The San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival (SFWFF) celebrating women in all areas of film will take place April 7th through 11th at the Roxie Theater and other community centers across the San Francisco Bay Area. SFWFF 2010 full festival schedule and line-up are now live! CLICK HERE
SFWFF 2010 Schedule at a Glance
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 7:00 PM
SFWFF 2010 is proud to honor Peabody Award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand with a festival tribute award for her many contributions to cinema, community/institution building within and across the field, the active practice of "using films for engagement and social change" and her participation as a filmmaker in the environmental health and justice movement.
This award happens to coincide with Judith's 20th anniversary of life post DES-related cancer - chronicled and explored in her debut first-person film A HEALTHY BABY GIRL.
Join SFWFF, Judith Helfand herself and guest organizers/activists from her very-active past to celebrate Judith and 20 years of life, cancer-free sans uterus (Boy did they give DES to the wrong mommy!).
This joyous, interactive and celebratory kick-off to our festival will be built around the screening of A HEALTHY BABY GIRL. The beguiling and at times unbelievable, strange but true story of how the anti-miscarriage drug DES (administered to her mother during pregnancy) changed her life and radically transformed her future - followed by an excerpt from its Sundance award-winning sequel BLUE VINYL and EK VELT (a 17-minute short about the big move from the little red wood turned blue vinyl house!).
In 1963, Helfand's mother was prescribed the ineffective, carcinogenic synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), meant to prevent miscarriage and ensure a healthy baby. At twenty-five, Helfand was diagnosed with DES-related cervical cancer. After a radical hysterectomy she went to her family's home to heal and picked up her camera. The resulting video-diary is a fascinating exploration of how science, marketing and corporate power can affect our deepest relationships.
Shot over five years, A Healthy Baby Girl tells a story of survival, mother-daughter love, family renewal, and community activism.
Come and enjoy Girl Shorts, showcasing the best Lesbian Cinema from around the world. These fantastic short films include: Never Too Late directed by Wendy Weinberg, The Sheep and the Ranch Hand directed by Loretta Hintz, Pages of a Girl directed by Monica Palazzo, Ifé directed by Lenn Keller and Falling for Caroline directed by Christine Chew.
For more information: CLICK HERE
Peabody award-winning filmmaker and SFWFF 2010 Tribute honoree Judith Helfand is bringing a specially tailored master class to this year’s festival. Helfand is a filmmaker, activist and educator, best known for her ability to take the dark, cynical worlds of chemical exposure and heedless corporate behavior and make them personal, resonant, highly charged, and entertaining. Helfand will share storytelling strategies that lead to effective, resonant and riveting (even funny and entertaining) filmmaking and ‘call to action’ activism.
Local Filmmakers Panel: Documentary and Activism
Judith Helfand in conversation with Chicken & Egg Funded Bay Area Filmmakers about how STORY LEADS TO ACTION!
We live in an age where documentary films have the power to inform the masses on hot topic issues from global warming, preserving freedom of speech to the genetically modified food debate. SF Women’s Film Festival will host a panel dedicated to how STORY leads to the ACTIVISM - individual, collective and at the policy level. “
Chicken & Egg Pictures is a hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the craft of storytelling as they are about the social justice, environmental and human rights issues they’re embracing, translating and exploring on film.
Meet, talk with and see the work of Chicken & Egg supported San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers. All of them currently in process - incubating, hatching, editing and preparing for TAKE OFF!
Celebrate the emergent and the veteran image-makers - and through them and their stories you will learn more about CHICKEN & EGG Pictures, and the range of projects they are nurturing and the power of their type of community building.
Panelists include:
Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday - directors of the Barber of Birmingham
Christie Herring director of she Campaign
Sally Rubin co-director of Deep Down
Dawn Valadez co-director of Going On 13
Gabrielle Mullem director of See What I'm Saying
Lynn Hershmann director of W.A.R - Women Art Revolution
Panel moderated by Judith Helfand - Co-Founder of Chicken and Egg Pictures
Orgasm Inc. The Strange Science of Female Pleasure directed by Liz Canner
In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos as part of a pharmaceutical drug company’s drug trial. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that win FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits.
ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.
Upbeat, engaging, enlightening, and provocative,
ORGASM INC. will change the way you think about sex.
Making Herstory: Young Women in the Director’s Chair
Young women are full of creative insight, allowing for various perspectives through a multitude of genres. SFWFF 2010 honors the upcoming generation of women filmmakers. Join us for a fun filled, impressive program of young women who make media. Films include: Another Rose directed by Morgan Green, The Story of Anna's Mermaids directed Francesca Fataar, Evening Music directed by Elle Gold, Judge Not directed by Janelle McLaurin, Commencement directed by America Velasquez, Why Not directed by Naomi Nelson, Dear Jody directed by Sasha Charles, Story of Survival directed by Taylor White, Alessia directed by Cynthia Leung, Renee Perry and Judith Keena, Technicolor Kiss directed by Alexandra Adams.
Kurdistan, “The Other Iraq”, has been held up as a shining example of peace in the Middle East since US sanctioned protections were put in place in 1992, but how has this experimental democracy really affected women?
21 Days To Nawroz is a documentary feature that explores the lives of three very different Kurdish women: a feminist attorney, an eight year-old girl, and a tech-savvy young woman.
Razaw is a feminist lawyer that defends women who are victims of honor crimes. Alwan was an 8 year-old girl who lost everything and witnessed unspeakable horrors when Saddam Hussein dropped a chemical bomb on the city of Halabja, killing 5000 Kurds instantly.
Banaz is a tech-savvy 18-year-old girl who came of age post-Saddam, and is brimming with optimism. After studying hard and securing a scholarship to the American University, Banaz wants to seize the day. Unlike her pessimistic peers – she hopes desperately to stay in Iraq and make Kurdistan a better place.
21 Days To Nawroz is a story of hope and courage in the most unlikely of places.
SAY NO TO VIOLENCE! Sin By Silence directed by Olivia Klaus brings the outside world into the California Institution for Women and introduces a group of women who were convicted of murdering their abusive husbands. While these women have been in this institution for over two decades, they have been living in their own prison for most of their lives. They were led to believe that they must be silent about their abuse, but they could only take it for so long.
In 1989, Convicted Women Against Abuse was created by inmate Brenda Clubine to help abused women speak out and realize they are not alone. Over the past two decades, the women of CWAA have changed laws for battered women and raised awareness for those on the outside.
Sin By Silence is an emotionally packed documentary that tells the personal and shocking stories of these strong women who have learned from their past, are changing their future and, most importantly, teach us how domestic violence affects each and every person. Olivia Klaus and Brenda Clubine will be in attendance.
Other short films screening as part of this program: Dani & Alice directed by Roberta Marie Munroe. Hidden Truth directed by the Samfya Women Filmmakers - Bahareh Hosseini, Abibata Mahama, Abigail Kaindu, and Mwlewa Kamanda.
Hidden Truth is a production of Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education) and made possible by the Samfya Women Filmmakers – a group of 23 women from Samfya trained in filmmaking as a way to challenge injustices in their community and advocate for change. Brooke Hutchinson, Director of Camfed U.S.A will be in attendance.
SFWFF 2010 presents the best in children’s animation shorts program, including films by Valerie LaPointe. Valerie is currently employed as a story artist for Pixar Animation Studios. Since 2007, she has worked at Pixar on PRESTO, CARSTOONS, and various other films. Summer Storm is her fourth personal film. Her previous films Night Light (2002), Upside Downed (2004), and Lolly’s Box (2005) have screened in various film festivals worldwide. Check out Lolly’s Box and other award-winning animation at this year’s festival. Valerie LaPointe will be in attendance.
Indie Spotlight: Feature Narrative: Everyday Black Man directed by Carmen Madden
Everyday Black Man, follows the story of Moses Stanton. Since closing the door on a violent past, quiet and thoughtful Moses Stanton's everyday existence is running a small neighborhood fruit and vegetable store. When a young man, Malik, comes in with a business proposition, Moses takes him on as a partner but soon realizes that Malik is selling more than just baked goods.
