WBAI FEMINIST FILM FESTIVAL
- The Commons Brooklyn 08/28/2014 by Fran Luck

Joy of Resistance is thrilled to announce that we will be presenting the FIRST EVER Feminist Film Festival at WBAI! It will take place on five consecutive Fridays this Fall, starting on September 26 and running through October 24 (Sept. 26, October 3, 10, 17, 24).
 
We'll present "feminist classics"--the defining feminist films of many eras--and some of the directors will be present in person or via Skype. We'll also show rare documentary shorts, feminist comedy, and have some live performance.

Showings will take place at "The Commons," at 388 Atlantic Avenue, 1st Fl. Doors will open at 6:00 PM for short films, with main features starting at 7:30 PM. This is a benefit for WBAI: Suggested donation is $20, but a sliding scale of $10-20. will be in effect. Wine and popcorn will be available. GET TICKETS HERE

 
For further information and to get emails about the specific films to be shown on each night of the festival, email feministfilmfest@gmail.com or go to joyofresistance.wordpress.com.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE (check back for newly added releases):

September 26. Jennifer Lee's 2013 release "Feminist Stories from Women's Liberation" , getting rave reviews as it is shown across the country, with the Director to speak to us via Skype. Includes Betty Friedan's last interview, the "Women of the World Unite" banner being placed on the Statue of Liberty in 1970, SNCC & feminism and much more. Followed by Bev Grant's 'Up Against the Wall, Miss America!' , documentary short of the Miss America Pageant Protest of 1968 (where women are rumored to have burnt their bras!). THIS JUST IN: We'll have Feminist Stand-up Comedy by Mindy Matijasevic--AND--Bev Grant will not only lead us in song, but show her slide show and photographs from the Women's Liberation Movement.


October 3. "With a Vengeance: The Fight for Reproductive Freedom"  by Lori Hiris (1989)--a gutsy fast-moving film influenced by 60's Avant-Garde cinema (Emile D'Antonio), shows history of abortion in this country, jump-cutting between movement pioneers, clashes with the Right, an early meeting of Black women formulating what would become "the reproductive justice movement" and much more. Cameo appearance by the great Flo Kennedy. "I Had an Abortion"  by Jennifer Baumgardner and Jillian Aldrich. From a "celebrity feminist" to an 85 yr. old Harlem woman who tells what it was like in the 1930's, women of many ages and communities  tell their personal stories about abortion. 

THIS JUST IN!!! This coming Friday evening, October 3, there will be a LIVE THEATER PERFORMANCE  in addition to our exciting feature films. Stacey Linnartz, a NYC actor who has worked on Off Broadway and TV, will perform a piece about the harassment, by the far right, of abortion provider Dr. Susan Wicklund, entitled "The Siege." She will also do a comedy piece: "Laws We Want." Stacey is part of the "Reproductive Justice Players of Words of Choice ."

October 3 short films, from 6-7:30 PM, will include: "We Always Resist/Trust Black Women"; Susan Brownmiller on her three illegal abortions, The Reproductive Justice Walking Tour ; and video from the recent Abortion Rights Freedom Ride (organized by Stop Patriarchy).

 
October 10th. An evening in Celebration of Indigenous People's Day (aka Columbus Day) consisting of films and live performances, with a focus on women.

The evening will begin at 6:15 with a showing of "Chicana" by Sylvia Morales (23 minutes), which traces the history of Chicana and Mexican women from pre-Columbian times to the present;followed by a live performance by Mahkame Theatre, featuring veteran native American actresses of stage and screen, Hortencia and Elvira Colorado.

 At 7:30 we'll present "Salt of the Earth" (1954) a feature-length movie that was banned by the House-of Un-American-Activities Committee, about a strike by Mexican workers, within which women rebel against their husbands in order to be able to participate. The film will be introduced by feminist activist/history Professor Carol Giardina of Queens College. Then "La Operacion" by Ana Maria Garcia--the documentary that broke open the scandal that a third of Puerto Rican women had been sterilized in the 1950s/60's because of U.S. population control policies. Films will be followed a LIVE PERFORMANCE by the Indigenous Women's singing/spoken word group Mahina Movement!

 

October 17.  Films of transgressive/militant/direct action feminism: Lizzie Borden's cult classic "Born in Flames".  A sci-fi journey into a post-revolutionary New York City where a Women's Army, led by Black women, has formed to fully bring women into the revolution. With Flo Kennedy in a featured role! Must see! THIS JUST IN: Clips of "Left on Pearl" a film/documentary about the 1971 takeover of a building near Harvard Square by women’s liberationists--who declared it a Women’s Center! Plus video of the "pharmacy invasions" by the Morning After Pill Conspiracy, over the last two years, to get pharmacies to put the Morning After Pill on the counter, where women could fully access it.
 

October 24. The final evening of the Feminist Film Festival! We'll show: Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, Joanne Grant's brilliant film on the not-well-enough-known woman who was a leader of many of the great campaigns and organizations of the Civil Rights Movement (it features Sweet Honey in the Rock's "Ella's Song"). Then we'll show Sweet Honey in the Rock/Raise your Voice--Stanley Nelson's award winning exploration of the world-acclaimed a capella singing group. We'll end with distinguished singer/songwriter Judy Gorman  in a live performance of some of her original movement songs.

In the early part of the evening (6:00-7:30 pm) we will show Standing on My Sister's Shoulders, a film about grassroots women civil rights activists in Mississippi, and Project Prevention: Mothers and Children Speak Out, which exposes a new eugenics initiative directed at pregnant women who have used drugs. We will also have a tribute to the late great political singer/songwriter Ray Korona, who died last week.

We want to give special thanks to the following film distributors who have offered generous support to the Feminist Film Festival: Icarus Films, Cinema Guild, Firelight Films and especially Women Make Movies.

 

All screenings will take place at at 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, 1st Floor (between Hoyt and Bond streets--A, C or G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn/#2 or 3 to Hoyt Street). 

headline photo

 


Watch video