Up To G-Cup
Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2022
May 20 - 26, 2022
Northern Iraq’s first lingerie store not only sells underwear, but also acts as a meeting place where women connect to their bodies and sensuality after overcoming the traumas of oppression, war, and conservative morality.
Up To G-Cup also screens digitally nationwide between May 20 – 26 on HRWFF’s digital streaming platform. Watch here.
Q&A with Director Jacqueline van Vugt, Editor Sandro Ligtenberg, and Sarah Zilan Koessler, Psychotherapist and Women’s Activist
Northern Iraq’s first lingerie store not only sells underwear, but also acts as a meeting place where women connect to their bodies and sensuality after overcoming the traumas of oppression, war, and conservative morality. The store is in Suleimaniyah, a city in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq, where the male management of the mall state: “A billboard of a woman in lingerie is not possible – a woman in a bra and thong but without a head, maybe.” Yet the women in Up to G-Cup are open with each other and the camera. Director Jacqueline van Vugt captures intimate stories about love, sex, shame, and war.
“Women, girls – all their decisions have to be approved by the family. You can’t choose your own husband. Our culture doesn’t allow us to follow our hearts, your heart has to stay hidden.” —Shyaw, Film Participant, Up to G-Cup
“It is my dream that one day in Kurdistan too, lingerie will be seen like other clothes and no longer be a taboo subject.” —Shapol, Film Participant, Up to G-Cup
Read More
Rose of Nevada Director Mark Jenkin on His New Sci-Fi Tinged Tale
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Rose of Nevada director Mark Jenkin discusses his sci-fi-tinged tale of dislocation and regeneration.
Kamal Aljafari on With Hasan in Gaza and ‘The Camera of the Dispossessed’
Our 63rd New York Film Festival Talks featured a special conversation with With Hasan in Gaza director Kamal Aljafari, moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish.
Lucrecia Martel on Our Land (Nuestra Tierra), the Filmmaker’s First Feature Documentary
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Our Land (Nuestra Tierra) director Lucrecia Martel discusses her expansive and enlightening first feature documentary.
