THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL A celebration of women and leadership
PROGRAM GUIDE February 10–13, 2011 Barnard College
TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome to Barnard College 4 A Note from the Festival Founders 5 About the Festival 6 Founding Organizations 7 Honorary Host Committee 8 Thanks to Our Sponsors 11 2011 Athena Film Festival Award Winners 12 The Festival at a Glance (Daily Schedule) 18 Films and Panels 20 Campus Map and Venues 41 Organizational Partners 42 Friends of the Festival 42 Staff and Volunteers 43 Athena Center Advisory Board, Leadership Council and Donors 44 Film Index 45 Notes 46
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WELCOME TO BARNARD COLLEGE
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Barnard. The Athena Film Festival marks a truly great moment for the College. During this inaugural weekend, we will bring together some of the film industry’s great talents. Through their inspiring work, they shed light on the stories of remarkable women—stories that need to be told and deserve to be honored. We hope to begin a dialogue on women and leadership that will continue. And we hope that you will come away with a deeper appreciation for the art of moviemaking and the talented people who make it happen. — Debora Spar President, Barnard College
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A NOTE FROM THE FESTIVAL FOUNDERS
Welcome to the Athena Film Festival, a celebration of women and leadership. We are thrilled that you have joined us for the inaugural run of what we hope will be an annual event. The Festival has high aspirations. We have assembled for you a host of diverse, thought-provoking and hopefully entertaining films. During the festival, you will see: Feature films that tell the extraordinary stories of strong, bold women leaders from all walks of life—stories of ambition, courage, and resilience. Kathryn Kolbert
Melissa Silverstein
Documentaries that showcase women leaders who have used grit and moxie to make a difference—captivating stories of determination, innovation, and vision. Short films that highlight the talents of emerging artists—films that capture the stories of women and leadership in new and innovative ways. During the festival you will have many opportunities to meet fascinating filmmakers, actors, critics, and film lovers, participate in conversations that challenge conventional thinking, and examine leadership with a new lens. And throughout the weekend, you will have the opportunity to meet the winners of the Athena Awards—inspiring women leaders who have made their mark on the film industry. We hope you will enjoy the festivities and will come back again soon to Barnard. — Kathryn Kolbert Athena Center for Leadership Studies Barnard College
— Melissa Silverstein Women and Hollywood
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THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL A celebration of women and leadership
2011 is the inaugural year of the Athena Film Festival, a celebration of women and leadership created by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood. Throughout the 4-day festival, you will have the opportunity to see over 25 films that highlight the wide diversity of women’s leadership in both real life and the fictional world, illuminating the stories of women from across the globe that have made a difference in their countries and communities. Through these feature films, documentaries, and shorts as well as conversations with directors, activists, actors and film industry executives, we will examine the values women leaders share and explore leadership across race, class, and culture. We also will explore women’s vision, courage, and resilience and ask what makes an effective leader: Is it the ability to inspire people to fight injustice or stand up for those who are powerless? Is it about preserving one’s own dignity or protecting one’s family or community? Is it about motivating others to change when necessary, to learn from failure? Please join us for a robust dialogue about women and leadership: what it takes to excel, collaborate, lead, and inspire.
Why Now? In 83 years, only 4 women have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and only a single woman has won. In 2009, in the 250 top-grossing domestic films, women made up only 7% of directors, 8% of writers, 17% of executive producers and 2% of the cinematographers. In front of the camera, as of 2007, women had less than 30% of the speaking roles. Yet, women buy 55% of all movie tickets, more tickets than men in all age groups. We can and must improve these numbers so that the creativity, voice and vision of women is a key part of our cultural conversation.
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FOUNDING ORGANIZATIONS A distinguished leader in American higher education for over 100 years, Barnard College is today the most sought after liberal arts college for women in the United States. Founded in 1889, the College was the first in New York City, and one of the few in the world, where women could receive the same rigorous liberal arts education available to men. From its four-acre campus in Manhattan, Barnard’s world-class faculty educates over 2,400 gifted, curious and independent undergraduate women, many of whom have gone on to become world leaders in diverse fields including literature, science, commerce, law and the arts. The College’s dedication to the advancement of women, combined with its partnership with neighboring Columbia University and its setting in an international city, makes Barnard unique among American liberal arts colleges today and an ideal host for the Athena Film Festival. For more information, visit www.barnard.edu.
The Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College is an interdisciplinary center devoted to the theory and practice of women’s leadership. Launched in fall 2009, the Athena Center works to ensure that women rise up the leadership ladder at a pace that reflects their smarts, moxie and talents. Athena offers specialized academic courses, mentoring, and leadership opportunities for Barnard students and public lectures and forums with notable leaders from across the globe. Its Leadership Lab workshops, specifically designed for women from across the region, offer the training women need to become better leaders. And as we grow, Athena will bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and activists from across disciplines to investigate the ideas at the forefront of women’s leadership. A special initiative of Barnard President Debora Spar, the Athena Center is directed by Kathryn Kolbert, a public-interest attorney and journalist, who brings to Barnard an impressive record of collaborative leadership, educational programming, and civilrights advocacy. For more information, visit www.barnard.edu/athena.
Founded by Melissa Silverstein in 2007, Women and Hollywood has become one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. Since its inception, Women and Hollywood has been working to raise awareness about films, TV shows, theatre and other entertainment that highlight women and their contribution to the culture. Silverstein has been featured on CNN, the BBC and in other publications including Newsweek, Salon, Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. In 2010, Silverstein was named “One of 10 Film Critics to Follow on Twitter” by Flavorwire. In 2008, Women and Hollywood was named a “Blog to Watch” by More magazine and in 2009, it was named “Best Hollywood Blog” by totalfilm.com. Recently, Women and Hollywood joined the IndieWIRE blog network. For more information, visit http://blogs. indiewire.com/womenandhollywood
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HONORARY HOST COMMITTEE
Diana Barrett is the Founder of The Fledgling Fund, which uses media to ignite social change. Barrett had a long career at Harvard University, where she taught at the Harvard Business School as a member of the Social Enterprise core group and the School of Public Health where she worked on global poverty reduction and the social and personal burdens of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Julie Parker Benello ’92 is one of the Founders of Chicken & Egg Pictures, an innovative film company which provides grants and executive produces films by women filmmakers. Over the last ten years, Benello has also produced documentaries on health and environmental issues for television. In 2002, she coproduced the Sundance award-winning HBO documentary Blue Vinyl, about the hazardous effects of vinyl (PVC) and a one-hour documentary Prostate Cancer: A Journey of Hope which aired nationally on PBS in June 1999. Debra Martin Chase, President of Martin Chase Productions, is an Academy Award- and Emmy- nominated motion picture and television producer. Among the many movies Chase has produced are The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Princess Diaries and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and the most successful movie in the Disney Channel’s history, The Cheetah Girls. As the Producing Partner of Whitney Houston in Brown House Productions, she was an Executive Producer of the Emmy-winning film Cinderella and when she ran Denzel Washington‘s production company, Mundy Lane Entertainment, she produced numerous films including The Preacher’s Wife and Courage Under Fire. In 2007, Black Enterprise magazine named Chase “One of the Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood.” Lisa Cortés, the President of Cortés Films, has had a rich and varied career in entertainment working for such groundbreaking companies as Def Jam Records, Rush Artists Management and Lee Daniels