Arts
A Woman of Many Firsts: Janis Ian
A Women's Film Fest
A
Women's Film Fest
Brattleboro Series Features the Provacative & Political
by Elayne Clift
This
year being one of enormous political consequence, perhaps the question
to ask about the 13th annual Brattleboro Women's Film Festival is this:
Is filmmaking a political act when women do it?
"Sophia Coppola's film Lost in
Translation is not a political act," says my daughter, filmmaker
Rachel Clift, whose first documentary premiered at the Brattleboro Women's
Film Festival in 2002. "But she is the first woman to be nominated
for an Oscar as best director in the history of the Academy. That's insane!
Does that make her film 'political'?"
Clift says, "films by women can become
political acts simply because they were made. A film made by a woman in
Afghanistan or Iran can be considered a political act because women in
those countries are not generally afforded freedom of expression."
While the goal of any filmmaker is to tell a good story, she says, when
the content of a film challenges the dominant culture or serves as a call
to action, it might well be called political, even subversive.
Vermont-based director Nora Jacobson, whose
film Nothing Like Dreaming will be featured in this year's festival,
agrees that filmmaking is "an activist way of being in the world."
Her 98-minute feature tells the story of a teenage girl traumatized by
the loss of her best friend, who finds solace in the company of a reclusive
artist making music with fire. She describes it as a coming-of-age story
about healing, compassion and creativity.
"What interested me," Jacobson
explains, "was exploring what I call 'edge' states: boundaries and
transitions between different states of mind and times in life... and
the boundaries between sanity and madness. I tried to tell a story about
two people in 'edge' states, who experience coercion in different ways,
and who, despite great differences in age and status, form a friendship
based on compassion and acceptance."
Jacobson thinks that the rise in number
and prominence of women in film recently has a lot to do with truth-telling,
and with women's ability to let people tell their own stories. Both filmmakers
see women's work in the visual media as a challenge to the linear, male
model of storytelling. "My work is much more of a woven piece,"
she says. "It makes it harder to have your work accepted when it
suggests a new, more inclusive form."
Provocative views
like these are the essence of the Brattleboro Women's Film Festival,
which opens on March 5th and runs through the 21st at The Latchis and
the Hooker-Dunham Theaters in Brattleboro. Recognized regionally and beyond
as "a celebration of the creative process in women's lives through
film and the visual arts," this year's Festival focuses on teenage
girls, and also plays tribute to the late Katherine Hepburn. With showings
each week from Thursday through Sunday, the Festival will screen nearly
two-dozen films from around the world that focus on women's lives and
women in filmmaking. (Several documentaries and feature films represent
area premieres of international releases.)
Films include: Love and Diane,
a bold documentary that follows a teenage welfare mother and her family
over the course of several years; Lady Warrior, an inspiring
film about physical endurance featuring a race run by Native American
teenagers; and What I Want My Words To Do To You, produced and
directed by Judy Katz and Madeleine Gavin, and featuring Eve Ensler. (Katz
will be speaking at the Festival on March 19th). The film focuses on the
healing power of writing for incarcerated women. Hepburn films include
Adam's Rib and Alice Adams.
Arlene Distler, Festival co-chair, sees
the Film Festival as "a way to expand consciousness. We see how people
live, what women's struggles are, where the connections lie. It's the
real stuff. You won't see it coming out of Hollywood."
The Festival is mounted entirely by volunteers
and serves as a major benefit for the Women's Crisis Center of Windham
County, which works to end physical, sexual and emotional violence against
women. Founded in 1977, the Center provides a wide range of services for
callers, drop-ins, and residents. It is committed to providing advocacy
and support to women and their children who are abuse survivors, and it
offers prevention and education services to help create a community in
which violence is not tolerated.
In addition to films, the Festival includes
a number of special events: talks by directors (including Nora Jacobson),
panel discussions and other guest speakers. Tickets for each show are
$7 for adults and $6 for youth and seniors. Discounted Festival passes
may be pre-purchased at local bookstores and at The Latchis and Hooker-Dunham
theaters on opening night and throughout the Festival.
The 2004 Women's Film Festival schedule
is available at
www.womensfilmfestival.org
or by calling 802-258-9100.
Elayne Clift is a writer in Saxtons River, a member of the Board of
Directors of the Women's Crisis Center, and the mother of filmmaker Rachel
Clift.