Opening
For faith leaders and community organisations
You are letting a film crew into a building you are answerable for. Here is exactly what happens, and what we will not do.
What happens in your building
We arrive early and work to a running order you have read in advance. Nothing is drilled, fixed to a wall or left across a fire exit. Prayer goes in the running order first and we stop for it. No alcohol. Afterwards the room goes back as we found it.
What we ask of you
A room, a date and somebody to talk to. Not your endorsement.
- A room and a date. Darkness for a screening; power and tables for a session.
- Somebody to let us in and lock up, and one contact we can reach beforehand.
- Your rules, in advance. Where shoes come off, which rooms are not entered, who may be in a room with whom.
- Nothing else. Not your endorsement, not a word from the front, not your name on a funding application.
What your congregation gets
Women in your community learn on professional equipment, in a building they already walk into, taught by people working in high-end television and film now. Places are fully funded, so attending costs nothing, and where a film is made with a congregation you keep a copy.
The work is for women of faith — Jewish, Christian and Muslim — and those who share our values, and for women of no faith on the same terms.
Who we are, and who can vouch for us
Screen Sisters CIC is a community interest company. Both directors are named at Companies House, surplus cannot be taken out, and the accounts are public. Team and governance.
Done: a crew worked inside a mosque during Ramadan and made a film with the congregation. Prayer times moved daily, crew members were fasting, and the trustees had to agree first. Ask, and we will put you in touch with a building that has had us in.
The questions you should be asking
Safeguarding: who is responsible, what checks, and what if something goes wrong?
Everyone working with participants is checked at the level the law allows, recruited to a written role description and inducted. One person is responsible on the day and you are told who, in writing, beforehand. Your arrangements stand in your building; ours sit alongside them. Concerns go to Nina Karwalska at team@screensisters.org.uk or to any practitioner on the day, with no certainty and no evidence needed. In immediate danger, 999 first. Anything that goes wrong is put to you the same day, in writing.
Will you film people? Who consents, and can somebody change their mind?
Nobody is filmed or photographed without written consent, and consent can be withdrawn afterwards without a reason. A person can take part and not appear; for anybody under eighteen a parent or carer consents too. What may be filmed is agreed with you first, and no camera runs during prayer unless you ask for one.
Is this a conversion exercise, a funding exercise or a political one?
None of the three. Nobody is asked what they believe or asked to change it. We take no party position and campaign for nothing in your name. If a grant pays for a session we say so, and your building goes into no bid or press release without your written agreement.
What if I say no to part of it?
Then that part does not happen. No camera in the room, women staffing it, no photographs at all: whichever part it is, we work to it. A no is a complete answer.
A short film shot inside a community building: the room going in, a congregation member operating, the room put back at the end.
Behind-the-scenes material from the Ramadan mosque shoot, subject to written consent from everyone visible and from the building.
Our people and our delivery are ours. Cameras, lighting, sound and projection are not: they are arranged with their owner and confirmed before a date is committed. Opening, and so is most of this page.