Girlhood (2021)
GIRLHOOD
Vania Terner & Maria Sidiropoulou
Greece, 2021, 30’
An Onassis Culture production
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
3rd prize in Best Documentary Short Film, 15th Greek Documentary Festival – Docfest, Official Competition section
Special Mention Medium-Length Documentary Award, KIDS & DOCS Jury Awards, 24th Olympia International Film Festival for Children & Young People, KIDS & DOCS International Competition section
SYNOPSIS
GIRLHOOD follows Vera, Christina and Nefeli, three seventeen-year-old girls in Athens who come of age during the pandemic. From the first frame, we’re invited into their worlds as they talk about their frustrations and dreams. These intimate, sometimes painful conversations are threaded with the Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok videos shaping their self-image in quarantine. This coming-of-age story shows teenage girls trying to figure out how to love themselves as they transition from girls to women in a society that remains deeply patriarchal. Even as their faces are glued to a screen during quarantine, they find refuge in their friendship as they finish school and begin the road to adulthood.
Post-screening discussion will be led by educator and member of the Scientific Committee on Sexuality Education of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), Dr. Margarita Gerouki.
Margarita Gerouki has been an active educator since 1993, holding Master’s, Doctoral, and Postdoctoral degrees in Education, Health Education, and Sexuality Education, in Greece and Finland. In addition to her initial teacher training, she holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Health Education (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), a PhD in Teacher Education and Sexuality Education (University of Helsinki, Finland), and a Master’s degree specializing in Political Theory and Human Rights (University of Crete, Greece).
She has published scientific articles, books, and two children’s stories. She has presented her research at conferences in Greece and abroad and also participates in European research and educational programs. Her main research and pedagogical interests focus on comprehensive sexuality education, protection from sexual abuse, prevention of school violence, and social justice.
The sexuality education program “Playing with Frixos,” for which she was the lead author, received the Award for Excellence and Innovation in Sexuality Education (2019) from the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).
Dr. Gerouki is also actively engaged in the public sphere through civil society initiatives, serving as president of the non-profit organization AXEPT (Safe Carefree Children Now), as a public speaker, and by designing and implementing training programs on sexual and reproductive health, equality, social justice, and the prevention of gender-based violence and child sexual abuse. Since 2021, she has been a member of the Scientific Committee on Sexuality Education of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).
