Women's Film Festival

2020 Women's Film Festival Winners

2020 Women's Film Festival Winners

The judging panel awarded these films in each of the Festival's eight categories.

Best Experimental Short
"Olympia" directed by Giulia Achenza
Best Youth Short
"A Walk Along the Stars" directed by Lani McHenry
Best Student Animated Short
"My Cat Story" directed by SFC Student Allison Priest
Best Professional Animated Short
"They Call Us Maids" directed by Leeds Animation Workshop
Best Student Narrative Short
"The Romantic Movement" directed by Yuhe Lu
Best Professional Narrative Short
"Killing Hope" directed by Natacha Grangeon & Julia Retali
Best Professional Documentary
“Sensei Fran Kicks Ass” directed by Simone Fary
Best Student Documentary
"The 'S' Word" directed by Mireille Sylvester

2020 Film Festival

2020 Film Festival

SFC Women’s Film Fest 2020 Screening & Event list

Tuesday, April 14 | 1:30pm - 4pm | Shorts Screening 1

Title	Director	Country	Length	Synopsis/ Logline
The Apprentice	Megan Mathieson	USA	14:38	In a dystopian society, a young woman named Ria begins to work as an apprentice at a mental hospital only to find that she is trapped in the institution.
Mammoth	Jiamin Huang	China	14:25	A 17-year-old girl Chen Jialai, who is going to participate in a cheerleading competition, suddenly learns of the death of her classmate.
Worried	Ava Snow	USA	6:20	In this short Documentary, Director Ava Snow asks other teens one question only, "What do you worry about?" This film explores that question with the raw, unscripted answers of real youth.
Kinky	Tayana Brumaire	USA	8:42	After straightening her natural hair behind her mother’s back, Maybelline, a 14-year old Brooklyn teen who experiences the pressure of looking beautiful must decide rather to remain straight or return to her natural state.
The Worst Day of My Life	Jaret Martino	USA	12:57	A middle school student is forced to move schools after horrific bullying, despite processing grief and making a huge transition she's able to clear the way for a brighter future.
It’s About Time I Quit	Chloe Pacocha	USA	1:56	Revolving around an original poem written and read by Chloe Pacocha, this short film will sync your heartbeat with the reader’s as she metaphorically and poetically compares the struggles of quitting smoking with the hardship of heartbreak.
Sonata	Christine Jezior	Germany	3:22	Featuring music created by John Cage, this film focuses on how he created the tender, gamelan-like sounds he used to compose this piece of music.
Elephant In The Room	Chanelle Eidenbenz	Switzerland	19:30	Irna, a mother with a weakening relationship with her son Jago, seeks refuge in a rubber doll named Elias.
Los Angeles, Fuck You	Emilie Rae Ohanian Svensson	USA	10:39	A grown-up child star returns home to her estranged functioning alcoholic father.
And The Party Goes On!	Michael Asmar	France	16:16	Cécile, an ex-prisoner tries to get back her old life, while an ex-journalist, Abel, finds himself interested and affected by her story.
The ‘S’ Word	Mireille Sylvester	Canada	10:13	"The ‘S’ Word” is a character-based short documentary that follows 3 unmarried women from different generations, cities, and backgrounds who are without a partner for vastly different reasons.

Tuesday, April 14 | 4:30pm - 5:30pm | It’s Not Always What It Looks Like: A Blind Creator in a Visual World: A Talk with Molly Burke

Wednesday, April 15 | 3pm - 4:30pm | Keynote Speech: Storytelling Gets Us Through The Shit: How Filmmaking Can Create Your Future

Storyteller from the Future Karen Palmer references pop culture and classic movies in a talk about about how filmmaking gives us insight into the the human psyche during a time of crisis and inspires the audience create the future we want. Storytelling is a well of resources and a tool to build ladder out of this crisis and others.

Karen Palmer is an award -winning international artist and TED Speaker. She creates immersive film experiences that combine the genres of film, A.I. technology, gaming, Immersive Storytelling, Neuroscience, Consciousness, Implicit Bias, Behavioural Psychology and the Parkour philosophy of moving through fear. Palmer speaks widely about her emotionally responsive film experiences at the intersection of AI, Immersive Storytelling, Neuroscience, Consciousness and Implicit Bias and the necessity to Democratise AI. Articles on Palmer have appeared in Wired Magazine, Forbes, CBS TV , Fast Company , Engadget, NBC,The Guardian. Her work has recently been exhibited at the V&A in London, the PHI Centre Montreal, Sensory Stories Exhibition, The Future of Storytelling, SXSW Austin, and the Cooper Hewitt.