Entertainment. Beginning her film tenure with Lee Daniels during production of the Academy Award-winning feature Monster’s Ball, her producing credits include The Woodsman, Shadowboxer, Sangam, Tennessee and Precious: based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire. For a decade, Cortés served as Vice President of Artist and Repertoire for Mercury Records, where she worked with such artists as Vanessa Williams, Brian McKnight, and Black Sheep, and produced several Grammy-nominated albums. Penney Finkelman Cox ’73 is a successful Hollywood producer who served as Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Animation where she was responsible for all aspects of developing and producing animated films. Prior to joining Sony, Finkelman Cox served as Executive Producer of Shrek, the blockbuster hit of 2001, and winner of the first Academy Award for Best Animated Film. In 1994, she started the animation division at DreamWorks where she focused on creative development and produced The Prince of Egypt as well as Antz, DreamWorks’ first computer generated film. Finkelman Cox, who came to animation from a background in liveaction production, has also produced Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Broadcast News and the Oscar-winning Terms of Endearment. Lindsay Doran, the President of Three Strange Angels, has a long and celebrated career as a Hollywood producer. Prior to her current position, Doran was President and COO of United Artists Pictures where she oversaw production of two James Bond movies, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. Doran has 8
also served as President of Sydney Pollack’s Mirage Enterprises, where she produced numerous films including The Firm, Sabrina and the Academy- and Golden Globewinning film Sense and Sensibility. Earlier in her career Doran was Senior Vice President of Production at Paramount Pictures where she oversaw production of such films as Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Ghost. She has most recently released Nanny McPhee and Nanny McPhee Returns and Stranger than Fiction. Delia Ephron ’66 is a writer of stage, screen and page. In 1992, she co-wrote her sister Nora’s directorial debut This is My Life and has also written the screenplays for Mixed Nuts, Michael, You’ve Got Mail, Hanging Up (based on her book), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Bewitched. She has also written the books How to Eat Like a Child; Teenage Romance: Or, How to Die of Embarrassment; Funny Sauce; Hanging Up; Big City Eyes; and Frannie in Pieces. Also with her sister Nora, Ephron created the stage hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore, now playing in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. Steve Haft is the New York based CEO of Haft Entertainment which produces feature films and television. His 18 feature films include multi-Oscar nominees Dead Poets Society and Emma. His television programs include multi–Emmy nominees Pirates of Silicon Valley (TNT), Rear Window (ABC), and MAD-TV (14 Seasons on Fox), Peabodywinner Strange Justice (Showtime), Oscar-nominated documentary Traveling Hopefully, and Oscar-short-listed documentary Blindsight. He is an elected member of the Motion Picture and Television Academies and on the Board of Trustees of The Sundance Institute (Emeritus). Sanaa Hamri began her career as a music video director working with such high profile stars as Mariah Carey (Cry Baby) and Prince (Musicology). In 2005, Hamri transitioned to film and directed her first feature, Something New. In 2008, she directed the hit film Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and most recently, the romantic comedy Just Wright starring Queen Latifah. Molly Haskell is one of the foremost film critics in the country. She has written for many publications, including the New York Times, the Village Voice, New York magazine, Vogue, the Guardian UK, Esquire, the Nation, Town and Country, the New York Observer and the New York Review of Books. She has served as Artistic Director of the Sarasota French Film Festival, on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival, and as Professor of Film at both Barnard College and Columbia University. The author of numerous books, Haskell’s newest is Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited. Gale Anne Hurd, CEO of Valhalla Motion Pictures, is one of the film industry’s finest producers of action, fantasy and horror films. In 1982, she formed her own production company, Pacific Western Productions, and went on to produce, in collaboration with James Cameron, a number of box-office hits including The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Hurd currently has 7 films in development including Terminator 5. Terri Lawler has been Executive Director of New York Women in Film & Television since 1997. She has previously served as Director of Development and Production at Women Make Movies and as National Director of Film and Videomakers Services at the American Film Institute. She has been a media consultant for foundations and non-profit groups including the MacArthur Foundation and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She was also the Executive Producer of Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, which won the 1992 Best Documentary awards from the American Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle, and Hollywood Mavericks, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990.
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Mira Nair is the rare filmmaker who fluidly moves between Hollywood and independent cinema. After several years of making documentary films, Nair made her entry to the world stage in 1988 with her first feature, Salaam Bombay!, now hailed as a classic. The film received more than 25 international awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. In the following decade, Nair directed 4 feature films including the award-winning Monsoon Wedding. In 2004, Nair directed Reese Witherspoon in an adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. More recently, Nair directed a segment of the feature film New York, I Love You, starring Natalie Portman, and Amelia, starring Hilary Swank. Nair is also a philanthropist. In 2005, she founded Maisha, a non-profit filmmakers’ training program based in East Africa. Sheila Nevins ’60 is President of Documentary and Family Programming for HBO and Cinemax. Nevins has overseen production of nearly 500 documentaries, earning nine Oscars, 13 Primetime Emmys, 10 Academy Awards, 22 News and Documentary Emmys, 19 George Foster Peabody awards, including one for her personal work. Inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2000, Nevins received the 2005 News and Documentary Emmy for Lifetime Achievement, and the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association. Anna Quindlen ’74, the immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees of Barnard, is a novelist and columnist whose work over the last 30 years has appeared in some of America’s most influential newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and Newsweek. In 1992, Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Her books have sold millions of copies around the world and her 1998 novel, One True Thing became a feature film starring Meryl Streep. Her novel Black and Blue, spent six months on the New York Times Best Seller List, was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, and was made into a television movie. With the release of A Short Guide to a Happy Life in 2000, Quindlen became the first writer ever to have had books appear on the fiction, nonfiction, and self-help New York Times Best Seller Lists. Sarah Greenberg Roberts is the Head of Publicity and Co-Head of Marketing at Weinstein Co. She was recently the Co-President of Theatrical Marketing for Lionsgate. She has overseen campaigns for Precious, Crash, Away from Her, The Blair Witch Project, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Fahrenheit 9/11, among many others. She is a long time public relations veteran whose expertise is focused in theatrical film and home entertainment. More recently at Lionsgate, she worked to help shape the public visibility and profile of the company with key audiences. Mark Urman, owner of Paladin Films, is a veteran film industry executive with a specialty in the distribution of independent films. Since the launch of his company in 2009, Urman has overseen the distribution of 7 films including the award-winning film Disgrace. Prior to his work with Paladin, Urman co-founded THINKfilms, a privately held production and distribution company, where he oversaw the release of more than 80 films including Spellbound, Born Into Brothels, The Aristocrats and Half Nelson. In 2001, Urman was the Executive Producer of the Oscar-winning film Monster’s Ball.
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
GOLD LEVEL
The Richenthal Foundation
SILVER LEVEL Anonymous
Abigail E. Disney Director’s Discretionary Fund, Dobkin Family Foundation
Nancy Stephens, Rick Rosenthal &
Glori Cohen, Art Advisory, New York
BRONZE LEVEL
Jennifer Christman
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THE 2011 ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS
In this inaugural year, the Athena Film Festival is thrilled to recognize 13 women for their leadership in the film industry and their creative accomplishments. The Athena Film Festival Awards will be presented at the Opening Reception on Thursday Feb. 10, 2011 and at other events throughout the weekend. The reception will be hosted by Lynn Sherr, former ABC News correspondent and author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News.
