The 11th Annual International Women's Film Festival is crossing boundaries this year by featuring films that highlight the importance of independent film and women's issues, according to Susannah Bartlow, graduate assistant for the Gender Institute.
UB's Gender Institute has hosted the event since the research center's founding in 1997, Bartlow said. The films run Thursday nights at 7 p.m. at the Market Arcade Theater in downtown Buffalo.
The films featured in the festival are "by and about women," Bartlow said, adding that the event is focused on advocating independent film and women's issues, but their presentation is universal.
"Everyone can get something out of it," she said. "It's a chance to see films that you wouldn't necessarily otherwise get to see."
The event is important not only because the films are independent, Bartlow said, but also because women films are often overlooked in the industry.
"Women's films and (female) directors have a harder time getting access to the big screen," she said. "This is another venue for them to get their work shown."
This Thursday's featured film is Director Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams." The movie, which won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, is about a Bosnian woman who is the victim of war rape and gives birth to a daughter as a result. To hide the horror behind her daughter's conception, she tells her that her father was a war hero, only to be later forced to reveal the truth.
"It's a heavier, but really inspiring, not very graphic, story about how relationships develop once the truth is out and you're not haunted by the past," Bartlow said.
Other films in the series aren't as weighty as "Grbavica."
On opening night, Mexican director Guita Schyfter's comedy, "Faces of the Moon," set the stage for the rest of the festival, telling the story of how five women from diverse backgrounds transcend cultural lines and connect through women's issues. The award-winning independent film director attended the screening and held a question and answer session afterwards.
"The film shows the different ways women are about feminism and the different types of modern women," Bartlow said.
In response to an audience member's question, Schyfter explained that the film is based on her own experiences as an activist in women's issues.
Political activism also drives the film, "My Cultural Divide," directed by Faisal Lutchmedial. The movie questions whether ethical consumerism does any good for the people working in sweatshops, and creates an argument by interviewing women workers in Bangladesh. Lutchmedial will also make an appearance at the showing of his film.
For the second year in a row, a compiling of local shorts by women filmmakers in the Buffalo area will headline the last night of the event.
The festival, like the diverse characters in "Faces of the Moon," extends "across the spectrum of contemporary women's films and issues," Bartlow said. "It's first and foremost about film and women's lives."
The festival opened to a mixed crowd of about 70 students and community members this past Thursday. By the last installment of the series, Bartlow expects attendance to be up to 900 to 1,000 people.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