Wednesday, April 15 | 6pm - 8pm | Shorts Screening 2

Title	Director	Country	Length	Synopsis/ Logline
Woof!	Claire Henry	USA	2:45	After 8 months of training, Nala, a dog at K-9 Angels Rescue in Houston, TX finally gets adopted. Although Nala finds a home, the stray animal crisis in Houston remains unresolved.
My Cat Story	Allison Priest	USA	3:04	A story about a cat I got, but didn't have the chance to bond with him.
The Grandfather	Agnese Laizane	Latvia	14:00	Emilia has one day to save little kittens by finding them owners before her grandfather kills them.
Who Let The Taxidermy Out?	Laurence Unger	USA	8:16	A reformed taxidermist brings taxidermy animals back to life with chaotic consequences for an uninvited guest in this all-female silent film. This experimental comedy invites viewers to re-think what little girls are made of.
Maraña	Brisa Pamela Sanchez	Mexico	5:55	Tochtli, a broken rabbit that is found in the darkness of a huge forest, is persecuted for a being from which he has run away all his life, Tochtli will have to face his fears to reach the light that represents his bigger longing.
Antarctic	Paola de Sousa	France	3:00	A seal and a penguin's trip from New-Zealand to Antarctica
Geronimo: In Flight	Colleen Brady	USA	9:01	Tired of dieting and traditional exercise, a veterinarian decides to take ownership of her health by becoming an aerialist.
Constant Dripping Hollows Out The Stone	Johanna Mägin	USA	8:59	As the Vietnamese people move towards a cleaner, greener future, we meet some who are doing their part to keep plastic away from the beaches -- and out of the landfills.
A Walk Along the Stars	Lani McHenry	USA	1:54	A poetic journey told through animation and home videos, the filmmaker expresses the struggle of letting her grandmother go after moving into her old house in the summer of 2019.
The Norm	Jamal Bilal	USA	15:00	A week in the life of hospice nurse Kathleen as she moves from one patient to another, and realizes what it takes to not lose herself in the process.
Boo Boo	Olivia Miranda	USA	6:18	The story of one refugee whose life has benefitted from the help of Free Bird Cafe, and whose project is now helping others
Olympia	Giulia Achenza	Italy	11:35	Inspired by Don De Lillo’s novella Body Art, Olympia tells the story of a body artist and her director husband.

Thursday, April 16 | 11:20am - 1:10pm | Art of the Pitch Workshop

Conducted by Bri Castellini of Seed & Spark

Knowing how to convey the specifics about your project in a dynamic, succinct way can land you not only investors, but collaborators, audience members, and more. Skills learned: how to prepare for a pitch meeting; how to adapt your pitch to different audiences; how to follow up for a bright future.

Bri Castellini is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She has an MFA in Writing and Producing for Television and a BA in Creative Writing, and by day, she's the Film Community Manager for Seed&Spark and an adjunct professor for LIU-Brooklyn and Stephens College. She has been described by collaborators as a "human bulldozer" and is honestly kind of flattered.

Thursday, April 16 | 1:30pm - 2:45pm | Shorts Screening 3

Thursday, April 16 | 3pm - 4:20pm | Crowdfunding for Independence

Conducted by Bri Castellini of Seed & Spark

Seed & Spark’s cornerstone class clearly lays out the steps toward a successful crowdfunding campaign, as well as a career- long action plan most likely to create a lasting, flourishing, direct relationship with your audience. You’ll learn how to find your audience, structure your crowdfunding campaign, pick the right goal and incentives, and much more.

Bri Castellini is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She has an MFA in Writing and Producing for Television and a BA in Creative Writing, and by day, she's the Film Community Manager for Seed&Spark and an adjunct professor for LIU-Brooklyn and Stephens College. She has been described by collaborators as a "human bulldozer" and is honestly kind of flattered.

Friday, April 17 | 12:30pm - 3:20pm | Shorts Screening 4

Title	Director	Country	Length	Synopsis/ Logline
Tomorrow Island	Gwen Joyaux	Portugal	16:28	In the dawn of the Cold War, a young Soviet telegraphist makes a desperate attempt to save her American lover from being stranded in the Russian side of the Bering Strait after receiving a border closure message.
Not Your Ordinary Sister	Maša Zia Lenárdič, Anja Wutej	Germany	4:15	A queer satire which, in a witty yet direct way, addresses both the startling popularity of lesbian vampire films as well as the lack of proper representation in queer cinema on the subject of queerness within the conservative and patriarchal religious organizations (lesbian nuns / lesbian ex-nuns).
Three Minutes	Victoria Kieburtz	USA	6:07	Two women seek the shelter of tea and candid conversation in the wake of a quickly-changing world.
The Dead West	Students MMI App & License Pro MDN	France	17:49	In the United States during 1879, the West was devastated by an epidemic in which anyone that drinks the contaminated water loses his mind and becomes ravenous. Emma Brown, a young woman immune to the poison, tries to survive.
Relife	Asteros Lin	China	8:00	Film, as an existence independent of reality and rooted in the soil of reality, is very similar to dreams. Making a video work is, in a sense, making a dream.
Di Myay Mher Tha Ye Kana Phit Kae Tal - In This Land We’re Briefly Ghosts	Chen-Wen Lo	Myanmar	16:01	Based on actual events, this human tragedy follows a 12-year-old child soldier, Su Su Myat, and her mute brother, Tin Min, who are imprisoned after deserting their first combat mission.
Italy & (This Is) Water	Ioan Gavriel, Anja Franziska Plaschg	Austria	5:26	A single day: from the tender break of dawn to the darkest night. A long farewell, an ultimate goodbye to a life we have grown to hold dear. Leading to a head-on dive into a new reality, into a new state of being.
Desaturated	Marina Stepanska	Ukraine	10:00	A comedy about a character who knows that she is a character in a film, and is trying to overcome the visual clichés without which we cannot imagine modern cinema.
The Romantic Movement	Yuhe Lu	USA	20:00	Obsessed with his recent breakup, a young writer decides to commit suicide by midnight if his ex-lover doesn’t return to him. As he reminisces about their past while waiting in his gloomy house, unbearable realizations beyond unrequited love come to challenge his beliefs in himself.
Transmission	Emily Mkrtichian, Anahid Yahjian	Canada	14:39	In a not-so-distant future, cultural conservationists K and L are in a car accident in which time splinters into parallel realities, separating them. They embark on a journey to find each other again.