For their vision and talents as exemplary directors: DEBRA GRANIK Debra Granik attended the Graduate Film Program at NYU where she won awards for her short film Snake Feed. She attended both the writer’s and director’s Lab at the Sundance Institute where she developed Snake Feed into a feature film script. Debra premiered her first feature film, Down to the Bone at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 where she won the Best Director Award. Down to the Bone went on to screen at film festivals worldwide and won the International Critics Award at the Vienna Film Festival, among others. Her second feature, Winter’s Bone is one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2010. It premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it won Best Picture, Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Recently Winter’s Bone won the Gotham Award for Best Feature and has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture, and an Indie Spirit Award for Best Feature and Best Screenplay.
TANYA HAMILTON Director Tanya Hamilton was nominated for the Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Awards, and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for her 2010 debut film Night Catches Us. An earlier short, The Killers, which she wrote and directed, earned her the Panorama Award of the New York Film Academy at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Photo @indieWIRE
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CHRIS HEGEDUS Chris Hegedus has been making films as a director, cinematographer, and editor for over 30 years, recording some of the best-known personalities of our times. She was awarded the prestigious 2002 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for Startup.com (co-directed with Jehane Noujaim), that follows the adventures of two high school buddies as they create an Internet company. The film was also awarded the International Documentary Association Award for Distinguished Feature Film. Hegedus began co-directing with her husband and business partner, DA Pennebaker in the mid-seventies. They have collaborated on a host of acclaimed films, including 1998’s Moon over Broadway and 1994’s The War Room, a behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary and won the National Board of Review’s D.W. Griffith Award. Other films include 2003’s Only the Strong Survive, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, 2004’s HBO film Elaine Stritch at Liberty which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Direction for a Music, Variety, or Comedy Program. Recently Hegedus and co-director Nick Doob released Al Franken: God Spoke and with co-director Pennebaker, Kings Of Pastry about the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition.
For their outstanding work distributing films by and about women: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES Established in 1972 to address the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in the media industry, Women Make Movies facilitates the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of independent films by and about women. The non-profit organization provides services to both users and makers of film and video programs, with a special emphasis on supporting work by women of color.
DEBRA ZIMMERMAN The Executive Director of Women Make Movies since 1983, Debra Zimmerman has grown the organization into the largest distributor of films by and about women in the world and has helped hundreds of women get their films made. Films from WMM have won prizes at the last three Sundance Film Festivals including The Oath, Rough Aunties, and El General. Zimmerman is in great demand around the world as a speaker on independent film distribution, marketing and financing as well as on women’s film. She is also a member of numerous advisory boards for media and film organizations, a jury member for many international film festivals, and regularly sits on foundation and government funding panels.
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For her exceptional success as a motion picture and television producer: DEBRA MARTIN CHASE President of Martin Chase Productions, Debra Martin Chase is an Academy Awardand Emmy-nominated motion picture and television producer whose producing credits include The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Princess Diaries and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and the most successful movie in the Disney Channel’s history, The Cheetah Girls. Chase, a Harvard-trained lawyer, was the Producing Partner of Whitney Houston in Brown House Productions, where she was an Executive Producer of the Emmy-winning film Cinderella. She also ran Denzel Washington‘s production company, Mundy Lane Entertainment, where she produced numerous films including The Preacher’s Wife and Courage Under Fire. In 2007, she was named by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the “Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood.” An extraordinary producer, Debra Martin Chase fully understands the importance of providing strong, bold role models for young women across the globe.
For her artistry as one of Hollywood’s definitive screen actresses of her generation: GRETA GERWIG Greta Gerwig, a member of the Barnard class of 2006, is an actor and filmmaker. Although only 26, Gerwig has starred in, co-wrote, produced, and directed Nights and Weekends, a feature showcased at the South by Southwest Film Festival and Hannah Takes the Stairs. Gerwig also starred in the Sundance Film Festival hit Baghead, The House of the Devil, and Yeast. Gerwig’s breakthrough role came this past year in Greenberg, a feature film co-starring Ben Stiller, written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Scott Rudin and Jennifer Jason Leigh for which she has been nominated for an Indie Spirit Award as Best Female Lead. Ben Stiller has noted: “With Greta, you don’t feel you’re acting; you feel like you’re just living real life with her.” Critics have echoed the sentiment. “Either she’s a total natural – most likely – or she has the most invisible technique of any modern actor,” said Variety. As A.O Scott of the New York Times put it: “Ms. Gerwig, most likely without intending to be anything of the kind, may well be the definitive screen actress of her generation, a judgment I offer with all sincerity and a measure of ambivalence. She seems to be embarked on a project, however piecemeal and modestly scaled, of redefining just what it is we talk about when we talk about acting.” Currently Gerwig can be seen in No Strings Attached and soon in the upcoming remake of Arthur, starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren.
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For their creativity and panache as screenwriters: DELIA EPHRON One of Barnard’s own, Delia Ephron, ’66 is a writer of stage, screen and page. In 1992, she co-wrote her sister Nora’s directorial debut This is My Life and the screenplays for Mixed Nuts, Michael, You’ve Got Mail, Hanging Up (based on her book), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Bewitched. She has also written the books How to Eat Like a Child; Teenage Romance: Or, How to Die of Embarrassment; Funny Sauce; Hanging Up; Big City Eyes; and Frannie in Pieces. Also with her sister Nora, Ephron created the stage hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore, now playing in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.
ANNE ROSELLINI Anne Rosellini comes from a background of festival programming and acquisitions. She founded and directed the 1 Reel Film Festival in Seattle in 1996 and programmed for the Seattle International Film Festival and Women in Cinema Film Festival. Rosellini also worked for Arab Film Distribution before joining Atom Films as an Acquisitions Executive in 1999. In 2001, she moved to New York City to jump the fence. Rosellini produced Debra Granik’s first feature Down to the Bone and co-wrote and produced Winter’s Bone, which was the winner of Best Picture, Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and the Gotham Award for Best Feature. It has also been nominated for 4 Academy Awards including one for Best Picture, and an Indie Spirit Award for Best Feature and Best Screenplay.
For her excellence as one of America’s premiere cinematographers: NANCY SCHREIBER A trailblazing cinematographer, Nancy Schreiber is only the fourth woman voted into membership in the American Society of Cinematographers. Through her 35+ year career, Schrieber has shot over 100 movies and television programs and more than 100 music videos for such recording artists as Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Sting, Van Morrison and Reba McIntire. In 2004 she was honored with the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival for her “exceptional photography” in the drama November. This was her second Cinematography Award from Sundance, having shared the 1997 prize for My America…or Honk If You Love Buddha. Among her many other accolades are a Kodak Vision Award, an Emmy nomination (HBO’s Celluloid Closet), and an Indie Spirit Award nomination for her striking work on Chain of Desire. In 2000, Schreiber was named one of Variety’s “Ten Top Directors of Photography to Watch.”
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For their extraordinary use of film for social change: ABIGAIL DISNEY Producer of the Oscar-shortlisted Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Abigail Disney is a philanthropist, business woman, and community activist who has a long history of work in support of women’s leadership and peace building internationally. Disney is the Founder and President of the Daphne Foundation, a progressive, social change foundation that makes grants to grassroots, community-based organizations working with low-income communities in New York City. She recently retired as Chair of The New York Women’s Foundation, where she was a board member for over 14 years and currently serves on the boards of the Roy Disney Family Foundation, the White House Project, the Global Fund for Women, and the Fund for the City of New York. When the groundbreaking periodical Ms. magazine was in danger of extinction, she worked with Gloria Steinem and a group of other investors to form Liberty Media for Women to secure the fate of Ms. magazine for future generations. Disney also is Vice Chair of the board of Shamrock Holdings Inc., a professional investment company. She and Gini Reticker are now producing the PBS Series Women, War & Peace.
