3rd Annual SFC Women's Film Festival
Women Making Media From The Silent Era To Virtual Reality
FREE & Open to the Public - More information at sfc.edu/womensfilmfest
On March 19, the 3rd Annual SFC Women's Festival launches a four-day celebration of bold and expressive films made by women, which will also feature thought-provoking panel discussions with industry professionals and a Visual Reality session.
(Watch the SFCTV Preview of the 3rd Annual Women's Film Festival)
"It's our goal to create a bridge between female college filmmakers and professional female filmmakers which will encourage collaboration, cooperation, and coordination," said St. Francis College Communication Arts Professor Augusta Palmer, a festival Co-Founder.
The festival begins on Monday at 2:00pm with the screening of Shoes (1916) by silent film director Lois Weber with live piano accompaniment by acclaimed pianist Ben Model. The first panel discussion at 4:00pm explores 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 Pioneers Project at Columbia University. The opening reception at 5:15 pm is followed by a screening of films in competition for the festival's prizes.
On Tuesday, a workshop on Social Media Charm School at 11:10am and a Pitch Workshop at 1:20 are sponsored by crowdfunding platform Seed & Spark and led by filmmaker and crowdfunding guru Christina Raia. Screenings will follow at 3:30 pm then another interactive workshop with Mary Lannone and Urvashi Gandhi of Breakthrough titled From #MeToo to #ActToo, begins at 4:30. Lannone and Gandhi will discuss the future of #MeToo and how to turn this moment into a sustainable movement to create cultural change. They will discuss ideas for daily actions people can take to change our environment, disrupt gender norms, and help to ensure that no one else will ever have to say #MeToo.
At 11:30am on Wednesday, the filmmaker and Celluloid Ceiling author Gabrielle Kelley and editor Meaghan Wilbur from 2 Dope Queens (HBO) will present the Rising Up: Global perspectives on the Celluloid Ceiling sponsored by #GALSNGEAR. This will be followed by a 1:20 screening of films in competition and a 3:00pm panel Making Media for Social Change, with a screening of an excerpt from Heroines of Health and panel discussion with documentary filmmaker Lisa Russell. Leslie Wright from the Zonta Clube of New York also introduces an excerpt from Little Stones by Sophia Cruz.
On Thursday, the festival's closing day, the first screenings begin at noon with a selection of experimental films by women curated by Roberta Bonisson. Filmmakers will be present for Q&A afterward. Next is a panel with Lisa Russell, Christian Delsol, and Karen Palmer on Breaking Boundaries: Visual Reality and Immersive Story Telling. The Virtual Reality viewing session begins at 2:30 pm and is followed by Managing Your Entertainment Business, a discussion of filmmaking & entrepreneurship with Thembisa Mshaka, author of Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your (Entertainment) Business, Lauren Magura of Cinematcher, and Marie-Helene Carleton of ScreeningRoom.org. The festival Awards ceremony will be in Founders Hall at 5:30pm with a closing reception at 6:30pm.
The Festival is a collaborative production of the Communication Arts Department, Center for Entrepreneurship, Office of the Academic Dean, the Women's and Gender Minor, and the Honors Program at St. Francis College. The festival is also supported by Seed and Spark, a crowdfunding entertainment platform, the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, ScreeningRoom.org, Cinematcher, Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the festival has partnerships with #GALSNGEAR, Breakthrough US, and the Athena Film Festival. Festival Director and Co-Curator Augusta Palmer and Co-Curator Roberta Bonisson are available for interviews.
Attached Photo: Ur Dead To Me – Courtesy Yonoko Li
St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City's five boroughs and beyond.
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