Saturday, April 18 | 2pm - 4:30pm | Shorts Screening 5

Title	Director	Country	Length	Synopsis/ Logline
Saturday	Pegah Pasalar Lagharani	USA	8:47	As the viewer follows a joyful trip to the beach by a family with three young children, innocence and happiness give way to the unthinkable.
Sensei Fran Kicks Ass	Simone Fary	USA	19:30	The story of one woman’s pursuit to redefine what it means to age.
The Gods of Tiny Things	Deborah Kelly	Australia	5:22	A collaborative collage animation work and produced through a residential workshop at the Riversdale Education Centre, the imagery, musical composition and soundscape design were devised to reflect upon the imperilled lives on a climate-changing planet.
Killing Hope	Natacha Grangeon, J	France	17:41	At the heart of a war-torn Aleppo, Anas al-Basha’s only weapon is his red nose and the smiles it brings to the children that surround him: he is the last clown of Aleppo.
LEGO	Faryarsadat Hosseini	Iran, Islamic Republic of	18:48	When a couple enters the mysterious house of the wife’s childhood, the wife disappears and in searching for her, the man finds a newborn baby in the bathroom with his wife’s necklace on her neck.
We Were Hardly More Than Children	Cecelia Condit	USA	8:45	An epic tale of a friend’s traumatic abortion; a deep hurt not remembered, but poignantly visible in her paintings.
Ukde	Ecem Çelik	Turkey	18:28	The film deals with a universal immigrant problem that suddenly enters the life of a woman.

Saturday April 18 | 5pm | Awards Ceremony

Mission

We are committed to celebrating emerging and established female filmmakers. We strive to recognize new and original voices within the St. Francis College community and other university communities, as well as in the international emerging film community. Our goal is to create a bridge between female college filmmakers and professional female filmmakers which will encourage collaboration, cooperation, and coordination.

Goals

To inspire discourse among women regarding the expression of women’s image in film, as well as to explore the role of women in the history and evolving art of filmmaking.

Examine emerging film storytelling trends, and artistic viewpoints of female student and professional filmmakers.

Augusta Palmer
Director

Augusta Palmer, director of the SFC Women’s Film Festival is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. She is a filmmaker and scholar who holds a Ph. D. in Cinema Studies from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. As a documentarian, she is best known for The Hand of Fatima (2009), a feature documentary about music, mysticism, and family history. Her award-winning documentary and experimental video work has screened in national and international festivals, as well as at venues like New York's Anthology Film Archives. Her first fiction short, A is for Aye-Aye: An Abecedarian Adventure has been screened at children’s film festivals from New York to New Zealand. She is currently at work on a new feature documentary, The Blues Society, which is about blues and bohemia in 1960s America.

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Past Film Festivals

2019 Film Festival

2019 Film Festival

2019 SFC Women's Film Fest Prizes

Kodak Prize
“Take My Breath Away” by Gloria Endres De Oliveira
Youth Award (made by a person who is under 19 and has not started college)
“Schoolhouse Glock” by Jasmine Lecount-McClanahan
Student Narrative Award
“Middle Lands” by Maria Conte
Student Documentary Award
“Memoirs of Saira & Salim” by Eshwarya Grover
Professional Narrative Award
“Selkie” by Amy Frear
Professional Documentary Award
“Seasonal Guests” by Doro Carl
Professional Animation Award
“Panic Attack” by Eileen O'Meara
“Tangle” by Malihe Ghloamzadeh
Student Animation Award
“Two of Every Kind” by Asaf Yecheskel
Experimental Award
“ Matter Out of Place” by Oona Taper
Virtual Reality Award
“Filamu” by Maud Clavier
SFC Student Award
“Chinese New Year in New York” by Alessandra Flynn

2019 St. Francis College Women's Film Festival Schedule

MARCH 26 PRE-FESTIVAL EVENT
3pm: Alice Howell Silent Slapstick Program
Piano Accompaniment by Ben Model Presented in collaboration with the 2019 SFC Women's Film Festival, held April 4th - 6th; The festival is a celebration of women's media production that features panels, workshops and screenings of short films and immersive media created by women from around the world.

Virtual Reality Experiences on Display Throughout the Festival

Title	Director	Country
Filamu	Maude Clavier	USA
Asian in America: A Symbolic Meal	Jenny Dorsey	USA
Thin Line	Rony Kahana	USA

APRIL 4 - All events in Founders Hall
11:30am - 12:30pm: Opening Panel - The Future is Intersectional
This panel will open the festival with a discussion of how feminism and women's filmmaking is inherently intersectional, with multiple identities intersecting for filmmakers, festival programers and the filmmaking community.