GINI RETICKER Gini Reticker is an Emmy-winning, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and one of the world’s leading filmmakers on women’s issues. Most recently, Reticker directed Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about the role women played in bringing peace to Liberia after 14 years of civil war. The film won the Best Documentary Prize at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, the Silverdocs Witness Award, the Jackson Hole Audience Award, and was short-listed for the Academy Award. Reticker has directed two films for Wide Angle on PBS, the Emmy Award-winning Ladies First, which focused on women rebuilding post-genocide Rwanda, and Class of 2006, about the first fifty women in Morocco to graduate from an imam academy. Her first film, The Heart of the Matter received the Sundance Freedom of Expression Award; Out of the Darkness: Women and Depression garnered both an Emmy and a Gracie Award. She produced the Academy Award-nominated short Asylum, and the Emmy-nominated A Decade Under the Influence. Before becoming a producer and director, Reticker worked as an editor on films including: Roger & Me; The Awful Truth: The Romantic Comedy, PBS American Cinema Series; and the Emmy-nominated Fire from the Mountain. She and Abigail Disney are now producing the PBS Series Women, War & Peace.
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For their distinguished reporting and commentary about women and film: LESLIE BENNETTS A Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair since 1988, Leslie Bennetts has been writing on subjects ranging from movie stars to priest pedophilia, industrial pollution to U.S. antiterrorism policy. Her 2005 cover story on Jennifer Aniston was the best-selling issue in the magazine’s history to date, and the People magazine cover story about Bennetts’ interview with Aniston was the best-selling issue in the history of People. Prior to joining Vanity Fair, Bennetts spent fifteen years as a newspaper reporter. She started covering so-called “women’s issues” at the Philadelphia Bulletin in the early 1970’s, and has continued to write about women, marriage, families and parenting ever since. After five years at the Bulletin, where she won many awards for writing and reporting, Bennetts moved to the New York Times. During her ten years there, she began as a writer for the Style page and went on to cover national politics, metropolitan news, City Hall, and cultural news. She was the first woman ever to cover a presidential campaign for the Times. Her most recent book is The Feminine Mistake. Bennetts has also written for many other magazines, including Town & Country, Columbia Journalism Review, New York magazine, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies Home Journal.
ANNE THOMPSON Born and raised in New York, Anne Thompson is a prolific writer and commentator on the film industry. She has been a contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Observer, and Wired and has served as film columnist at Variety, and Deputy Editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood, launched in March 2007. Today, that independent blog, carried by IndieWIRE is one of the most respected film sites. Thompson was the Deputy Film Editor at the Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column, “Risky Business,” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate. A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at NYU, she has taught film criticism at USC and each year hosts the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension
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2 PM—Shorts I Black Box Theatre
4 PM—Panel: The Bechdel Test The James Room
4:30 PM—Meet Vera Stark Black Box Theatre
3:30 PM—My So-Called Enemy Altschul Hall
12 PM—Real Women... Altschul Hall
1 PM—Conversation w/G. Gerwig The Diana Center
3:30 PM—Pink Smoke Julius S. Held Auditorium
12 PM—Bhutto Julius S. Held Auditorium
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10
THE FESTIVAL AT A GLANCE (DAILY SCHEDULE)
8:30 PM— Winter’s Bone Miller Theatre
7 PM—Miss Representation Miller Theatre
6:30 PM—Pink Saris The Diana Center
7 PM—Desert Flower The Diana Center
6 PM—Mighty Macs Altschul Hall
6:30 PM—Opening Celebration The Diana Center
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2 PM—Panel: Women Documentarians The James Room
4 PM—Shorts III Black Box Theatre
Schedule subject to change. Updated schedules will be available at the LeFrak Gymnasium detailing last minute changes and additions.
1 PM—Shorts II Black Box Theatre
3:30 PM—Vision Altschul Hall
12 PM—Topp Twins Altschul Hall 3:30 PM—Mo The Diana Center
3:30 PM—Passionate Politics Julius S. Held Auditorium
12 PM—Chisholm ’72 Julius S. Held Auditorium
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13
FILMS AND PANELS
Friday, February 11 6 PM
Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall
In partnership with the Women’s Sports Foundation
THE MIGHTY MACS
Based on an inspiring true story of one team’s improbable journey to the first national championship in women’s college basketball Set in 1972, The Mighty Macs tells the story of a 23-year-old woman who just wanted a chance to coach basketball. After a series of setbacks and on the brink of giving up, she takes one final shot at her dream, signing on as the head basketball coach at Immaculata College, a tiny all-women’s Catholic school in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Though her team has no gym and no uniforms and the school itself is in danger of being sold, Coach Rush, with the help of the nuns from the school, finds the courage and faith to lead her team to the first national championship in women’s basketball. PANEL A panel following the screening will include Director Tim Chambers; Kym Hampton, the former WNBA all-star who played with the New York Liberty and Kathryn Olson, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation. Director Tim Chambers Cast Carla Gugino, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Ellen Burstyn Feature 2009 [USA], English, 90 minutes
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Friday, February 11 7 PM
Diana Event Oval, LL100 Diana Center
DESERT FLOWER A modern fairy tale of dazzling glamour, full of vitality, emotional depth and enormous compassion Waris Dirie’s biography, Desert Flower, touched the hearts of millions, recounting her incredible journey from an African nomad to an international top model. It was soon a worldwide bestseller with more than 11 million copies sold. Dirie’s story is now told through the movie Desert Flower starting when 13-year-old Dirie escaped Somalia, made her way to London and worked as a maid in her country’s London embassy. After a regime change forced her onto the streets of London, she was soon discovered by a famous fashion photographer. This scared, homeless runaway evolves into a glamorous runway superstar. While her beauty and courage open doors to an exciting career, her life is even more transformed by her tenacity to fight against the poverty and cultural traditions that had forced her to run away from her home and family. Her work resulted in her being named United Nations special ambassador for women’s rights in Africa in 1997. National Geographic Entertainment will release Desert Flower in March, 2011.
Director Sherry Horman
Q & A SESSION Fashion model and actor Liya Kebede, who stars in the film, will join Elle Film Critic Karen Durbin, for a Q and A session following the film.
Cast Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, Anthony Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Spall, Soraya Omar-Scego Feature 2011 [Germany], English, 120 minutes
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Friday, February 11 8:30 PM
Miller Theatre, 2960 Broadway at 116th Street
WINTER’S BONE Winter’s Bone eloquently captures one young woman’s struggle to protect her family In this moving story based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell, seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly, played by Jennifer Lawrence, sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the winter in the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin’s code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. An extraordinary story, shot in the Ozarks that remains true-to-life in this part of the country. Winner Best Picture, Grand Jury Prize, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Winner, 2010 Gotham Award for Best Feature Director Debra Granik Cast Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee and Tate Taylor. Feature 2010 [USA], English, 100 minutes
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Nominee, 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture Nominee, Indie Spirit Award for Best Feature and Best Screenplay DISCUSSION Following the movie, Director and Co-writer Debra Granik and Producer and Cowriter, Anne Rosellini will discuss the film with Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.
