By Alicia Schaeffer (aliciaontheweb.com)
The Athena Film Festival is back in New York City this month, February 6-9, with a diverse roster of films, panels, and workshops focusing on women’s leadership and personal journeys.
Currently in its fourth year, Athena is one of the most accessible festivals in NYC, taking place in upper Manhattan at Barnard College. An all-access pass gives entry to the entire spectrum of films, panels, and workshops. This pass is $65 for general admission and $20 for students (from any institution, not just the host school). Single film/event tickets are $12 for general admission and $5 for students.
The biographical drama Belle will make its New York premiere at the festival on Thursday evening. Directed by Amma Asante, Belle tells the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race (English and African) society woman in 18th century England. In his review in Variety, Justin Chang described the film, as a “handsome period piece [that] nonetheless tells a continually fascinating, unusually layered story located at the juncture of three different lines of oppression (race, class, gender), and grounded by a protagonist with one hell of an identity crisis.”
During our phone conversation, Athena co-founder Melissa Silverstein recalled seeing the film at the Toronto Film Festival. Her immediate reaction was to turn to a colleague sitting beside her and say, “That has to play at the Athena Film Festival.” Then she and founding partner Kathryn Kolbert (Constance Hess Williams Director of the Athena Center) made it happen. Silverstein told me she was moved by the story, which, “at its core, is about a woman who changes the world around her, forging her way. Dido is a part of history, a woman who made significant contributions.”
Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson star in Belle along with Gugu Mbatha-Raw (from T.V.’s Touch and Undercovers) playing the lead role of Dido.
Throughout the four days, Athena will showcase screenings of narrative, documentary, and short films, in addition to talks with directors and Hollywood stars, and master classes for filmmakers.
On Friday evening writer/director Lexi Alexander will lead a conversation based on the topics she raised in her recent blog post, “An Oscar-Nominated Director Gets Real About How Women Are Treated in Hollywood.” Alexander’s post went viral in January, re-igniting a decade-long examination of the representation of women in the film industry. She touched a nerve by bringing the issue out from behind a man-made wall of excuses and fallacies. Alexander, who had been privately frustrated with the industry’s refusal to enact real change, has become a public voice of clarity, honesty, and rawness – with the ability to vocalize the neglect that many women are experiencing.
Some other highlights from the program are:
FEATURES
Reaching For The Moon
Director: Bruno Barreto
Based on a true story, Pulitzer Prize winning-poet Elizabeth Bishop travels to Brazil and encounters the beguiling architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Initial hostilities make way or a complicated yet long-lasting love affair that dramatically alters Bishop’s relationship to the world around her.
In A World…
Director: Lake Bell
Carol Solomon is a struggling vocal coach. Propelled by the hubris of her father, Sam Sotto, the reigning king of movie-trailer voice-over artists, Carol musters the courage to pursue her secret aspiration to be a voice-over star. After landing her first voice-over gig, nabbing the job from industry bad boy Gustav Warner, the real trouble begins as Carol becomes entangled in a web of dysfunction, sexism, unmitigated ego, and pride. In A World… brings its viewer into an idiosyncratic world where one woman fights the odds and finally finds her voice.
Decoding Annie Parker
Centerpiece Film
Director: Steven Bernstein
Decoding Annie Parker tells the true story of two very different women on seemingly similar paths towards ground-breaking discoveries. Annie Parker a cancer survivor who was convinced that her illness and the illness of all the women in her family were connected and Dr. Mary-Claire King, a geneticist, who bucked the conventional wisdom about cancer research and discovered the genetic link in breast cancer and the BRCA1 gene.
DOCUMENTARIES
Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
Director: Pratibha Parmar
Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth offers a penetrating look at the life and art of the celebrated writer, a self-confessed renegade, and human rights activist. It is a compelling story of an extraordinary woman’s journey from her birth in a paper-thin shack in the cotton fields of Putnam County, Georgia to her recognition as an award-winning writer. Walker’s inspiring journey is also a story of a country and a people at the fault line of historical change.
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
(Sponsored by Whitewater Films)
Director: Grace Lee
Grace Lee Boggs is a 98-year-old Chinese American woman living in Detroit. A writer, activist, and philosopher rooted for more than 70 years in the civil rights movement, she has devoted her life to an evolving revolution that encompasses the contradictions of America’s past and its potentially radical future.
Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley
(Sponsored by the Harnisch Foundation)
Director: Whoopi Goldberg
Breaking racial and gender stereotypes, the African American stand-up comedienne Jackie “Moms” Mabley has long been an icon in the comedy world. Once billed as “the funniest woman in the world,” she performed on stage and in television and film until her death in 1975. The film explores Mabley’s legacy through recently unearthed photography and rediscovered performance footage.
SHORTS
SlutWalkNYC
Director: Therese Shechter
The 2011 SlutWalk march was one of the most unique feminist actions in New York history – one piece of a grassroots global movement that is both empowering and controversial.
Haleema
Director: Boris Schaarschmidt
Arabic with English subtitles
In the blistering desert of Sudan, a pregnant mother and her two young children search for water and safety from the ruthless Janjaweed militia. When her brother is too weak to continue, Haleema is sent alone to find water. A dangerous journey full of hope and despair ensues.
Laal Pari (The Red Fairy)
Director: Sadia Halima
Hindi/Bhojpuri with English subtitles
When Laal Pari, an illiterate woman, ran for the village council in Bihar, India, she never dreamed she would be re-elected for a second term, and be able to work for the cause closest to her heart – safety and equal rights for women in her village.
PANELS/WORKSHOPS
Conversation with 2011 Nobel Prize Laureate, Leymah Gbowee
Join Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist and the Athena Center’s Director, Kathryn Kolbert for a conversation about bringing peace and social justice to war-torn areas and how films such as Pray the Devil Back to Hell can propel international recognition of advocacy.
Master Class With Callie Khouri
Join Academy Award winning screenwriter, director, and TV creator Callie Khouri for a conversation on success in Hollywood. She is the writer of the 1991 hit movie Thelma and Louise, the director of The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and the creator of the current ABC show Nashville.
Master Class With Laura Karpman
Join four-time Emmy Award winning composer Laura Karpman in a conversation about how she has navigated music and media in the 21st century, clearing a path for herself and other women in the male-dominated entertainment world.
For additional information and tickets, visit: http://www.athenafilmfestival.com
WHAT: The 4th Annual Athena Film Festival
WHEN: February 6-9, 2014
WHERE: Barnard College
This year’s festival honorees include:
Sherry Lansing (Former Chair & CEO of Paramount Pictures and former President of 20th Century Fox)
Callie Khouri (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Thelma and Louise, and creator of the series Nashville)
Kasi Lemmons (Actress, director and writer of Black Nativity, Talk to Me, Eve’s Bayou, The Caveman’s Valentine, and Vampire’s Kiss)
Keri Putnam (Executive Director of the Sundance Institute)