Featuring:
Filmmaker Isabel Sandoval
Isabel is a New York-based Filipino filmmaker. She has produced, written and directed two full-length features, including the Filipino-language Señorita (2011), which premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and was nominated for Best Picture by the Young Critics Circle of the Philippines. Her second feature film, Apparition (2012), a period drama about cloistered Filipino nuns during the Marcos regime was widely acclaimed in its Philippine theatrical release and won a number of international awards, including the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NetPAC) Award at the 2012 Hawaii International Film Festival as well as the Audience Award at the 2013 Deauville Asian Film Festival in France. Variety Magazine touts Apparition as an “outstanding sophomore feature...[an] intelligently scripted and deeply moving mood piece.” She is in post-production on her third dramatic feature, "Lingua Franca". Her fourth, "Park Avenue, is slated to be in production in summer 2019, and she is a recent Tribeca All Access Grantee. Isabel has a MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business and has a background in CPG brand management.

Filmmaker and Festival Director of the Mystic Film Festival Shareen Anderson

Shareen Anderson is a filmmaker and TV producer based in Brooklyn, New York and Mystic, Connecticut. She’s developed and produced a wide-range of documentary films and series for networks, such as A&E, PBS, Netflix, Fusion, Esquire, TLC, Al Jazeera English, and Discovery. Most recently, she created and executive produced “The Murder of Laci Peterson”, a six-part limited documentary series for A&E. She also created and executive produced “Saving Soweto”, an eight-part documentary series for Al Jazeera English. “Return To The USS Atlanta”, which she directed and produced, was screened on Netflix and PBS, and her first feature documentary, Charents: In Search of My Armenian Poet, won the Audience Choice Award at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, and aired on PBS in 2016. While living in Johannesburg, South Africa she co-founded the Jozi Film Festival in 2012 and was a co-director until 2015. The festival is still going strong and continues to be run by local filmmakers. She launched the Mystic Film Festival in 2018 and is excited to see it go into its second year.

Filmmaker, SFC Alumna & Media Educator Sade Falebita
Sade Falebita is a multimedia producer and educator on a mission to nurture potential, educate, and empower creatives. She graduated from St. Francis College with a B.A. in Film and Broadcasting and B.S./M.S. in Accounting. Sade also obtained an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she reported on a wide range of hard news and features exploring issues including civil rights, immigration, healthcare, and poverty. Her unique background in communications incorporated with conducting multimillion dollar financial audits, has permitted her to have a keen understanding on how to effectively inform and engage audiences and clients alike. Sade frequently shares her personal experiences in media and finance through public speaking engagements in workshops, offering key career and professional development advice and reinforcing the power of community engagement. Her passion for teaching has led her to success as a storyteller and mentor, in particular in her current role as Associate Director of Youth Programs at Downtown Community Television Center.

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm - 3pm: Seed & Spark sponsors Crowdfunding to Build Independence with Christina Raia
Learn the tools for creative independence by studying the techniques of successful crowdfunding campaigns: how to identify your audiences, bring them on board as followers and eventual funders, build meaningful partnerships to scale your reach, and create the most enticing possible pitch to audiences. Then, you'll get the down low on learning how to read between the lines of the data you gather while crowdfunding to increase the value of your IP and retain creative control.

Program 1 | April 4, 2019 | 3:30pm

Film	Director	Country
Orpheus & Eurydice	Flora Chilton	Hungary
Chinese New Year in New York	Alessandra Flynn	USA
Tangle	Marzieh Meisami Azad	Iran
Ah	Yoginee Ayul	India
The House of Water	Lili White	USA
Selkie	Amy Frear	USA
Middle Lands	Maria Conte	Italy
Mission Dadu	Tanisha Agarwal	India

5pm - 6pm: Reception

6pm - 8pm: Seed & Spark sponsors The Distribution Down Low with Christina Raia
We’re shattering the mystique around film distribution. Join us as we break down the current landscape of distribution for independent film and TV, including the economics of different avenues to take, the right questions to ask potential partners, and what needs to be done from pre-production through post-production to set yourself up for successful distribution.

APRIL 5 All Events in Founder’s Hall
10am - 12pm: Screening 2 - Short Films in Competition

Program 2 | April 5, 2019 | 10am

Film	Director	Country
Memoirs of Saira and Salim	Eshwarya Grover	India
Two of Every Kind	Efrat Chen Weiss & Naor Zana	Israel
Hidden Half	Marzieh Meisami Azad	Iran
Pick Me Up	Layal Akiki	Lebanon
Take My Breath Away	Gloria Endres de Oliveira, writer/director	Germany
Next, Please	Alexandra Rieser	Austria
Z-Born	Shaan Couture	USA
Am I Pretty	Jennifer Proctor	USA
Ladies' Night: Love & Basketball	Time Cecere & Josie Brennan	USA
Admazons	Cathleen Carr & Julie Sharbutt, writers/producers	USA