Saturday, February 12 12 PM
Julius Held Auditorium, 304 Barnard Hall
BHUTTO The story of the tumultuous life and violent death of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Bhutto chronicles the life of the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation, Pakistan, and one of the most complex and fascinating characters of our time. Born into a wealthy land-owning family that became Pakistan’s dominant political dynasty (often referred to as the “Kennedys of Pakistan”), Benazir Bhutto was educated at Harvard and Oxford, with an eye on a foreign service career. Her life changed forever, however, when her father, Pakistan’s first democraticallyelected President, chose Benazir to carry his political mantle over the family’s eldest son. In the late 70’s, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown and executed by his handpicked Army Chief, Bhutto swore to avenge her father and restore democracy— or to die trying.
Directors Duane Baughman and Johnny O’Hara Documentary 2009 [USA] English 111 minutes
Benazir Bhutto may have broken the Islamic glass ceiling, but she was wed in a traditionally arranged marriage to Karachi playboy Asif Ali Zardari. Her two terms in power saw acts of courage and controversy. She eradicated polio and stood up for women, while fighting the male-dominated political elite and a nervous military leadership, but battled accusations of corruption and scandal. In 2007, with the South Asian country rolling in turmoil and under the thumb of yet another military dictator, Bhutto was called back onto the world stage as Pakistan’s best hope for democracy. With her assassination, she transcended politics but left a legacy of simmering controversy and undeniable courage that will be debated for years. Nominated by the Writers Guild of America for Best Documentary Screenplay 2009
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Saturday, February 12 12 PM
Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall
REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES The coming of age story of a first generation Latina who struggles to balance her family’s culture and her own ambitions This is the story of Ana, a first generation Mexican-American teenager on the verge of becoming a woman. Played by Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera, Ana lives in the predominately Latino community of East Los Angeles. Freshly graduated from high school, Ana receives a full scholarship to Columbia University. Her very traditional, old-world parents feel that now is the time for Ana to help provide for the family, not the time for college. Torn between her mainstream ambitions and her cultural heritage, she agrees to work with her mother at a downtown sewing factory. Over the summer she learns to admire the hardworking team of women who teach her solidarity and teamwork. Still at odds with what her mother expects of her, Ana realizes that leaving home to continue her education is essential to finding her place in the world as a proud American and Chicana.
Director Patricia Cardoso Cast America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros and Ingrid Oliu Feature 2002 [USA] English, Spanish, 90 minutes
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Winner of the 2002 Humanitas Prize, the 2002 Sundance Audience Award and Special Jury Prize, and the 2002 National Board of Review, Excellence in Filmmaking Award Q & A SESSION Director Patricia Cardoso and Film Editor Sloane Kelvin will join the audience for a Q and A session following the film.
Saturday, February 12 1pm
Diana Event Oval, LL100 Diana Center
A HOLLYWOOD CONVERSATION WITH GRETA GERWIG Greta Gerwig ’06 discusses her career, her ambitions, navigating between the Indie world and Hollywood and her style as an actor, director and writer with Vanity Fair Contributing Editor, Leslie Bennetts Greta Gerwig’s breakthrough role was this year’s performance in Greenberg, a feature film co-starring Ben Stiller, and written and directed by Noah Baumbach, for which she was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award as Best Female Lead. She also appears in the new movie, No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and will soon be seen in the remake of Arthur with Russell Brand and Helen Mirren. “Either she’s a total natural—most likely—or she has the most invisible technique of any modern actor.” —Variety “Ms. Gerwig . . . may well be the definitive screen actress of her generation, a judgment I offer with all sincerity and a measure of ambivalence. She seems to be embarked on a project, however piecemeal and modestly scaled, of redefining just what it is we talk about when we talk about acting.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times
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Saturday, February 12 2 PM
Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre, LL200 Diana Center
SHORTS PROGRAM I
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Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn Narrated by Grey’s Anatomy’s Sandra Oh, Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn chronicles the life and work of the noted author and civil rights activist who gave up a successful career as a costume designer to set the record straight about the forced incarceration of more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. The first book on the subject penned by a Nisei, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps became one of the most important books ever written about this chapter in history.
Out of Infamy Directors Nancy Kapitanoff and Sharon Yamato Documentary Short 2010 [USA], English, 17 minutes Audrey Superhero Director Amy K. Jenkins Documentary Short 2010 [USA], English, 9 minutes Fao Directors Aitor Echeverría and Carolina Alejos Cast Nora Chimapumire, Souleymane Badolo Feature Short 2010 [Spain], 7 min Bismillah Directors Jolene Pinder and Sarah Zaman Documentary Short 2010 [USA] English 32 minutes
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Audrey Superhero Audrey Superhero explores the shifting terrain of gender identity. The film includes vividly charged discussions with 6-year-old Audrey, who insists she is Superman. Playful and arresting, Audrey de-cloaks from Clark Kent to Superman, revealing her “secret identity” as a boy. She does push-ups, practices flying, vehemently declares “I wanted to be a boy when I got borned,” and imagines “saving the police from the bad guy.” In a paradoxical twist, reality parades as fantasy, as Audrey draw us into her world in which we can be anything we imagine. Fao Hunger, loneliness and the will to survive push Fao to embark on a journey that will bring her face to face with her fears. Bismillah The story of Farheen Hakeem, a feisty 31-year-old Muslim Girl Scout troop leader who puts herself under public scrutiny by taking part in the consummate patriotic act—running for office Q & A SESSION Out of Infamy Directors, Nancy Kapitanoff and Sharon Yamato and Audrey Superhero Director Amy Jenkins will join the audience for a Q and A following the screening.
Saturday, February 12 3:30 PM
Julius Held Auditorium, 304 Barnard Hall
PINK SMOKE OVER THE VATICAN Impassioned Roman Catholic women defy the Catholic Church, refusing to remain voiceless in the religion they love Pink Smoke over the Vatican is a documentary film about a group of impassioned women who have stepped forward to challenge the Vatican. They have been labeled heretics, heroines, radicals, visionaries, feminists and fanatics. By whatever name, this unique group of religious women have chosen at great personal risk to live out their spiritual calling through the forbidden path of ordination. The film follows candidates for the priesthood as they confront their inner doubts and anxieties while at the same time challenging the centuries-old established order of one of the most powerful institutions in history.
Director Jules Hart
PANEL Following the film there will be a panel discussion with Director Jules Hart, and Jean Marie Marchant, an ordained Catholic woman priest, and peace activist Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who appear in the film. Moderated by author and journalist, Angela Bonavoglia who also appears in the film.
Documentary 2010 [USA], English, 60 minutes
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Saturday, February 12 3:30 PM
Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall
MY SO-CALLED ENEMY A timely film about young women who open their hearts and minds, challenge long-held pre-conceptions, and create the space for dialogue In July 2002, 22 Palestinian, Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women’s leadership program called Building Bridges for Peace. Some have lost friends and family members. All bear the psychological and emotional scars of living in a war zone. My So-Called Enemy is the story of 6 of the girls and how the experience of knowing their “enemies” as human beings meets with the realities of their lives at home in the Middle East over the next 7 years. My So-Called Enemy is a powerful film about multi-faith and multi-cultural understanding and the important role of women in building peaceful communities. While the film speaks to the humanity and complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in every frame, it is also a coming of age story that transcends the conflict. Director Lisa Gossels Cast Adi, Gal, Hanin, Inas, Rawan, Rezan Documentary 2010 [USA], English, Arabic, Hebrew, English subtitles, 89 minutes
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CONVERSATION Director Lisa Gossels will join the audience for a conversation following the screening.
