Chicks Make Flicks
FILM SCREENINGS WITH FILMMAKERS
Please check the website soon for updates on the next Chicks Make Flicks screenings.
Past Events
May 14, 2008: Jane Gillooly
WED, MAY 14, 2008
JANE GILLOOLY "TODAY THE HAWK TAKES ONE CHICK"
Synopsis: Today the Hawk Takes One Chick
Witnessing the highest prevalence of HIV in the world and the lowest life expectancy, three grandmothers in Swaziland cope in this critical moment in time. Today The Hawk Takes One Chick moves delicately between the lives of three unique grandmothers whose experiences highlight a rural community at the threshold of simultaneous collapse and reinvention.
Through the poignant perspective of the three women, the film creates a portrait of a community by layering discrete moments in time. Presented without overt narrative structure or narration, the film's drama emerges from the patient accumulation of steady details that, in sum, tell a greater story of family, struggle, and the weight of an uncertain future in a world dictated by AIDS.
The events in the film occur in a rural area with-in a 15-mile radius of St Phillips Health Center where one of the women, Thandiwe Mathujwa, works as a nurse. The facts that precede the film are that in the southern African kingdom of Swaziland, nearly 40% of its people are HIV positive and life expectancy has dropped to 32-years. The lives of the three grandmothers featured in the film have been consumed by addressing the needs of their community while at the same time remaining the threads of the fraying traditional life.
Through verité footage and recordings of intimate conversations, the gentle beauty of the rural Swaziland landscape and way of life, its humor, joy, and deeply held spiritual beliefs, are in stark contrast with the urgency of the grandmothers' everyday lives: families living off World Food Program rations, a missing generation of productive young adults, children surviving without parents, all combine and overwhelm what should be the grandmothers time to retire, relax and be catered to by adult children. What is life when sickness and death are an everyday experience? For these grandmothers, there is no choice but to steadfastly persevere and refuse to abandon their children. As more and more insight into the women's lives is revealed, we are forced to ponder the question asked by granny Albertina: "What will happen when all the grannies are dead?"
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERJane Gillooly is a non-fiction and narrative film/video maker. Projects include "Today The Hawk Takes One Chick" (2007-08) an observational film shot in a rural Swaziland. Rockefeller-nominated experimental feature film script, "The Not Dead Yet Club" (2006). "Dragonflies, The Baby Cries" (2000) which premiered at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and official selection of; San Francisco International Film Festival, Contemporary Film Festival of Mexico City, PBS and SUNDANCE Channels. She was also co-producer of "Theme: Murder" (1998), selected to screen at Full Frame Documentary Festival, and INPUT. Her film "Leona's Sister Gerri" (1995) was featured at the Museum of Modern Art New Directors, New Films, Robert Flaherty Seminar, PBS, and the SUNDANCE Channel and recently included in the Best of P.O.V. released 2007. A MacDowell Fellow, Gillooly is a professor of film at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
WED., APRIL 9, 2008 @ 7PM
ABIGAIL CHILD "ON THE DOWNLOW" and "THE PARTY"
Abigail Child's moving images contain elements of humor, liveliness and complex sound/image montage. In the words of LA Weekly, she makes "brilliant exciting work…a vibrant political filmmaking that's attentive to form." Her award-winning film THE FUTURE IS BEHIND YOU (2005) evidences her concern for body and gesture, as does the recent MIRROR WORLD (2006). Both continue Child's exploration of sexuality, creating the cult classics MAYHEM (1987) and COVERT ACTION (1984). Her feature documentary ON THE DOWNLOW (2007) goes further in its intimate look at an underground scene.
Child has shown extensively in both solo and group shows, with retrospectives at Anthology Film Archives in connection to the New Museum, Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco and Harvard University Film Archives in Cambridge, Mass. She has received numerous awards for her art including Guggenheim, Fulbright and Radcliffe Institute Fellowships. Child is also a writer of poetry and criticism; her most recently published book is THIS IS CALLED MOVING: A Critical Poetics of Film (2005) University of Alabama Press.
MAY 14, 2008 @ 7PM
FILMMAKER TBA
SPRING 08
WED., MARCH 12, 2008 @ 7PM
The Samantha Smith Project by Irene Lusztig
http://www.komsomolfilms.com/filmsframeset.html
A meditation on historical amnesia, nostalgia, and the manufacturing and dismantling of political enemies. Braiding together the story of Samantha Smith's historic journey to the Soviet Union in 1983 (as a child diplomat and official guest of her high profile "pen pal" in the Kremlin, then-Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov) with a parallel personal narrative of travel to Russia fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Samantha Smith Project explores the aftermath of the Cold War and the contemporary Russian landscape.
WINTER 2007/08
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 @7PM
Yvonne Andersen & Amy Kravitz: Animated Shorts
Women in Film and Video New England is thrilled to present animator, educator, and mentor Yvonne Andersen and her former student Amy Kravitz for an evening showcasing both of their award winning animated films including "We Will Live Forever" and "Roost." Yvonne Andersen's legendary "Yellow Ball Workshops" in the 1960's nurtured and inspired a generation of animators, filmmakers, and arts educators. Amy Kravitz began her animation career at age eleven. Today, Amy Kravitz holds Yvonne Andersen's former job, teaching animation at Rhode Island School of Design. This is a unique opportunity to see a collection of films from the Yellow Ball Workshop's Archive alongside current work by the filmmakers. Both filmmakers will be present.