12pm: Lunch

12:30pm - 2:30pm: Screening 3 - Short Films in Competition

Program 3 | April 5, 2019 | 12:30pm

Film	Director	Country
Mirror	Begonha Vicario	Spain
Wonderland	Tiffanie Hsu	USA
Faith	Tatyana Federovskaya	Russia
Scapegoat	Cian Luo	Taiwan
The Story of Everything	Sharon A. Mooney	USA
The 800lb Gorilla	Dana Verde	USA
Our House	Emily Hanson	USA
Matter Out of Place	Oona Taper	USA
Heather Has Four Moms	Jeanette Buck	USA

3pm - 5pm: Feature Film Screening Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970), introduced by Professor Scott Weiss
A neglected masterpiece, Wanda is the only feature film made by director Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role.Wanda won the best Foreign Film Award at the Venice Film Festival when it was released in 1970. The film tells the story of an unhappy housewife in a hardscrabble coal mining community in rural Pennsylvania who leaves her husband and strikes out on her own. This groundbreaking work languished in obscurity for decades, but has recently been restored and placed on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/275159804

5:30pm: Reception

6:30PM: Screening 4 - Short Films in Competition, including documentary short “50 Years of Women at St. Francis College”

Program 4 | April 5, 2019| 6:30pm

Film	Director	Country
Come Home with Me	Jo Enver	Singapore
Eli: A Portrait	Lumen Nguyen	Germany
Seasonal Guests	Doro Carl	Germany
Now or Never	Rose Schimm	Canada
Symptoms	Courtney Gains & Karen DeGennaro	USA
The High Wire	Kristy Hasen	USA
50 Years of Women at SFC	Daniele Francavilla	USA

APRIL 6 All Events in Maroney Theatre, 7th Floor

11am - 1pm: Screening & Discussion: The Future is Female: DC TV’s Female Youth Media Makers
A screening and talkback accentuating the power of women in DCTV’s award-winning Youth Media Program, past and present. Emerging artists from the Youth Media Program, translate the contentious and transformative experiences of our time to original films. The showcase explores the shifting landscape of women's voices, tackling gender inequality in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

Participant Names/Films
Aracelie Colon [High Expectations, Simple Night]
Jalyssa Jimenez [The Next Stop]
Miranda-Sofia Ranghelli-Duran [WITHOUT]
Colette Robicheaux [Etherized]
Showcase of Past Films
Kira Britt [Evolution]
Alyssa Dyal [Lifeline]
Sandra Appiah [Reflections in Thailand]

1pm: Lunch

1:30pm - 3:30pm: Virtual Reality Panel and Screening curated by Lisa Russell: The Future is NOW: Women in AR & VR

This panel will feature Stina Hamlin, Sadah Espii Proctor and Lisa Russell and will allow participants to view their work.

Lisa Russell, Moderator is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and arts curator who has been producing films and curating creative events for UN/NGO agencies for the past 15 years. As Founder of Create2030, a creative agency dedicated to engaging artists and creatives in the UN-led Sustainable Development Goals, Lisa is curating immersive experiences for the social good for the upcoming Women Deliver Film Festival, the UN's SDGs in Action Film Festival and the St Francis College Women's Film Fest.

Stina Hamlin, cofounder of STATE of Mind Media & Director of Post Production at East Coast Digital, Inc., is an award-winning VR creator and television producer who has worked with organizations including UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and USA Today. She is of Cherokee and Irish descent, and her focus is creating projects that amplify Indigenous voices and creating media that educates and supports in the fight to protect the water and Mother Earth. Currently she is working on XR project, Blood Memory: The Experience, and is a new member of the 2018-2019 cohort at New Inc. in New York City.

Sadah Espii Proctor is a VR director and sound/media designer for theatre and immersive experiences. She specializations in multimedia performances, 360 video and audio production, and interactive audiovisuals systems. Her work leans towards global stories of women, social issues, and the African Diaspora, often with an Afrofuturist/Cyberpunk lens. Previous collaborations include Kimbra and Sophia Brous (EXO-TECH), Sasha Velour, Neycha, Soul Science Lab, Murray Hidary, and Hi-ARTS. Proctor is the director of VR documentary Girl Icon (SXSW, Tribeca), which was created as part of Oculus’ VR For Good Creators Lab in partnership with Malala Fund. She received her M.F.A. in Performance and Interactive Arts from Brooklyn College and is a proud alumna of Virginia Tech.

4pm - 6pm: Screening 5 - Short Films in Competition

Program 5 | April 6, 2019 | 4pm

Film	Director	Country
Beyond Dreamers	Yazemin Yilmaz	USA
Starvation	Zahra Rostampour	Iran
Pride	Bianca Pezo	USA
Schoolhouse Glock	Jasmine Lecount-McClanahan	USA
A Scratch for Every Itch	Maryanne Galvin	USA
Panic Attack	Eileen O'Meara	USA
Tender	Britt Sodersjerna	USA
The Trail	Shana Darabie	USA
6,743 Count My Voice	Shristi Josti	Nepal
For A Better Life	Yasmin Mistry	USA
Gaslighting	Tina Matzat	Germany
Spring Has Sprung	Alexandra Kenny	USA

6:30pm - 8:30pm: Closing Panel & Awards Ceremony
Singer Mijori Goodwin of Create 2030 , a n organization that links artists to work toward UN Sustainability goals, will open and close our awards ceremony for all films in competition with her amazing performances. The evening will continue with a screening of “Giving Birth in America: New York,” a short created by Every Mother Counts, an organization founded by Christy Turlington Burns to help raise awareness about maternal mortality rates and the effort to make pregnancy safer for women around the world. Nan Strauss, director of Policy and Advocacy at Every Mother Counts will be present to talk about the film and their mission.

