Thursday and Friday, April 16 & 17 – The Consortium for Women and Research, in collaboration with Film Studies, is proud to present the 2009 Davis Feminist Film Festival. Now in its fourth year, this is a grassroots festival of short films featuring filmmakers from around the world. Mixing narrative, documentary, and experimental styles, the films focus on issues of gender and sexuality often missing from mainstream media and highlight the links between local, national, and international social struggle.
The festival will be held April 16 & 17 at the Veteran’s Memorial Theatre, 203 East 14th St. in Davis, CA.
This festival puts UC Davis on the map for promoting feminist filmmaking. This year we had 120 submissions, one-third of which were sent in from outside the U.S. The filmmakers range from film students to film studies faculty to independent artists and activists.
Because women have struggled for visibility in the film industry, it’s important to create inclusive spaces where everyone is welcome. As festival co-founder Danielle Fodor put it, “Many people – not only women – are excluded from the media machines, including working class men, people of color, the disabled, queer and transgendered folks.” Feminist inquiry asks us to consider how and for whom knowledge is constructed. The power of a grassroots film festival lies partly in its ability to foster dialogue among multiple voices and perspectives.
The films are variously funny, playful, serious, and provocative. Set in 1950s England, aesthetically stylish Private Life depicts a lesbian love affair against the backdrop of transgender escapades. In the lyrical, dream-like She Should Have Gone to the Moon, sharp-witted Geraldine “Jerri” Truhill recounts her training as one of the first female astronauts and the many obstacles she faced. The lively and beautifully-filmed A Vida Politica portrays the dynamic political activism of four Brazilian women. The documentary Universal Jurisdiction: Rape as Torture seeks to reclassify sexual crimes committed during armed conflict as crimes of genocide rather than “collateral damage.”
Tickets are now available at the UCD Memorial Union, the Saturday Davis Farmer’s Market, Armadillo Records in Davis, and The Beat in Sacramento. Pre-sale student tickets are $10 each night or $15 for both nights; presale general admission tickets are $15 each night or $25 for both nights. (Tickets at the door are slightly more, see website for details.) Concessions will be for sale.
The emphasis on linking local, global, and transnational issues with feminist activism grew out of the festival’s early years as a fundraiser for the Gender and Global Issues Program at UCD. The festival has expanded and is now organized by the Consortium for Women and Research with assistance from Film Studies. All proceeds go toward operating costs and providing invaluable internship experience for the student organizers. Campus co-sponsors include: Art Studio, Cultural Studies, The Davis Humanities Institute, Design, The Hemispheric Institute of the Americas, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center, Sociology, Theater and Dance, Women and Gender Studies, and the Women’s Resources and Research Center.
