Written by:
Laura K. Cucullu
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this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 16#7
Once the fledgling brainchild of a 23-year-old who noticed a need for it, MadCat Women’s Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, and continues to bring experimental, avant-garde films made by women to audiences in the San Francisco Bay area and around the country.
Now I bet you’re wondering, is “women” code word for “dykes” in MadCat, as it so often is in other festivals? Well, the leading ladies behind MadCat are founder and executive director Ariella Ben-Dov and her partner of eight years (on and off the job), photographer and associate director Rebecca McBride. And sure, Ben-Dov says “probably 90 percent of MadCat’s staff and volunteers are dykes and trannys,” and queer ladies certainly submit their fair share of films to MadCat. Nevertheless the event provides a forum for women filmmakers from around the globe.
“What’s so great is queers can tell their stories in many different ways,” she says. “There are lots of filmmakers who are queer, but it doesn’t necessarily come out in their movies. And women’s issues are so much bigger than reproductive rights.” What she looks for most in festival selections are films that “are challenging the way stories are told.”
She has no shortage of material to choose from. In the first year, when MadCat received more than 200 submissions, she could review every one herself; now with more than 1,300 submissions from around the globe, review committees handle much of that process. Ben-Dov then groups the chosen few into themes, which aren’t planned before the call for submissions. “The great thing about the [curating] process is how organic it is. Themes are developing and becoming known to me, and I hope to put the films together in a way that does them justice.”
Still, Ben-Dov, now 33, says if she’d known then what she knows now, she might have never started the MadCat Women’s International Film Festival. In the midst of what should have been a resurgence of support for MadCat’s lasting contributions to the women’s art community, the San Francisco Arts Commission denied this year’s grant application. “You have to prove yourself every time,” Ben-Dov says, adding that it’s definitely been hard without the grant but she respects the commission’s decision; it became an opportunity to reach out to audiences to fill the $18,000 gap before the September main event. “There’s been a great response from the community, people really digging into their pockets,” Ben-Dov says. “And it’s given us a really nice connection to our audience.”
The 10th annual MadCat festival begins this Tuesday, September 12, 2006, and runs through September 27. This year, 85 films from 17 countries will screen, with over 26 of the filmmakers in attendence. Some of this year’s highlights:
- More live performances and audience interaction than ever before. "Performance abounds at this year’s Festival,” says Ben-Dov. “We have three live music events, two viewmaster performances and two evenings of 3D films.”
-The Northern California premiere of local award-winning filmmakers Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre’s groundbreaking documentary Maquilapolis. The film deals with about the brutal conditions of Tijuana’s assembly factories, the maquiladoras, and how a group of courageous women have banded together to fight the multinational corporations who run them.
- The San Francisco premiere of How Little We Know of Our Neighbours, a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Rebecca Baron. How
Little We Know of Our Neighbours is a study of the British Mass Observation movement, an eccentric social science enterprise begun in 1937. The movement used hidden cameras to record and scrutinize behavior in public spaces. Initially concerned with anthropology, the outfit became a civil spy unit during World War II before re-emerging as a market research firm in the 50s.
-Silent film screenings with live music from local talent, including Silian Rail, Paper Boats, The Secrets of Family Happiness and Tartufi.
-The California premier of Fear and Trembling, by Vladimir and her Vladmasters. Huh? They’re handmade slide-show stories, accompanied by ecclective original music and quirky narration.
Get more information and the full line-up at www.madcatfilmfestival.org.
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