2018 Film Festival

2018 Film Festival

2018 Festival Supporters & Partners

entrepreneurship

Department of Communication Arts
Women’s and Gender Studies Minor
Honors Program
Office of the Academic Dean

2018 Panel Discussions

St. Francis College Women's Film Festival
From The Silent Era To Virtual Reality

March 19 - 23, 2018

Festival Winners

Best Narrative Short by a Female Non-Student - ur dead to me, Yonoko Li
Best Narrative Short by a Female Student - Tira Misu (SFC) Co-Directors Marina Esparza & Shala Franciosa
Best Documentary Short by a Female Non-Student - Voices From Kaw Thoo Lei, Martha Gorzycki
Best Documentary Short by a Female Student - LGBTQ Comes Out to SFC Concetta D’Angelo/Producer Michele Montecalvo
Best Animated Short by a Female Non-Student - Meeting Macguffin, Catya Plate
Best Animated Short by a Female Student - Laymun, Catherine Prowse
Best Virtual Reality Work - Fly, Ji-Young Kang
Best Experimental Film - Nothing A Little Soap and Water Can’t Fix, Jennifer Proctor

Audience Awards

Audience Award for Documentary - The Road Less Traveled, Marissa Plaia & Family Unwritten, Yasmin Mistry
Audience Award for Fiction - Tira Misu (SFC) Co-Directors Marina Esparza & Shala Franciosa
Audience Award for Animation - Laymun, Catherine Prowse

2018 Festival Preview

2018 Film Schedule

Program 1: March 19, 6pm

Title	Director	Country
ur dead to me	Yonoko Li	New Zealand
Spinosaurus	Tessa Hoffe	Scotland
The Road Less Traveled	Marissa Plaia	US
165708	Josephine Massarella	Canada
Family Rewritten	Yasmin Mistry	US
Nothing a Little Soap & Water Can’t Fix	Jennifer Proctor	US
LGBTQ Comes Out to SFC	Concetta D’Angelo Michele MonteCalvo	US
Laymun	Catherine Prowse	UK

Program 2: March 20, 3:30pm

Title	Director	Country
Risk	Lauren E. Johnson	US
Cultural Appropriation	Simran Sharma	US
The Story of a Motorbike	Junqing Duanmu	China
Celia	Clare Maceda	US
Celebrating 55 by Protesting 45	Mary Dalton	US
I Wait	Megan Gonzalez	US
#MeToo PSA	Alexandra Kenny & Alyssa Hernandez	US

Program 3 March 23, 1:20 pm

Title	Director	Country
Ok, Mum	Eva Lanska	UK
Meeting MacGuffin	Catya Plate	US
Voices from Kaw Thoo Lei	Marth Gorzycki	US
Commercial for the Queen of Meatloaf	Dina Fiasconaro	US

Program 4: March 22, 12 noon

Title	Director	Country
The Living Girdle	Judith Henry	US
Elephant	Shannon Plumb	US
Lana	Amy Podmore	US
Theme & Variations	Yulia Lanina	US
Fall	Kathryn Ramey	US
Kicking Up Dust	Angela Ellsworth	US
Untitled	Ana Dantas	Brazil
Our Summer Made Her Light Escape	Sasha Waters-Freyer	US
Take the Wild	Krista Davis & Cari Tangendal	Canada

Program 5: March 22, 4:30pm

Title	Director	Country
Ace and Anxious	Bri Castellini	US
25%	Pamela Mathues	Spain
For Mom	Savannah Joeckel	US
Filipina	Maribel Apuya	US
Ready for a Baby	Anastasia Dyakova	Australia
Tira Misu	Marina Esparza	US

2018 Festival Schedule

Monday, March 19 - FOUNDERS HALL

2:00pm - Screening of Shoes (1916) by silent film director Lois Weber with live piano accompaniment by the amazing Ben Model
4:00pm - Panel on the Past, Present, and Future of Women's Film Production with:
- Academy Award nominee Immy Humes,
- VR Innovator Theresa Loong, and
- Kate Saccone of the Women Film Pioneer's Project at Columbia University
5:15pm - Opening Reception
6:00pm - Screening Program #1

Tuesday, March 20- FOUNDERS HALL

11:10am - Social Media Charm School, a workshop on how to craft your personal brand in social media led by Seed & Spark crowdfunding guru Christina Raia
1:20-3:20pm - Pitch Workshop led by Seed & Spark crowdfunding guru Christina Raia. Learn how to pitch your film or business from a pitch master
3:30-4:30pm - Screening Program #2
4:30-6:00pm - From #MeToo to #ActToo: Taking Action for Culture Change - Callahan Center
- Join Mary Iannone (Breakthrough US) & Urvashi Gandhi (Breakthrough India) representatives from Breakthrough, a global human rights nonprofit, to discuss the future of #MeToo in both the United States and India. They'll discuss how to turn this powerful moment into a sustainable movement to create real culture change. Iannone and Gandhi will run through workshop ideas for daily actions anyone can take to change our environments, disrupt gender norms, and help to ensure no one else ever has to say #MeToo.

