Women Make an Impact on the 2022 Chesapeake Film Festival

Women of Impact is the dominant theme of the 2022 Chesapeake Film Festival, in honor of women who make films and women about whom films are made. The CFF hybrid festival is LIVE in Easton, Md., September 30 ~ October 2 and VIRTUAL (and free) October 3–9 for audiences around the world.

“Women have been making great films since the advent of the movie camera in the late 1800s. We proudly include their achievements, past and present, in our 2022 Festival,” said CFF Festival Director Cid Collins Walker.

The Untold Story of Alice GuyBlaché, by filmmaker Pamela Green (6:30 p.m. Sat., Oct. 1 at the

Avalon Theatre), tells the story of the first female director. From 1896 to 1906, Guy-Blaché was likely the world’s only female filmmaker.

In an interview in Women in Hollywood, Green said, “I was first moved to begin production on this film as I was watching AMC and discovered a show called ‘Reel Models,’ about pioneering women in cinema, including Alice GuyBlaché. I was surprised that I had never heard of her. I asked several people and realized that they, too, had never heard of her. I just kept asking, ‘How could such an important figure in the birth of cinema be unknown?’ It became clear I had to tell her story.”

Until The Untold Story, Green specialized in creating title sequences for films, including more than 100 sequences for major Hollywood studios. Inspired by the Guy-Blaché story, she continues to focus on telling inspiring stories that bring overlooked figures to the forefront.

Chesapeake Film Festival neglected Cooper River that runs through Camden, N.J.

The Chesapeake Film Festival, Cannon-Brown’s award-winnow in its 15th year, prioritizes ning work as an environmental films that focus on the environ- filmmaker has taken her around ment and social justice. This year, the world, but most of her recent films that address those issues are work focuses on issues facing the the heart of the LIVE Festival and Chesapeake Bay. Films by Canare prevalent in the VIRTUAL Fes- non-Brown, Harp and writer Tom tival. Many of them were produced Horton address climate change, and directed by women. erosion, rising seas, shellfish man-

A documentary short co-di- agement and struggling commurected by CFF VP Sandy Cannon- nities. Cannon-Brown and Harp Brown and photographer Dave also collaborated on A Voice for Harp launches the LIVE Festival. the Rivers, about the riverkeepers Search for the Cooper River (6:30 of ShoreRivers. These films were p.m. Fri., Sept. 30 at the Avalon featured in the Chesapeake Film Theatre) follows area youth as Festival, aired on MPT and other they kayak, hike and hack their PBS stations and were screened way through overgrowth along the and discussed at multiple festivals,

including the Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital.

The second film of the LIVE Festival, Upstream/DownRiver (7 p.m. Fri., Sept. 30 at the Avalon Theatre), was produced and directed by Maggie Burnette Stogner, a professor and executive director for the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University. The film recognizes the 50 th anniversary of the Clean Water Act with a discouraging assessment of progress. Nearly half of U.S. streams, rivers and lakes are so polluted they are no longer safe for fishing, swimming or aquatic life.

Burnette Stogner produced, directed and wrote numerous documentaries for National Geographic, where she was senior producer of the award-winning series EXPLORER. In 2005, she launched the independent media company Blue Bear Films. She has created numerous documentaries and outreach campaigns that inspire and inform, including In the Executioner’s Shadow, which was

screened and discussed at CFF 2018, and Unbreathable ~ The Fight for Healthy Air, which was awarded Best Environmental Feature in CFF’s VIRTUAL Festival in 2020. A film from France is one of the most stunning environmental films in the VIRTUAL Festival. Mediterranean: Life Under Siege, co-directed by Fabienne Berthaud and Fred Fougea, reveals the wonders of an astonishingly rich yet very fragile living world. At sea, on land and in the air, it is a fascinating journey through the world of animals and plants that survive in the Mediterranean despite the growing impact of human activity. Co-director Berthaud is a French writer, actress, screenwriter, director and winner of the Prix Françoise-Sagan. In 2005, she directed her first feature film with Diane Kruger. In 2010, she directed Pieds nus sur les limaces, based on her own novel. In 2019, she directed Un monde Plus Grand, a feature film about Mongolian shamanism. Call ~ Text or email

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Chesapeake Film Festival to protect our rights and inspire others to join this peaceful and his-

Before the current war in toric movement. Resisterhood was Ukraine, Russia was conducting produced, directed, fi lmed and edbizarre irrigation experiments in ited by women. southern Ukraine that devastated Resisterhood is her fi rst feature farming and fi shing. Return Sasyk fi lm, but Crim has been producto the Sea, by Andrea Odezynska, ing, directing and editing awardreveals this eco-disaster. winning specials for more than 30

Regardless of genre, Odezyn- years. She produced for television ska’s fi lms have celebrated ordinary in Cincinnati and New Jersey and women doing something hard and directed the fi rst national series succeeding. She has received sev- dedicated to women’s sports for eral prominent grants to support ESPN. She also produced throughher work, including a U.S. Fulbright out Europe while living in LiverScholar grant in 2018-2019 to re- pool, England. Now in Maryland, search and fi lm Return Sasyk to she is passionate about creating the Sea. In 2016, Odezynska wrote fi lms that make a diff erence. Her a feature-length narrative com- many awards include 12 Regional edy, Greenpoint. Emmy Awards for outstanding

Among the fi lms addressing so- documentary and entertainment cial issues in the 2022 Festival is programs, including two awards for Resisterhood (VIRTUAL Festival) individual achievement in directing by Cheryl Jacobs (CJ) Crim. Begin- and editing. ning at the 2017 Women’s March in For more information about the Washington, D.C., the fi lm follows 2022 Hybrid Chesapeake Film Fessix diverse Americans as they fi ght tival visit chesapeakefi lmfestival. for social justice on the streets and com or contact Nancy Tabor, execuin the halls of power. We watch over tive director, at 443-955-9144. the course of two years as they work