Self Criticism - March 2024
Self Criticism regarding our first public screening
This self-criticism was written as an internal document following our first screening. It was edited and refined for publication on the website in March 2025.
"The overall goal of criticism and self-criticism is to help us transform our character, attitudes and way of living, so that our movement increasingly embodies the values of the non-exploitative society we want to create."
Vicki Legion
Points of C-SC
Thank you everyone for all your criticisms - it has been so valuable for us to improve on this project! Here are the concrete changes we will be making:
- More in depth historical and political context
- Content warning before the screenings
- (Free) ticketed system to avoid overcrowding
- Gluten free food option
1. More context needed in slides
In our private screenings, the presentations we had done had significantly more information than our first public screening. This is inexcusable and does not reflect the standard we aim for. This was due to the member responsible for these slides not communicating that they needed support to create them. Furthermore, research and the films were done too last minute. We will fix this in two ways in the future: Firstly, we will choose the film as soon as possible, this will give us a time period to focus on, which is what we did for our Oman screening as that was focused on the Dhofar revolution. Secondly, we will be sure to communicate more clearly with each other and to check up on the work the other is doing. We are responsible to an audience now rather than just our friends. Our style of work should represent that.
2. Lack of content warning
With the goal to make the screenings a communal experience for everyone, we chose to not watch the films prior to the screenings. We were fortunate that none of the films we had shown so far were too heavy. However, our luck ran out with our first public screening, in which the film we showcased (Wechma) needed content warnings beforehand. To rectify this, we will be watching the films beforehand and writing up a content warning list which we will announce before the screening. We will also mention it before starting the films. This also has the added benefit of making us more likely to choose good films
3. Room too full and hot
We were blown away by how many people came! We were expecting about 25 people max, but there were about 40-50 people. While we would love to show these movies to as many people, this just isn't possible with the space at the Listen Gallery. To fix this, we will do a (free) ticketing system.
4. Food options
At the time of this event, no one in the team was celiac. Due to this and our lack of catering experience, we did not think to make the meal gluten free or at the very least to have a gluten free option. Our screenings should be as accessible as possible to the largest number of people.
We appreciate everyone's critiques and feedback. Working collectively together, we will make the screenings better and better.