Thursday, March 22 FOUNDERS HALL

12:00pm - Experimental Shorts Program curated by Roberta Bonisson
- Program#4
1:20pm - Breaking Boundaries: VR & Immersive Story Telling Panel with
- Lisa Russell
- Christian Delsol
- Ellen Pearlman
2:30pm - VR Viewing
3:30pm - Panel - Filmmaking & entrepreneurship: Manage your Entertainment Business with
- Thembisa Mshaka,
- Lauren Magura of Cinematcher, and
- Marie-Helene Carleton of ScreeningRoom.org
4:30pm - Screening Program #5
5:30pm - Awards Ceremony
6:30pm - Reception

NOTE: NEW DATE

Friday, March 23 - MARONEY FORUM FOR ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

11:30am-1:00pm - Rising Up: #GALSNGEAR presents Global Perspectives on the Celluloid Ceiling
- Filmmaker and Celluloid Ceiling author Gabrielle Kelly and
- Editor Meaghan Wilbur from 2 Dope Queens (HBO)

1:20pm - Screening Program #3
3:00pm - Making Media for Social Change: Screening & Panel with
- documentary Filmmaker Lisa Russell, who will be screening Heroines of Health,
- and Leslie Wright from the Zonta Club of New York, who will introduce an excerpt from Little Stones by Sophia Cruz.

2017 Film Festival

2017 Film Festival

2017 Festival Schedule

Tuesday, March 28 - 9:30am - 4:00pm

9:30am Opening address
9:45am Film Screenings
11:00am - 12:30pm Panel discussion - Women's Filmmaking Past, Present, Future: Why Women's Media Making Matters
- Ally Acker - Film Historian, Filmmaker, author Reel Women, a two volume work on Women in Cinema from the Silent Era to 2010
- Debra Zimmerman - Executive Director, Women Make Movies
- Isabel Sandoval - Director, Apparition
12:30-2:00pm Film Screenings
2:00pm - 3:30pm Crowdfunding Workshop - Financing your Film
- WORKSHOP LEADER: Christina Raia of Seed and Spark - social media /audience building and maintenance
4:00pm -5:30pm Filmmaker Roundtable Event
- Building Bridges – The Art of Networking (Festival filmmakers only)
- April Yvette Thompson (Producer: Blue Caprice, Mother of George, Gun Hill Road)

Wednesday March 29th 11:00-6:30pm

11:00am - 3pm Film Screenings with Q & A
3:00pm- 4:00pm Panel Discussion - Making it Happen: Filmmaking as Entrepreneurship
- Stacey Holman
  - Producer, Tell Them We are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities and Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band
  - Director, Dressed Like Kings
- Lauren Magura - Cinematcher, a new app for finding crew members for film shoots
- Lisa Russell - StoryShifter
4:00pm-5:45pm Film Screenings
5:45pm-6:30pm Awards ceremony and reception

Awards & Prizes

Best Narrative Short by a Female Student
Best Documentary Short by a Female Student
Best Narrative Short by a Female Non-Student
Best Documentary Short by a Female Non-Student
Best Documentary by an SFC Student
Best Animated Film by a Female Student
Best Animated Film by a Female Non-Student

Schedule of Films

day one film schedule

day 2 film schedule

Magaly Colimon-Christopher

Co-Founder/Director

"It started with an impression I got that young female artists were more reticent to express themselves than I was when I was their age. This impression evolved into a desire to give them a platform to be seen and heard. The desire sparked a conversation with Augusta Palmer, during which I discovered I wasn't the only professor who was concerned about the muted voice of female film students. Augusta and I went back-and-forth analyzing the pros and cons of co-founding a film festival, until a rush of determination and optimism turned a series of conversations into hours of co-planning, team work and co-recruiting. Our collaboration resulted in the first ever St. Francis College Women's Film Festival in 2016."

In addition to co-directing the festival, Magaly is an Adjunct Professor in St. Francis College's Communications Art Department. Magaly is also a professional actress/writer/director. Her acting credits include national commercials, prime time television, and regional theater productions. Magaly's directing credits include "Yes Madame" (screening selection at the Pan African Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard Film Festival, Reel Sisters Film Festival, and BHERC Film Festival). Her director/writer credits also include BN4REAL (web series), short film HER TORY (short film), and 2Divas and a Camera (short film series). St. Francis College has recently produced staged readings of her plays THE HUNTING SEASON and BAMBOO UNDER RUBBLE. She is a true East Coaster. She earned her BA at Columbia College, her MBA from Binghamton University, and her MFA from Yale School of Drama.

2017 Festival Opening Remarks

Panel Discussion: Why Women's Media Making Matters

Partners

	The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is proudly supporting the St. Francis College Women's Film Festival by awarding one-year memberships to IFP for all of our prize winners.


	Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn

Panelists

Ally Acker

Ally Acker is a filmmaker and poet. Her most recent film is Reel Herstory: The REAL Story of Reel Women, hosted by Jodie Foster, based on her two-book collection, Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, The First Hundred Years. The original 1989 edition was hailed groundbreaking as the first book on the market to reveal the transformational role women played in film since 1896. Acker also directed the ten documentary collection, Filmmakers on Film. Acker’s last film, The Flowering of the Crone: Leonora Carrington, Another Reality, is the only film produced in the U.S. about the great Surrealist. Acker appears in The Women Who Run Hollywood, which premiered at Cannes last May.

