Reclaim The Frame: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood + Q&A

Reclaim The Frame presents SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD + in conversation with director Anna Hints 

In southeast Estonia, in a traditional smoke sauna, a group of women from the Võro community come together to cleanse their bodies and share their stories. Through Anna Hints’ Sundance-award winning documentary, we enter into their intimate space and immerse ourselves among this collective of women. Between the confines of the smoke sauna, and the frozen expanse of the forests beyond where the women take breaks to dip in a nearby iced-over lake, what director Hints creates is truly experiential. In observing sauna rituals rooted in community, egalitarianism and wellbeing, we see what it means for this group of women to create space for each other: for communion, solidarity and healing as they each regain the strength they need to face the world outside.

Please note this film contains discussions and recollections of sexual violence and domestic abuse.       

Following the film, filmmaker Anna Hints will be present for an in-person conversation, moderated by Reclaim The Frame.

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD will be presented with descriptive subtitles (SDH) and available with audio description (AD), and the post-screening conversation will be live captioned. 

This event is brought to you by Reclaim The Frame - a UK wide charity with a mission to champion marginalised perspectives in cinema, and connect with audiences through community building and conversation.

Celebrating their 20th year, the charity was founded as Birds’ Eye View in 2003, launched originally as a film festival running each International Women’s Day, and now an organisation that works all year round and in 16 cities across the UK to support, and build audiences for, films by filmmakers of marginalised genders. 

To join them in advocating for social justice in all film spaces, to find out more about upcoming events, or to donate to their access initiative as part of The Big Give, please go to reclaimtheframe.org or @ReclaimTheFrame / #ReclaimTheFrame on social media.