Works of Seven Directors to be Featured in International Women's Film Festival

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- An in-person introduction by director Maureen Gosling at the March 7 screening of her film, "Blossoms of Fire/Ramos de Fuego," will be among the highlights of the sixth annual International Women's Film Festival, to be presented during the Spring 2002 semester by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender at the University at Buffalo.

The screenings will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursdays from Jan. 31 through March 14 in the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre, 639 Main St., Buffalo. Each film will be introduced, and a discussion will follow the screening.

The cost at each film will be $6.50 for general admission and $4.50 for students. The first and last screenings will be sponsored by the Melodia E. Jones Chair in French at UB and will be free of charge.

For further information, contact IREWG at 829-3451, or visit the institute's Web site at http://www.womenandgender.buffalo.edu/.

The festival will kick off on Jan. 31 with a free screening of "Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse" ("The Gleaners and I"), a documentary by French director Agnes Varda. The film is an intimate inquiry into French life, as lived by the country's poor and provident. The aesthetic, political and, finally, moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already reaped fields for the odd potato or the leftover turnip. Varda constructs a portrait of France that is every bit as modern as the digital camera with which she does her filming.

Also scheduled are:

o Feb. 7: "Earth," India/Canada, 1999, 104 min., feature, color, 35 mm. Directed by Deepa Mehta, "Earth" tells a story of Lenny, an 8-year-old Parsee girl who is growing up rich in pre-partition Lahore in 1947, enjoying the warm, enveloping life that loving parents and a filial household of staff brings. When the film opens, the British are preparing to quit their empire in India, and the searing process of splitting British India into independent India and Pakistan is about to begin. Angry Hindus storm through Lahore one day and angry Muslims the next. Then the serious killing begins.

o Feb. 14: "Wisecracks," Canada, 1992, 90 min., documentary, color, 16 mm. Directed by Gail Singer, New Yorker Films calls "Wisecracks" a "perceptive documentary on the politically charged field of stand-up comedy as practiced by 24 working (women) comics." Featured are Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Kim Wayans, Pam Stone, Robin Tyler and Jenny Jones, as well as vintage footage of Lucille Ball, Mae West and many other "old-timers."

o Feb. 21: "Friends," Britain/ South Africa, 1998, 109 min., color, 35 mm. Director Elaine Proctor mixes passion and politics in this powerful drama set in South Africa about three young women, all close friends. Sophie is a white political activist, Thoko is a black schoolteacher and Annika is an Afrikaner archaeologist. When Sophie plants a bomb that kills two innocent people, blinding forces test the strength of the women's friendship.

o Feb. 28: "Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics," 1995, 94 minutes, documentary, color, 16 mm. Directed by Terre Nash, this film focuses on Marilyn Waring, the foremost spokesperson for global feminist economics whose ideas offer new avenues of approach for political action. With persistence and wit, Waring has succeeded in drawing attention to the fact that GDP has no negative side to its accounts -- such as damage to the environment -- and completely ignores the unpaid work of women.

o March 7: "Blossoms of Fire/Ramos de Fuego," USA, 2000, 74 min., documentary, color, 16 mm. The legendary women of Juchitan, a city in Oaxaca, Mexico, are described as "guardians of men, distributors of food," and celebrated for their beauty and intelligence. "Blossoms of Fire," by producer-director-editor Maureen Gosling, shows them in all their brightly colored, opinionated glory as they run their businesses, embroider their signature fiery blossoms on clothing and comment with angry humor on articles in the foreign press that flippantly and inaccurately depict them as a promiscuous matriarchy. The people interviewed in this film share a strong work ethic and fierce independent streak rooted in Zapotec culture. These qualities have resulted not only in powerful women, but also in the region's progressive politics, manifested in its unusual tolerance of homosexuality.

o March 14: "Venus Beauty Institute," France, 1999, 107 min., feature, color, 35 mm. We are obsessed with beauty. For some, the creation and pursuit of physical beauty is a way to make a living; for others, it is a way to spend the day, a way to help others feel better about themselves, a mere daily ritual or a miraculous cure for the blues. With "Venus Beauty Institute," French writer/director Tonie Marshall takes us into the world of beauty and self-image, and into the lives of four strong, smart women who make their living practicing beauty at a Parisian spa.