Saturday, February 12 4 PM
James Room, 418 Barnard Hall
THE BECHDEL TEST: WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? In 1985, cartoonist Allison Bechdel created the now infamous Bechdel Test. To pass the test a movie must: 1. have at least two women in it, who 2. talk to each other, about 3. something besides a man. Unbelievably in 2010, most films do not pass this test, and particular not those with box-office draw. Only four films with female leads—Alice in Wonderland, Twilight Eclipse, Tangled and Salt were in the top 25 grossing films of the year: one remake, one character based on a best-selling book, one cartoon, and one double agent (which incidentally was initially written for a male lead). Yet, women are the majority of ticket buyers—buying 55% of all tickets, more tickets than men in all age groups. Join us as we explore why there are still too few films that feature women in prominent roles, what it takes to produce more movies with female leads, and what audience members can do to make a difference. Panelists: Delia Ephron, ’66, the writer of 7 films including You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Bewitched and the stage hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore, now playing in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto Deborah Kampmeier, writer and director of the 2007 film, Hounddog and the 2003 film, Virgin Margaret Nagle, the Emmy-winning writer of the HBO film Warm Springs, and a supervising producer on the new 2010 HBO series Boardwalk Empire
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Saturday, February 12 4:30 PM
Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre, LL200 Diana Center
In partnership with 2econd Stage Theatre
SNEAK PREVIEW: FROM BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK A funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood
A new comedy from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Lynn Nottage, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is a seventy year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career. When both women land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy scholars will debate for years to come. The play will debut on April 12, 2011 at the 2econd Stage Theater in New York. SNEAK PREVIEW: The scene begins in Vera’s apartment, which she shares with two women, Lottie and Anna Mae. Anna Mae has just left on a date with a film director, and Vera is attempting to hide “The Belle of New Orleans” script from Lottie, who also happens to be an actress down on her luck. Lynn Nottage is a playwright from Brooklyn. Her plays include Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; and Ruined, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Nottage is the recipient of numerous other awards including the 2007 MacArthur Genius Award, an OBIE Award for playwriting, NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Best Play and John Gassner Outer Critics Circle awards. Q & A SESSION Lynn Nottage will join the audience for a Q and A session following the Sneak Preview.
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Saturday, February 12 6:30 PM
Diana Event Oval, LL100 Diana Center
Sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation
PINK SARIS
The inspiring and hopeful story of young women who reach out for help from Northern India’s “Vigilantes in Pink”
Director Kim Longinotto Documentary 2010 [USA], Hindu with English subtitles, 96 minutes
“A girl’s life is cruel. . . A woman’s life is very cruel,” notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the center of Pink Saris, internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto’s latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women. Sampat should know—like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which made her work hard and beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh. Many young women find their way to her doorstep— like Rekha, a fourteen year old Untouchable, who is three months pregnant and homeless—unable to marry because of her low caste and fifteen year old Renu, whose husband from an arranged marriage has abandoned her, who’s father-inlaw has been raping her and who is threatening to throw herself under a train. Both young women, frightened and desperate, reach out for their only hope: Sampat Pal and her Gulabi Gang, Northern India’s women “Vigilantes in Pink.” Winner Best Documentary, Abu Dhabi International Film Festival Winner Special Jury Prize, Sheffield Doc/Fest Winner Amnesty Award for Best Documentary, CPH:DOX!, Copenhagen’s International Documentary Film Festival
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Saturday, February 12 7:00 PM
Miller Theatre, 2960 Broadway at 116th Street
Sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation In partnership with the Paley Center for Media and the Women’s Media Center
MISS REPRESENTATION
A powerful exploration of women’s underrepresentation in positions of power and influence Perhaps now more then ever before, the media communicates cultural values, dictates gender norms, and tells us who we can and cannot be. The collective message that seeps into our subconscious is that women’s value lies primarily in youth, beauty and sexuality. As a result, both men and women have a limited understanding of who women are and what women can be, leading to the underrepresentation of women in key leadership roles and skyrocketing levels of eating disorders, sexual assault, cosmetic surgery, and exploitative pornography. CONVERSATION Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Carol Jenkins, former President of the Women’s Media Center will join Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Cast Center for Media for a conversation following the film. Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda, Molly Sims, Katie Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom
Couric, Daphne Zuniga, Catherine Hardwicke, Paul Haggis Documentary 2009 [USA], English, 85 minutes
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Sunday, February 13 12 PM
Julius Held Auditorium, 304 Barnard Hall
CHISHOLM ’72—UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED “Chisholm’s . . . commitment is a refreshing antidote to the opportunism and cynicism that rules the political roost today…an inspiring tale of someone who made a difference . . . .” — The Hollywood Reporter Chisholm ‘72—Unbought & Unbossed is the first historical documentary on Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and her campaign to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 1972. Following Chisholm from the announcement of her candidacy in January to the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida in July, the story is like her – fabulous, fierce, and fundamentally “right on.” Shunned by the political establishment, Congresswoman Chisholm asks people of color, feminists and young voters for their support to “reshape our society and take control of our destiny as we go down the Chisholm Trail.” To the surprise of many, voters responded. Chisholm ’72 reflects Chisholm’s wit, spirit, and charisma, reminding all Americans of their power as citizens. Director Shola Lynch With Ralph Abernathy, Amiri Baraka, Susan Brownmiller, Octavia Butler, Shirley Chisholm, Walter Cronkite, Ron Dellums, Walter Fauntroy, Betty Friedan, Paula Giddings, Robert Gottlieb, Hubert H. Humphrey, Barbara Lee, George McGovern, Bobby Seale, George Wallace
Q & A SESSION Director Shola Lynch will take questions from the audience following the screening.
Documentary 2004 [USA], English, 70 minutes
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Sunday, February 13 12pm
Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall
THE TOPP TWINS: UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS Reveals the true heart of this inseparable sibling duo through charming home movie footage and seriously funny interviews Pride of New Zealand, the Topp Twins, Jools and Lynda were once merely farm girls in love with horses. But soon their energetic talent, political savvy, harmonizing vocals, and campy Kiwi theatrics found an audience outside their home on the range. A hit TV show followed, an international tour was next, and soon the Topp Twins were lassoing their messages of love and equality on such issues as apartheid and nuclear disarmament. The passage of a successful gay and lesbian rights reform bill in New Zealand’s Parliament certainly deserves a big nod to the tireless efforts of the Topps. Woven among the exuberant hilarity is an amazing musical showcase of the Topp’s acoustic country songs (they were inducted into New Zealand’s Music Hall of Fame in 2008), beautiful double vocal harmonies, and yes indeedy, some mighty masterful mellifluent yodeling.
Director Leanne Pooley Documentary 2009 [New Zealand], English, 84 minutes
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Sunday, February 13 1 PM
Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre, LL200 Diana Center
SHORTS PROGRAM II Growing Up Barnard Are women’s colleges a dying breed? In the past forty years over 75% of women’s colleges have closed or merged with their male counterparts. What will or should become of them in the next fifty years? Compelled by her family’s fourgeneration legacy at Barnard College, Daniella Kahane ’05 explores the relevance of women’s colleges, specifically through understanding the history of Barnard and the changing role of women during the twentieth century. The film includes interviews with Joan Rivers ‘54, Judith Kaye ‘58, Anna Quindlen ‘74, Suzanne Vega ‘81, and other Barnard luminaries.
