For as long as I can remember I have loved film. No particular genre, just well-told, compelling stories. It was only when I had turned to African and African-American cinema that I realised how exhausting it is to be excluded, and how much I enjoy engaging in more inclusive storytelling and conversations.

The Johannesburg-based programmer has roots in Sweden and Ethiopia. She has written extensively on African cinema and decentralises the white gaze in her critiques. She is the founder of the First Wednesday Film Club (FWFC) which offers free screenings to the public on the first Wednesday of every month, and has been running for over 10 years. She co-curates films and programmes African films that are not accessible in theatres but need to be seen.

Hedrén is the former chairperson of CinemAfrica film festival in Stockholm and the director of the 2016 and 2017 editions of the European Film Festival in South Africa. She regularly contributes as a programmer and adviser for film festivals around the world, where she continues to centre African storytelling.

She is especially encouraged by the release of great films to engage with as a programmer and a writer, “especially now that the landscape is changing so rapidly, and more and more women are making films,” she adds. She brings films that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by many into the limelight, and she is inspired to do more work by new stories and new voices.

Hedrén says that the film industry is not without its challenges, especially when it comes to stereotypes that are unfairly attached to women. “I have spent many festival evenings listening to men talking about themselves and being asked if I’m an actress, not because of how I look, but because of their limited imagination of what women can contribute in the cinema space.”

Her advice to younger women in the industry is this: “Never allow the low expectations of others to rub off on you.”
— Welcome Lishivha

Twitter: @KatarinaHedren