Producer, Director, and Writer of the feature film, Everyday Black Man, Carmen Madden is the founder and Director of CLM PRODUCTIONS LLC. Not only is she an award-winning director, but she is also making history as one of the first African American women to run a well-maintained feature film studio in Oakland, California.
The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club directed by Amanda Pope
A charismatic figure immortalized in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, Florence 'Pancho' Barnes was one of the most important women in 20th Century aviation. A tough and fearless pilot, Pancho flew on Amelia Earhart's wingtip, performed as a barnstormer throughout California, and made a name for herself as Hollywood's first female stunt pilot in the 1920's and 30's.
The internationally acclaimed director of The Piano, An Angel At My Table, Sweetie and Bright Star first displayed her visual flair and dark humor in these award-winning shorts. Films include: A Girl's Own Story, Passionless Moments and Peel.
SFWFF 2010 is proud to present LUNAFEST: Film Festival by, for, about Women
Filled with stories of reflection and whimsy, hope and humor, grace and perseverance, LUNAFEST films are renowned for celebrating the talents and stories of women. Films include many off the traditional “festival circuit.” Collectively, LUNAFEST films captivate audiences, compel dialogue and arm those who participate with both the knowledge and the motivation to make a difference in their communities.
From quirky animation to touching documentaries, the 10 selected films are incredibly diverse in both style and subject matter, united by a common thread of exceptional storytelling by…for…about women.
This film program includes a short film made by Courtney Cox. Courteney Cox gained overnight fame as she endeared herself to millions as the neurotic yet loveable Monica Gellar on NBC’s Emmy® Award winning comedy Friends. In 2009, Courtney made the natural segue from acting and producing into directing with Monday Before Thanksgiving.
Indie Spotlight: Feature Narrative: Between Floors directed by Jen White
Jen White's debut feature, Between Floors, examines the human condition through a uniquely claustrophobic lens, inter-cutting between five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them. Each elevator becomes an existential purgatory, forcing its occupants to not only confront their isolation, but themselves and each other in varied and unexpected ways. Taking place entirely in five elevators, Between Floors is as unusual as it is arresting, blurring lines of genre, tone and form while its characters are stripped bare - trapped, alone, waiting - and we get to watch what happens.
Heretics directed by Joan Braderman, produced by Crescent Diamond
The Heretics reveals the inside story of Heresies, a feminist art collective that was at the epicenter of the 1970s art world in lower Manhattan. Director Joan Braderman, who joined the group in 1971 after moving to New York to become a filmmaker, charts the collective’s story for the first time in a feature-length film, reveals its pivotal role in the “second wave” of the Women’s Movement.
Unlike more traditional documentaries, the film is framed with striking digital motion graphics. Braderman combines intimate interviews with former collective members, archival footage from the 1970s, and documents of the collective—including the journal HERESIES: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics, published from 1977 to 1992—to put the Heresies in the context of the larger second-wave movement, which was made up of thousands who met in small, private group settings to discuss issues and launch programs and actions relevant to women.
The hundreds of Heresies members, now scattered around the globe and working as artists, writers, architects, painters, filmmakers, designers, editors, curators, and teachers, speak intimately about the extraordinary times they shared as they challenged the terms of gender and power and reimagined the lives of generations to come.
Crescent Diamond and special guests will be in attendance.
Code Name: Butterflies directed by Cecilia Domeyko
CODE NAME: BUTTERFLIES, a feature documentary directed and written by Chilean filmmaker Cecilia Domeyko, tells the powerful story of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic who in the 1950s, under the code name 'Butterflies', created a secret resistance movement against dictator Rafael Trujillo. When the tyrant had the women assassinated, the country rose up against Trujillo and he was killed. The courage of these women, simple wives and mothers who helped bring freedom and democracy to their country, is legendary. The film weaves interviews with survivors of the Trujillo regime with dramatic recreations.
