3rd International Symposium on Women in Audiovisual Culture
Salt Galata
April 11, 2026 12.00
![77d06813 Eae0 4878 Bdbc 8e5ab75d070f 832x468 <i>Wayfaring Stranger</i> [Yolunu Arayan Yabancı] (2024) filminden bir kare
©Marta Michalowska, Thomas Zanon-Larcher, Andrea Luka Zimmerman](/directus/media/thumbnails/77d06813-eae0-4878-bdbc-8e5ab75d070f-832x468-jpg-780-5000-false.jpg)
Still from Wayfaring Stranger (2024)
©Marta Michalowska, Thomas Zanon-Larcher, Andrea Luka Zimmerman
©Marta Michalowska, Thomas Zanon-Larcher, Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Auditorium
Salt is hosting the 3rd International Symposium on Women in Audiovisual Culture, organized by the Department of Cinema and Television and the Department of Public Relations and Advertising at Istanbul Okan University, on April 11. Focusing on the narrative forms, testimonial practices, and creative expressions, the symposium draws on participants’ research and field experience to offer a platform for enriching critical perspectives on the representation of women in audiovisual culture. This year’s program highlights the transformative potential of cinema and visual storytelling, inviting audiences to reflect on the politics of the gaze, representations of motherhood, and cinematic expressions of subjective experience.
The session hosted by Salt on April 11 will begin with the screening of Wayfaring Stranger (2024), followed by a talk by the film’s director, Andrea Luka Zimmerman. The program will also feature a talk by Jessica Rodríguez-Colón.
This free-admission program will be held in English and is open to everyone. Click here for more information and registration.
PROGRAM
12.00–13.10 Screening: Wayfaring Stranger, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, 2024, 69’
Wayfaring Stranger follows the journey of an itinerant character embodied by seven different performers over seven days, each representing a different decade of life. Moving across cities, post-industrial landscapes, forests, farms, mountains, and shorelines, the film traces a story of transformation—from loneliness and alienation toward solidarity and coexistence.
13.10–13.30 Break
13.30–14.30 Talk: Andrea Luka Zimmerman, “The Poetics and Politics of Intuitive Cinema”
In this talk, Zimmerman will reflect on their filmmaking practice and the idea of “intuitive cinema,” which approaches cinema as a space between what is seen and what is implied. They will discuss filmmaking as a process of inquiry and exploration rather than representation, and consider how relationships with people, places, and the more-than-human world can open up new ways of seeing and sensing and transform cinematic language.
14.30–14.45 Break
14.45–16.00 Talk: Jessica Rodríguez-Colón (Jeca), “The Gaze Economy of (M)others in Films”
Drawing on the concept of the “gaze economy,” Rodríguez-Colón will discuss the power relations produced by the gaze within visual narratives. She will examine how cinematic representations of motherhood shape the social imagination of motherhood. Through an analysis of mother characters in mainstream cinema, she will demonstrate how motherhood is often represented through the binary of the “good mother” and the “bad mother,” rendering many maternal experiences invisible. Inviting audiences to rethink maternal philosophy and the maternal gaze, the talk will open a discussion toward more plural and inclusive representations of motherhood in cinema.
Salt is hosting the 3rd International Symposium on Women in Audiovisual Culture, organized by the Department of Cinema and Television and the Department of Public Relations and Advertising at Istanbul Okan University, on April 11. Focusing on the narrative forms, testimonial practices, and creative expressions, the symposium draws on participants’ research and field experience to offer a platform for enriching critical perspectives on the representation of women in audiovisual culture. This year’s program highlights the transformative potential of cinema and visual storytelling, inviting audiences to reflect on the politics of the gaze, representations of motherhood, and cinematic expressions of subjective experience.
The session hosted by Salt on April 11 will begin with the screening of Wayfaring Stranger (2024), followed by a talk by the film’s director, Andrea Luka Zimmerman. The program will also feature a talk by Jessica Rodríguez-Colón.
This free-admission program will be held in English and is open to everyone. Click here for more information and registration.
PROGRAM
12.00–13.10 Screening: Wayfaring Stranger, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, 2024, 69’
Wayfaring Stranger follows the journey of an itinerant character embodied by seven different performers over seven days, each representing a different decade of life. Moving across cities, post-industrial landscapes, forests, farms, mountains, and shorelines, the film traces a story of transformation—from loneliness and alienation toward solidarity and coexistence.
13.10–13.30 Break
13.30–14.30 Talk: Andrea Luka Zimmerman, “The Poetics and Politics of Intuitive Cinema”
In this talk, Zimmerman will reflect on their filmmaking practice and the idea of “intuitive cinema,” which approaches cinema as a space between what is seen and what is implied. They will discuss filmmaking as a process of inquiry and exploration rather than representation, and consider how relationships with people, places, and the more-than-human world can open up new ways of seeing and sensing and transform cinematic language.
14.30–14.45 Break
14.45–16.00 Talk: Jessica Rodríguez-Colón (Jeca), “The Gaze Economy of (M)others in Films”
Drawing on the concept of the “gaze economy,” Rodríguez-Colón will discuss the power relations produced by the gaze within visual narratives. She will examine how cinematic representations of motherhood shape the social imagination of motherhood. Through an analysis of mother characters in mainstream cinema, she will demonstrate how motherhood is often represented through the binary of the “good mother” and the “bad mother,” rendering many maternal experiences invisible. Inviting audiences to rethink maternal philosophy and the maternal gaze, the talk will open a discussion toward more plural and inclusive representations of motherhood in cinema.