Growing Up Barnard Director Daniella Kahane Documentary Short 2010 [USA], English, 30 minutes The Lost Girl Director Elizabeth Chatelain Documentary Short 2009 [USA], English, 13 minutes Perista Director Kim Weiner Narrative Short 2010 [USA] English 5:37 minutes The Delian Mode Director Kara Blake Documentary Short 2009 [Canada], English, 25 minutes
The Lost Girl During a two-decade-long civil war in Sudan, Northern Sudanese soldiers attacked Nyanwuor Duop’s village, forcing her to flee along with thousands of other children. She walked for days from the Sudan to a refugee camp in Kenya facing starvation, disease, and other threats. In 2004, Duop was finally given asylum in the United States. But placed into the 8th grade, she struggled to keep up since she had little education in Sudan and Kenya and within two years, she dropped out to get married and go to work. Today, a fierce advocate for Sudanese refugees, Duop dreams of one day returning to her country with her 16-month-old child, Alier. Perista The filmmaker’s grandmother, Theodora recounts the story of her childhood in Greece during World War II where she fled with her sisters and mother to the mountain village of Perista. There, they struggled to survive and outlast the war. The Delian Mode The Delian Mode is an audio-visual exploration of the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s experimental processes, the film illuminates her unique soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades. Q & A SESSION Filmmakers Daniella Kahane and Kara Blake will participate in a Q and A session following the screening.
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Sunday, February 13 2 PM
James Room, 418 Barnard Hall
WOMEN DOCUMENTARIANS: STORIES THAT CHANGE THE WORLD
Perhaps less known than Al Gore or Michael Moore, women documentarians have long been telling powerful stories of people facing extraordinary hardships and organizing within local communities to ensure their stories help change minds and find solutions to the problems they highlight. Join us for this panel where you will meet some of the inspiring women documentarians and activists who are bringing vital stories to the screen and who are helping to jumpstart social change from Appalachia to Rwanda. Panelists: Penelope Jagessar Chaffer, director, producer, and writer of Toxic Baby, is a multi award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer and children’s environmental health advocate. She is a double BAFTA, Royal Television Society and Grierson (British Documentary Awards) nominee. Ricki Stern is the director and producer of 7 documentaries including Burma Soldier, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, The Devil Came on Horseback, and The Trials of Darryl Hunt. Trudie Styler is an actress in and producer of numerous feature films and documentaries, including The Sweatbox and Moving the Mountain. Along with her husband Sting, she founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1989 to support indigenous people in their fight to protect the world’s rainforests. Caryn James (moderator) is a culture and film critic and the author of What Caroline Knows (St. Martin’s Press, 2006) and Glorie (Penguin Books, 1999). She currently blogs at James on ScreenS on IndieWIRE.
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Sunday, February 13 3:30 PM
Julius Held Auditorium, 304 Barnard Hall
PASSIONATE POLITICS: THE LIFE AND WORK OF CHARLOTTE BUNCH An inspiring look at a passionate advocate for women in the U.S. and across the globe Passionate Politics brings the story of Charlotte Bunch, former director of Rutger’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership, to life — from idealistic young civil rights activist to lesbian separatist to internationally-recognized leader of the campaign to put women’s rights, front and center on the global human rights agenda. Every step of the way, this is also the story of modern feminist activism, from its roots in the 1960s struggles for social justice to the more recent campaigns against gender-based violence in other nations. DISCUSSION Following the screening, Director Tami Gold and Charlotte Bunch will discuss the film.
© Center for Women’s Global Leadership
Director Tami Gold Documentary 2010 [USA], English, 60 minutes
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Sunday, February 13 3:30 PM
Diana Event Oval, LL100 Diana Center
U.S. Premiere sponsored by the BBC Worldwide In partnership with the White House Project
MO: THE PEOPLE’S POLITICIAN
A revealing portrait of Mo Mowlam, the charismatic woman who helped achieve one of the monumental landmarks in recent British history, the Good Friday Agreement When she is appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland by the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, Labour MP Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam is given the biggest challenge of her career. With the constant violence, bloodshed, retaliation and fear that defined Northern Ireland during the period, uniting the two warring factions will take all of her political acumen and initiative. But in a cruel twist of fate, Mo discovers that she has an inoperable brain tumor. With illness associated with weakness in the corridors of power, can she keep her condition a secret, not only from her peers, but from the British media, as they desperately search for headlines? Director Philip Martin Cast Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Adrian Dunbar, David Haig TV Feature 2010 [United Kingdom], English, 102 minutes
Mo’s fresh approach, her energy, tumor and often raucous remarks begin to have the desired effect: breaking the deadlock and the deeply ingrained differences between the two sides. But in a world entirely reliant on public image and reputation, her success and the attention she gains lead to her downfall, as other politicians, desperate to forward their own careers, seek to share her glory. As Mo struggles to keep her political career afloat, her marriage together and her tumor at bay, things begin to slip from her control. This touching, funny and emotional story looks at politics, betrayal, identity and above all, love. DISCUSSION Marie Wilson, President of the White House Project, Congresswoman Yvette Clark (NY–11), and Rebecca Traister, senior writer for Salon.com and author of Big Girls Don’t Cry: the Election that Changed Everything for American Women will discuss women, power and politics following the film.
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Sunday, February 13 3:30 PM
Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall
VISION—FROM THE LIFE OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN An inspirational portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadows of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change, and enlightenment In Vision—from the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, New German Cinema auteur Margarethe von Trotta (Marianne and Juliane, Rosa Luxemburg, Rosenstrasse) reunites with recurrent star Barbara Sukowa (Zentropa, Berlin Alexanderplatz) to bring the story of Hildegard von Bingen, the famed 12th-century Benedictine nun who was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist. In a staggering performance, Sukowa portrays von Bingen’s fierce determination to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God. The film is lushly shot in medieval cloisters in Germany. Director Margarethe von Trotta Cast Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch and Hannah Herzsprung
DISCUSSION Actor Barbara Sukowa, who stars in the film, will join Professor Elizabeth Castelli, Chair of the Religion Department at Barnard, for a discussion following the film.
Biopic 2009 [Germany], German, Latin with English subtitles, 111 minutes
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Sunday, February 13 4 PM
Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre, LL200 Diana Center
SHORTS PROGRAM III A Harlem Mother In 1998, 18 year old LaTraun Parker made a documentary about the difficulties of growing up in Harlem. Eight years later he was shot dead on the street. Today his mother Jean Corbett-Parker fights youth gun violence and helps other parents survive the pain through her organization, Harlem Mothers. Weaving footage from LaTraun’s own film with scenes from Jean’s new life today, A Harlem Mother tells a tragic and inspirational story from the dual perspectives of mother and son. Blind Eye A mother torn between being a good citizen and protecting her child discovers that both intervening and turning a blind eye can have negative consequences. gasp In a touching story of survival, a young mother will do just about anything to make sure that her electricity is turned back on before her daughter returns from school. A Harlem Mother Director Ivana Todorovic Documentary 2009 [USA], English, 14 minutes Blind Eye Director Laura Dengan Cast Liz White, Tigerlily Hutchinson, Scott McNess Feature Short 2009 [UK], English, 6 minutes gasp Director Thomai Hatsios Cast Dan Billet, Anishika Jontae Short 2010 [USA], English, 17 minutes Poster Girl Drector Sara Nesson Documentary 2010 [USA], English, 38 minutes
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Poster Girl Recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Poster Girl is the story of Robynn Murray, an all-American high-school cheerleader turned “poster girl” for women in combat in an Army Magazine cover shot. Now home from Iraq, her tough-as-nails exterior begins to crack, leaving Robynn struggling with the debilitating effects of PTSD and the challenges of rebuilding her life. Poster Girl is an emotionally raw documentary that follows Murray for two years as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption, using art and poetry to redefine her life. Q & A SESSION Sara Nesson, Director of Poster Girl and Thomai Hatsios, Director of gasp, will appear at a Q and A following the screening.
