed here is gender-equitable.
In 2018, the initiative »Together for Gender Equality« was presented by representatives of the German film schools at the Berlinale Empfang der Filmhochschulen.
At the 2020 Berlinale Empfang der Filmhochschulen, the representatives of the German film schools together with Dr. Maria Furtwängler, actress and co-founder of the MaLisa Foundation, presented their activities for »Living Gender Equality at German Film Schools«.
»Why is it so important to anchor gender justice already in the university and what kind of radiance does this have in the industry?« – A statement by ifs CED Simone Stewens on the occasion of the press conference »Living gender equalitye at German film schools« at the Berlinale 2020
- Into The Wild – University-wide mentoring program for female students and graduates
- »Film connects!« – In January 2020, the result of the project »Film connects« was presented with the team screening of the short film »Challenge«. Students of the ifs Bachelor’s degree program in Film developed a short film together with eight pupils of the eighth and tenth grade of the Cologne Hauptschule am Großen Griechenmarkt and one pupil of the Marien-Gymnasium Euskirchen – from the idea to the script to the post-production. One of the aims of the project was to overcome inhibitions and make film production accessible.
- »Medien & Migration NRW« – Hands-On-Workshops for refugees in the context of the Film Festival Cologne 2016 and 2017, Films: Surviver (2016), Monsters We Are (2016), Stamp (2017) und Allahu Akbar (2017)
- »Pluriversale« in cooperation with the Academy of the Arts of the World – an interdisciplinary series of events on the global conditions of post- and neo-colonialism
- Workshop offers in the context of the »Girls‘ Day« and »Boys’ Day«
- »ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de« in cooperation with the German Adult Education Association / Deutschen Volkshochschul-Verband (DVV e.V.)
Projects and Initiatives
Student initiative queer@filmschule
queer@filmschule is a student-initiated network for queer people at the ifs internationale filmschule köln for networking, exchange and discussion.
Since May 2022, film evenings have been held at the ifs under the title »Queer Cinema Night« with subsequent discussion in the auditorium, organised by the student initiative queer@filmschule. Among other relevant films, outstanding films of queer cinema are shown.
Projects
Since 2022, the ifs provides a special budget of 3,000 euros as project funding »Gender and Diversity« for artistic and scientific BA final projects and final scripts that deal with the topics of gender and diversity in a relevant way and contribute to a diverse, critical and solidary film culture with their material and/or working methods. A committee decides on the allocation of the »Gender and Diversity« project funding.
Previous ifs projects with relevance to »Gender & Diversity«:
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSIONER
The faculties Equal Opportunities Commissioner of ifs is the contact person for all members of her institution on the subject of
equal opportunities.
Their main tasks are as follows:
- Participation in appointment procedures
- Advice for women interested in a professorship
- Advice for prospective students
- Advice in case of discrimination and sexual harassment
- Advice and referral on the issue of compatibility of family and studies / career
ifs has set itself the goal of actively supporting the development of the German film and television industry towards greater gender sensitivity and equal opportunities. It therefore aims to increase the proportion of female professors and students in the traditionally male trades of film production. Accordingly, interested women are advised to contact the ifs Equal Opportunities Officer for advice.
Further information on equal opportunities can be found on the website of the centrally responsible equal opportunities commissioner of the TH Cologne.
Ulrike Hanstein
Equal Opportunities Officer
T +49 (0) 221.920188-0
u.hanstein(at)filmschule.de
Petra Maria Wirth
Deputy Equal Opportunities Officer
T +49 (0) 221.920188-279
p.wirth(at)filmschule.de
Protection policy against discrimination and sexualised violence
The ifs internationale filmschule köln specifically promotes diversity with regard to ethnicity, gender, social origin, religion or worldview, sexual orientation, age, coping with family tasks as well as physical and mental impairment and, beyond that, diversity of perspectives and equal opportunities. It embodies and promotes a culture of learning and organisation in which individual, social and cultural diversity is seen as an enrichment and quality feature.
Through the adoption of the Protection policy against discrimination and sexualised violence and in the form of preventive measures, the ifs is actively working against discrimination in any form. In this sense, the ifs internationale filmschule köln does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or sexualised violence.
Nevertheless, universities and university-like educational institutions such as the ifs are vulnerable to various forms of abuse of power as part of society and especially because of the “existing relationships of care and dependence. A particularly serious form of such abuse of power” (quoted in accordance with the HRK Recommendation of the General Assembly of the University Rectors’ Conference of 24 April 2018, p.2) is sexualised discrimination and violence.
For this reason, the ifs internationale filmschule köln assumes responsibility and, with this guideline, complements the possibilities and obligations for action according to the General Equal Treatment Act of 14 August 2006 in order to strengthen the personal rights of all members, staff and guests of the ifs and to protect them from discrimination and sexualised violence in the context of academic teaching and research as well as professional training.
Since March 2020 the ifs is a signatory of the Charter of Diversity.
