Imagine Peace with WILPF: A Century of Women's Peacebuilding in an Age of Rearmament

IMAGINE PEACE is a documentary by Swiss filmmaker Fabian Chiquet, produced by Milan Film AG, tracing over a century of women-led peace activism through the life and legacy of Edith Ballantyne — long-time Secretary General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The film weaves archival material with present-day interviews to show how women have held open political space for dialogue, disarmament and multilateral diplomacy when states retreated into confrontation. 

As armed conflicts intensify, military spending rises and the multilateral architecture strains, the film makes a timely contribution to the Geneva Peace Forum's 2026 theme, "Choose Peace". It documents what choosing peace has looked like across generations: persistent civil-society organising, women's meaningful participation in disarmament and human-rights negotiations, and the construction of local and transnational peace infrastructures. 

The Geneva screening is a pre-theatrical, partner-curated event (Swiss theatrical release follows on 22 October 2026, immediately after GPF26), co-organised by WILPF and Milan Film. It is conceived as a working dialogue: a screening, followed by a moderated discussion with WILPF leadership, women peacebuilders from conflict-affected contexts, and the film director.

The session offers peacebuilding policymakers, practitioners and researchers at GPF26 a shared reference point — an archival demonstration that women's peace activism is one of peacebuilding's longest-running, most evidenced traditions, and that renewing it is itself a "Choose Peace" decision.