DIRECTIONS TO THE BARNARD CAMPUS VENUES Information and Tickets LeFrak Gymnasium 1st Floor, Barnard Hall Screenings and Panels Miller Theatre 2960 Broadway at 116th Street
Barnard College is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan between 116th and 120th Streets along the west side of Broadway. Entrance to the campus is at 117th St. and Broadway, ½ block north of the 116th Subway stop on the 1 train.
Diana Event Oval LL100 Diana Center James Room 418 Barnard Hall Julius Held Auditorium 304 Barnard Hall Lehman Auditorium 202 Altschul Hall Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre LL200 Diana Center Food and Lounges Liz’s Place (Coffee and snacks) Saturday, 11 AM–10 PM Sunday, 11 AM–4 PM 1st Floor Diana Center Diana Center Cafeteria (Lunch and dinner) Saturday, 11:30 AM–7:30 PM Sunday, 11:30 AM–3:00 PM 2nd Floor Diana Center Altschul Atrium Main Floor Altschul Hall Black Box Lounge Lower Level 2 Diana Center Barnard Store (Athena Film Festival T-shirts) Saturday 1– 6pm Sunday 12– 3pm 1st Floor Diana Center
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THANK YOU
Many thanks to the organizations, companies and individuals who have helped make the Athena Festival a success:
Friends of the Festival The screening of Mo: The People’s Politician:
Food and Catering:
Accommodations:
Wine: Gift bags:
Official Airline:
Awards:
Chauffered Transportation:
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Organizational Partners Arts and Business Council of New York Barnard Business and Professional Women Barnard Women in Entertainment and Media Fortalent.com National Association for Female Executives New Agenda New York Women in Film and Television NOW New York Paley Center for Media
SPARK The White House Project Women in Film Women’s Institute at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies Women’s enews Women’s Media Center The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership
Staff and Volunteers Co-Founders Kathryn Kolbert Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College Melissa Silverstein Women and Hollywood Technical Director Michael Comstock Indre Studios Development Stephanie Berger, Stewart Berger, Matt Everett Berger Hirschberg Strategies Public Relations Veronica Bufalini, Clare Anne Darragh, Kerry McLeer, Lina Plath Frank PR Logistics Coordinator Sara Leger Volunteer Coordinator Debbie Atuk Web Design theCoup.org
Interns Nina Ahuja Ashley Bush Laura Shields Patricia Urena Volunteers Jennifer Christman Clara Dessaint Pat Nadosy Ruth Willner Barnard Staff Lisa Buonaiuto Amy DeRobertis Abigail Feder-Kane David Hopson Patricia Keim Joanne Kwong Abigail Lewis Sun Min Maria Perez-Martinez Jamie Reynolds Beth Saidel Christine Shin Sara Slobodien Abigail Talcott Cathy Zises
Tickets Rudy Scala CUArts
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Athena Center for Leadership Studies Board of Advisors Kim K. Azzarelli Nancy Barry Dr. Jacqueline K. Barton Stephanie Bell-Rose The Honorable Margot Botsford ‘69 Wendy Myers Cambor Jolyne Caruso-FitzGerald ‘81 Ronnie Eldridge ‘52 Anne Sutherland Fuchs Ellen Futter ‘71 Dr. Helene Gayle ‘76 Betsy Gotbaum ‘60 Phyllis Grann ‘58 Rosabeth Moss Kanter
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Helene Kaplan ‘53, The Honorable Judith Kaye ‘58 Shelly Lazarus Linda Fayne Levinson Liz Neumark ‘77 Indra Nooyi Anna Quindlen ‘74 Susan Stamberg ‘59 Merryl Tisch ‘77 Faye Wattleton Sheila Wellington Constance Hess Williams ‘66 Marie Wilson Melinda Wolfe
Athena Center for Leadership Studies Leadership Council and Donors Founding Donors of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies Francene Sussner Rodgers ’67 Constance Hess Williams ’66 Lucille Zanghi and James Dow P’10 Founding Donors of the Financial Fluency Program Laird Grant Groody ’67 Patricia Harrigan Nadosy ’68 Mollie Rosenthal Memorial Fund Susan Weber ’77 Founding Members of the Leadership Council Patricia Harrigan Nadosy ’68, Co-Chair Azita Raji ’83, Co-Chair April Benson ’73 Margarita Brose ’84 Dina De Luca Chartouni ’82 Jennifer Christman ’84 Glori Cohen P ’14 Rochelle Cooper ‘84 Bea Drechsler ’84 Leah Dunaief ’62 Mary Beth Forshaw ’84 Vivian Fried ’82 Marjorie Gittelman ’82 Nieca Goldberg ’79 Rena Sterman Hoffman ’84
Anne Josephson ’91 Amy Levenson ’85 Marina Lewin ’80 Marley Blue Lewis ’05 Anna Longobardo ’49 Sultana Mangalji P ’12 Nancy McGregor Manne ’80 P ’14 Jyoti Menon ’01 Nazee Moinian P ’13 Claire Newman Lida Orzeck ’68 Daphne Fodor Philipson ’69 Philippa Portnoy ’86 Susan Scheman Ratner ’86 Francene Sussner Rodgers ’67 Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan ’85 Andra Shapiro ’80 Carol Silberstein ’69 Eleanor Wagner ’71 Carla Walworth P ’12 Dr. Margaret Withgott ’76 Lisa Wolfe ’82 Paula Throckmorton Zakaria ’89 Lucille R. Zanghi P ’10 Anonymous The Center is also grateful for the generous support of Ina and Howard Drew Paul Hastings LLP Denise and Brian Keegan
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FILM INDEX Audrey Superhero 26 The Bechdel Test: Where are the Women? 29 Bhutto 23 Bismillah 26 Blind Eye 40 By the Way, Meet Vera Stark – A Sneak Preview of the Lynn Nottage Play 30 CHISHOLM ’72 — Unbought & Unbossed 33 The Delian Mode 35 Desert Flower 21 Fao 26 gasp 40 Growing Up Barnard 35 A Harlem Mother 40 A Hollywood Conversation with Greta Gerwig 25 The Lost Girl 35 The Mighty Macs 20 Miss Representation 32 Mo: The People’s Politician 38 My So-Called Enemy 28 Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn 26 Passionate Politics: The Life and Work of Charlotte Bunch 37 Perista 35 Pink Saris 31 Pink Smoke Over the Vatican 27 Poster Girl 40 Real Women Have Curves 24 The Topp Twins 34 Vision – from the Life of Hildegard von Bingen 39 Women Documentarians: Stories that Change the World 36 Winter’s Bone 22
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