University at Buffalo Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender 2001 International Women's Film Festival

University at Buffalo Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender 2001 International Women's Film Festival Screening Schedule

Jan. 25

"CHUTNEY POPCORN"

Director: Nisha Ganatra

U.S.A. 1999

English (103 min. 35 mm Color)

Chutney Popcorn looks at the meaning of family and friends from a different perspective. When Reena's sister, Sarita, discovers she can't have children, Reena, a lesbian, finds that for the first time she can do something her "perfect" sister cannot do. Now she just needs to convince her commitment-phobic girlfriend to go along with the idea. "Chutney Popcorn" locates Reena's family values somewhere between those of traditional Indian culture and the ethos of contemporary urban America.

Feb. 1

"NORDRAND" (Northern Skirts)

Director: Barbara Albert

Austria/Germany/Switzerland 1999

German w/English subtitles (103 min. 35 mm Color)

It's 1995 in Vienna and Jasmin, Valentin, Senad and Roman, four young people from different ethnic and social backgrounds, meet and for a short time share their lives and dreams. Between jobs, relationships, unwanted pregnancies and repressed experiences from the war in the former Yugoslavia, they give each other support, stability and emotional warmth -- often in a clumsy way, but always with the deep desire to love and be loved.

Feb. 8

"RATCATCHER"

Director: Lynne Ramsey

Scotland 1999

English (94 min. 35 mm Color)

In 1970's working-class Glasgow, Scotland, we meet James Gillespie, a 12-year-old whose world is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to a canal near his home, where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14-year-old, and expresses his need for love in all the wrong ways. He also befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of his harsh surroundings. As his family's shared dream of moving to a new home fades, James finds a half-built house that becomes for him a place of solace.

Feb. 15

"SPRING OF LIFE" (Der Lebensborn)

Director: Milan Cieslar

Czech Republic 2000

Czech, Polish and German with English subtitles (107 min. 35 mm Color)

During World War II, the German SS conceived an operation known as "Lebensborn" -- a breeding program to produce "racially pure" children. This film depicts the experience of one girl chosen by the SS to help bear the master race. Gretchen is selected from her native Czech town and prepared at a special school before being presented to her "mate" at a party for SS officers. Gretchen is able to extract a small bit of personal revenge, however, suggesting that even in the darkness, there is light.

Feb. 22

"HONEY AND ASHES"

Director: Nadia Fares

Tunisia 1996

Arabic and French, with English subtitles (80 min., 35 mm, color)

"Honey and Ashes" is the stories of three women living in contemporary North Africa who attempt to take control of their lives by changing their relationships with men. At the center of the film is Naima (Samia Mzali), a successful doctor who studied medicine in Moscow, where her hopes of settling with the Russian student she loved were crushed by family pressure for an arranged marriage. Years later, driving one day with her young daughter near the beach, she saves a young woman named Leila (Nozha Khouadra) from a potential rape by men who label her promiscuous because she kissed the young man she loves. At the hospital, Naima also treats a battered wife (Amel Ledhili) and encourages her to rebel. Having seen her own life compromised, Naima strives to instill self-respect in her daughter.

March 1

"CELESTIAL CLOCKWORK"

Director: Fina Torres

Venezuela 1993

French and Spanish w/English subtitles (85 minutes 35 mm Color)

Opera and song play a key role in this romantic comedy by award-winning Venezuelan director Fina Torres. The film stars Ariadna Gil (one of the stars of the Oscar-winning Spanish film "Belle Epoque") as Ana, a Venezuelan girl who leaves her fiancé at the altar and hops a plane to Paris to fulfill her dream to become an opera singer. What follows is a screwball comedy, charting Ana's adventures with an apartment full of crazy roommates and her seemingly improbable destiny as the star of an impending production of Rossini's "La Cenerentol." The film's soundtrack includes songs by Rossini, Schubert and Schumann, and salsa numbers performed by Venezuelan music star Alma Rosa, who also appears in the film. Torres' first feature film, Oriana, won the Camera d'Or at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival as best first film.

March 15

"DANCE, GIRL, DANCE"

Director: Dorothy Arzner

USA 1940

English (90 minutes, 35 mm, B&W)

Retro night! Although Arzner thought of herself as an ordinary working director rather than a pioneer, her status as one of the first women directors -- the only one at the time working within the Hollywood studio system -- and the first woman to join the Directors' Guild of America, has attracted feminist attention. As a young woman, Arzner studied medicine, but after becoming interested in filmmaking, held jobs as a script typist, reader and script supervisor, film editor and screenwriter before becoming a director. In "Dance, Girl, Dance," she tackles a central plot later explored in "Flashdance" and "Dance with Me": that of a serious dancer struggling to maintain her artistic integrity in a cheap, commercial world. The film stars Maureen O'Hara as an aspiring ballerina forced to work as a stripper to earn a living. The film also features Lucille Ball as the brash "Bubbles," who leaves the troupe for a career in burlesque.