Debra Zimmerman

Debra Zimmerman has been the Executive Director of Women Make Movies since 1983. For 10 of the last 11 years films from WMM have won or been nominated for Oscars. She is in great demand around the world as a speaker on independent film distribution, marketing and financing. She is a member of numerous Advisory Boards for many media organizations, a jury member for many international film festivals, and regularly sits on foundation and government funding panels. She is the recipient of New York Women in Film and Television's Loreen Arbus Award and the Hot Doc's Doc Mogul Award, given to those who "over the course of their career has made an essential contribution to the creative vitality of the documentary industry, both in his or her country or abroad."

Isabel Sandoval

Isabel Sandoval is a New York-based Filipino filmmaker. Her second feature film, "Apparition", won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NetPAC) Award at the recently-concluded 2012 Hawaii International Film Festival after having its international premiere in competition at the 2012 Busan International Film Festival (New Currents category). U.S. trade magazine Variety gave "Apparition" a rave review: an "outstanding" sophomore feature that is "intelligently scripted" and "deeply moving". In July 2013, The Museum of Modern Art screened "Apparition" for a week as part of their ContemporAsian series.

Christina Raia

Christina Raia is a New York City based Writer/Director, the Founder of CongestedCat Productions and a Crowdfunding Specialist at Seed&Spark. Her work, a collection of short films, a web series, and a feature film, has gained a large online following through multiple crowdfunding campaigns. She has been covered by press outlets such as Indiewire, AfterEllen, and BuzzFeed. She also turned her desire to foster collaboration and engagement in the local film community into IndieWorks, a monthly film screening series showcasing and supporting the work of other independent filmmakers in New York.

Seed & Spark

Seed&Spark is the world’s only streaming and crowdfunding destination, supporting inclusive films and film-related projects with funding, audience building, and distribution. At the heart of our popular “Crowdfunding to Build Independence” workshop is our dedication to connecting filmmakers with their audiences. Identifying, and then enthusiastically engaging, your supporters is essential to a career of successfully funding and distributing your films. That's why in our class, we teach you how to find and engage your fans, run an effective crowdfunding campaign, and then distribute your film—all while preparing you to make your next film. Because after all, this class isn’t about crowdfunding: it’s about career building. Your film career starts here!

April Yvette Thompson

SimonSays Entertainment's Director of Development, April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer/writer/actor working across media. Producer: Blue Caprice, Mother of George, Gun Hill Road, Porgy & Bess, Jitney. Actor: Blue Caprice, Gotham, Blue Bloods, The Exonerated Accidental Husband, Law & Order. Broadway/Off Broadway: Clybourne Park, Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, Liberty City, Fit for a Queen. Playwright: Good Bread Alley & Liberty City (Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lucille Lortel noms). Education: Vassar College & Rutgers University.

Stacey Holman

Stacey L. Holman is a Harlem based independent producer/director whose work has screened Nationally and Internationally. She recently wrapped on the PBS documentary Tell Them We Are Rising the Story of Black Colleges and Universities as Producer which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. In addition, she produced and directed the award-winning shorts Mirar Mirror and Girl Talk and has produced content for Centric TV. Stacey’s work also expands to South Africa where she’s finishing a documentary, Dressed Like Kings, on a group of fashionable Zulu men. She’s a graduate of Dillard University and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Lauren Magura

Lauren is the founder and CEO of the entertainment job matching app Cinematcher. She came up with the idea of Cinematcher through her passion for connecting people within the entertainment industry. The true dedication of everyone in the industry, and the need for a simpler hiring process influenced Lauren to put Cinematcher into motion. Lauren has a background from Universal Pictures in marketing and film and oversees all aspects of Cinematcher.

Lisa Russell

Lisa Russell is an Emmy-winning filmmaker with a Masters in Public Health who has been producing films and creative advocacy campaigns on pressing global development topics for UN/NGO agencies for the past 10+ years. With a passion for arts and storytelling to help change narratives of humanitarian type content, Lisa has released "StoryShifter", a new online platform for the social good, driven by machine learning and data analytics. Lisa currently lives in Brooklyn and is a teaching artist for young spoken word artists and also leads digital storytelling workshops. For more info visit www.lisarussellfilms.com. Twitter: @lisarussellfilm

Sponsors & Partners

Title	Director	Country	Length	Synopsis/ Logline
No Offense	Leeds Animation Workshop	United Kingdom	12:00	A modern-day fairy-story about sexist, racist and homophobic harassment at work.
Marisol	Zoe Salicrup	USA	14:44	A young mother striving to make a life for her and her daughter, Marisol’s worst nightmare comes to life when her passenger on her ride sharing app accuses her of being undocumented.
They Call Us Maids	Leeds Animation Workshop	United Kingdom	7:00	The true story of today’s migrant domestic workers, women from the Philippines, Indonesia, North Africa and South-East Asia, who go abroad to support their families.

Women's Film Festival

Augusta Palmer Director

Augusta Palmer
Director