Click here for more about Yvonne Andersen and Amy Kravitz
FILMS BY AMY KRAVITZ:
RIVER LETHE (1985)
7 minutes, color, sound, 16mm, direction, production, animation: Amy Kravitz, music: Caleb Sampson
Synopsis: A non-narrative and abstract visual poem in five parts. Its title refers to the underworld river of forgetfulness. The drawings are created from non-traditional animation media including rubbed and erased graphite, pigment, and aluminum powders to make an animate surface of unusual richness.THE TRAP (1988)
5.5 minutes, BW, sound, 16mm, direction, production, animation: Amy Kravitz, music: Caleb Sampson
Synopsis: A film composed solely of stark abstract images animated with black lithographic crayon on paper. "The Trap" was inspired by a quote from holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel's book, Souls on Fire: "I try to imagine my grandfather in the train that carried him away." Using the language of pure animation, "The Trap" articulates the difficult and disturbing sensations of that last journey.
ROOST (1998)
4.5 minutes, color, sound, 35mm, direction, production, animation: Amy Kravitz, music: Joan LaBarbara
Synopsis: "Roost" describes, in abstracted imagery, a desolate place in which new life kindles belief in God.
"The wild hen at roost is blessed,
Delirious angels sing 'round her nest,
Rejoice!
In the old barn, a new voice."ALREADY PASSED
Wednesday, December 19. 7:00pm.
Q&A with filmmaker Allie Humenuk, 74 min, documentary
Shadow of the House is about looking closely. Filmed over seven years, it is an intimate portrait of photographer Abelardo Morell, revealing the mystery and method of his artistic process. The narrative skips across time and space from his early childhood escape from Castro's regime to his status as a world - renowned photographer. The film explores his daily working life as an artist and his eventual return to Cuba after 40 years of living in exile. Shadow of the House uncovers the deep layers of a man who is pushed to confront his past and his familial allegiances as it explores his unique artistic vision. For more info: www.shadowofthehouse.com, www.ahp-productions.com
Wednesday, September 19. 7:00pm.
TRUTH & TRANSFORMATIONS with Caren Block & Paula Dowd -Boston premiere, 65 min, documentary.
Wednesday, October 17. 7:00pm.
TRANSGRESSIONS, I LOVE YOU & DANCE BY DESIGN with Valerie Weiss, 17 min, 10 min, 60 min narrative
Wednesday, November 28. 7:00pm.
STRANGE FACULTY with Marty Johnson, television sitcom pilot, plus some other short comedy films.
Chicks Make Flicks
In 2003, Women in Film and Video/New England established a monthly screening series featuring acclaimed regional female directors, writers, cinematographers, and editors presenting and discussing their work. The screening series is hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, through the support of its Women’s Studies Program.
Chicks Make Flicks premiered on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003, with Lucia Small screening her provocative and award-winning documentary, My Father, The Genius. The monthly series continued with presentations by Laura Bernieri, Patricia Alvarado and Laurie Kahn-Leavitt. Signe Taylor (WIFV/NE Board member) launched the series.
The screening series was established for two primary reasons. First, in 2002, more than 9 out of 10 films released were directed and produced by men. The vast majority of these also employed male cinematographers. Given this tremendous imbalance, WIFV/NE believes a screenings series offers an effective way to highlight women’s contributions to film and to encourage more female participation in the filmmaking industry. Second, WIFVNE believes this screening series is a wonderful way to draw new members to the organization, thereby creating more networking opportunities that will help energize New England’s female filmmaking community.All the screenings are held on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
ARCHIVE
WINTER/SPRING 2007
January 11
LATE RISERS CLUB by Marissa Acosta
A film about WMBR's long-running radio program. Begun in 1977, the Late Risers Club program showcased punk and alternative music, and was a forerunner of what we now consider college radio, one of the few noncommercial stations in the country at that time championing unheard of bands, both local and national.
February 8
Short Documentaries by Carmen Oquendo Villar
Carmen Oquendo Villar is a visual artist and curator of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Screening will include the films MIZERY and BOQUITA, from a series of film portraits about members of the Boston Latino transgender community.
March 15
DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE ME by Thato Rantao Mwosa
A film which chronicles the demise of a marriage and the inevitable break down of communication, followed sadly by a wave of violence. Thabo and Masedi are African immigrants that have been residing in America for a year. Thabo has just lost his job and is on the path of self-destruction as he resorts to violence towards Masedi. Masedi confronts her fears and emotions through poetry. When Thabo discovers the poem, life imitates art imitating life. Can Masedi reconcile the contradictions between her consciousness as a writer, a woman, and a wife?
April 12
HEY MONIE episodes by Dorothea Gillim
An animated comedy that explores the life and longings of Simone ("Monie"), a single, African-American, professional woman in big city America with her best friend, Yvette, by her side. Hey Monie originally aired on Black Entertainment Television.
May 10
Selections from the IMA PLUME TRILOGY by Nancy Andrews
Nancy Andrews uses animation, live action and puppetry in her homage to film noir. It explores Ima Plume’s investigation of her own death. Ima, Public Illustrator, grapples with trying to express things that might not be seen or drawn including: spirits, electronic voice phenomena and studies of animal locomotion.
For up-to-date information, join our mailing list by sending an email to info@womeninfilmvideo.org.
Chicks Make Flicks is a monthly film series presenting outstanding work by women filmmakers from the New England area. The filmmakers are present at the screenings to introduce the film and participate in a post-screening discussion with the audience. The series is hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s Studies. Admission is free. Some of the featured filmmakers in the past have included: Lucia Small (My Father, the Genius), Laurel Greenberg (94 Years and 1 Nursing Home Later), Maria Agui Carter (The Devil’s Music) and Julie Malozzi (Monkey Dance). For a complete list of past screenings, click here.
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