4th Annual St. Francis College Women's Film Festival Announces Line-Up and Event Schedule
Who:
Women filmmakers from around the world
What:
4th Annual St. Francis College Women's Film Festival
Where:
St. Francis College
180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn
When:
April 4 – 6, 2019
FREE & Open to the Public
More information at www.sfcwomensfilmfest.com
Forty-seven short films by women from thirteen countries, along with panels and workshops about the art and business of filmmaking, make up the 4th annual St. Francis College Women's Film Festival, a three-day event showcasing and celebrating women's cinematic contributions.
Films selected for screening tackle subject matter ranging from hot-button social issues to personal explorations of identity and relationships, representing a range of global perspectives from emerging filmmakers.
The festival includes a special April 5th showing of the neglected masterpiece Wanda (3 – 5 p.m. in Founders Hall), the only feature film made by director Barbara Loden. This groundbreaking work, which won the best Foreign Film Award at the Venice Film Festival when it was released in 1970, languished in obscurity for decades, but has recently been restored and placed on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
The collection of selected films – all of which are no more than 15 minutes long -- will be screened in five two-hour sessions at various times across the three days. The schedule includes BEYOND DREAMERS, centering on two DACA recipients who are reunited with their mother, PRIDE, a coming-out story about a self-identified queer Hispanic youth, TENDER, an animated piece that explores the personal vulnerabilities of an artist, and HEATHER HAS FOUR MOMS, a narrative about a teenager's quest to lose her virginity.
SFC senior Danielle Francavilla will also debut her short film about the history of women at St. Francis College during the Festival.
"The Women's Film Festival not only provides a platform for aspiring collegiate women filmmakers, often from places or with perspectives overlooked by mainstream cinema, but it exposes audiences to the historic contributions of women filmmakers that aren't often discussed," said Augusta Palmer, director of the Women's Film Festival and Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at SFC. "We want the Festival to be a bridge between college women aiming to forge a career in film with more established filmmakers working today."
Opening the festival is a panel discussion, The Future Is Intersectional, with filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca, 2016), Shareen Anderson, a prolific television documentary producer (The Murder of Laci Peterson, executive producer, 2017) and filmmaker, SFC alumna and media educator Sade Falebita.
Discussion sessions led by filmmaker Christina Raia will focus on crowdfunding to finance films and on the in's and out's of film distribution. Emmy-award winning filmmaker Lisa Russell will lead The Future is NOW: Immersive Media for the Greater Good, a conversation about and demonstration of virtual reality in film.
At the closing ceremony, a judging panel will award the top film it selects in each of the Festival's eight categories: documentary, narrative, animated (with a separate student category in each), experimental and, or the first time, a youth category for filmmakers under 18 years old. The ceremony will also include songs performed live by Mijori Goodwin of Create 2030, an organization that links artists with work that supports the United Nations' Sustainability goals, and a screening of "Giving Birth in America: New York," a short produced by Every Mother Counts. Nan Strauss, Every Mother Counts' Director of Policy and Advocacy, will discuss the film and the organization's mission.
More than 200 filmmakers from 35 countries entered films for the Festival's consideration. Women directed, produced and/or wrote all selected films. The Women's Film Festival sponsors are IFP, ScreeningRoom, Alamo Drafthouse, Hassenstein Design and Kodak. Its partners are Cinematcher and Athena Film Festival.
The festival runs from Thursday, April 4 to Saturday, April 6.
For a complete event schedule and additional information, visit www.sfcwomensfilmfest.com.