UB Presents 15th Annual International Women's Film Festival February 17 - April 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender will kick off its 15th annual International Women's Film Festival at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 at Buffalo's Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St., Buffalo, with Sally Potter's 1992 award-winning film "Orlando," starring Tilda Swinton.

The festival will screen films at the Market Arcade every Thursday at 7 p.m. through March 31, with the exception of March 17, when UB will be on spring break.

Additional screenings will be held at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Ave., and Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resource, 712 Main St., Buffalo. See schedule below.

Ticket prices are $9 for adults; $6 for students with ID, seniors, Hallwalls and Squeaky Wheel members.

In addition to the UB Gender Institute, festival sponsors are the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, UB Law School; the UB College of Arts & Sciences and its Canadian-American Studies Committee; the Government of Canada; Global Lens (a series of the Global Film Initiative); The UB Humanities Institute; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, and Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resource.

Festival programmer Ruth Goldman, adjunct professor of media study at UB, says, "This is a unique chance for the university and Greater Buffalo communities to come together to see and discuss films not usually available to mainstream audiences.

"Despite women's tremendous creativity, talent, perseverance and success in every genre of filmmaking," she says, "they still have trouble getting consistent funding. Our intention is to highlight the depth and breadth that independent women filmmakers bring to the table."

She says, "We have included some animated shorts this year in anticipation of the March 31 screening of "The Toe Tactic," by Emily Hubley, an experimental film that combines live action and narration. Hubley also will teach a master class at UB on April 1. At 8 p.m. that night at Hallwalls, she will screen some of her animated shorts along with a program of films by her parents, the well-known animators Faith and John Hubley."

Program schedule

Thursday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m. Market Arcade

"Orlando" dir: Sally Potter, Great Britain, 1992, narrative, 35mm, 93 min. English. Taking her inspiration from Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking 1928 novel of the same name, Potter's gender-bending film playfully follows a young nobleman, who has been commanded to remain young by Queen Elizabeth I, as he morphs sex and centuries and lives and loves along the way.

"Juggling Gender" dir: Tami Gold, USA, 1992, documentary, DVD, 27 min. English. Also released in 1992, "Juggling Gender" is a loving portrait of Jennifer Miller, a lesbian performer who lives her life with a full beard. Miller works as a performance artist, circus director, a clown and as the "bearded lady" in one of the only remaining sideshows in America.

Saturday, Feb. 19, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 20, 3 p.m.

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center

"!Women Art Revolution" dir: Lynn Hershman Leeson, USA, 2010, documentary, 83 min. English. Through intimate interviews, art, and rarely seen archival film and video footage, the film reveals how the Feminist Art Movement fused free speech and politics into an art that radically transformed the art and culture of our times. Co-sponsored by Hallwalls and the UB Gender Institute.

Thursday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m., Market Arcade

"My Tehran for Sale" dir: Granaz Moussavi, Iran, 2009, narrative, 95 min. Farsi with English subtitles. Shot entirely on location in Tehran, the film tells the story of modern day Iranian young adults struggling for cultural freedom. It brings to the screen never before seen images of modern urban Iran, and reveals how young Iranian people live behind closed doors.

"Feminin, Masculin" dir: Sadaf Foroughi, Iran, 2007, short, 9 min. Farsi with English subtitles. In the male-dominated society of Iran, Farahnaz Shiri, the first female bus driver in Tehran, has made her own little society in her bus.

Thursday, March 3, 7 p.m., Market Arcade

"Entre Nos" (Between Us), dirs: Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza, USA, 2009, narrative, DVD, 80 min. Spanish with English subtitles. The film tells the story of Columbian-born Mariana and her children Gabriel and Andre. They find their world turned upside down when their day laborer husband/father abandons them in New York City. Made as a tribute to filmmaker Mendoza's mother, the film serves as a call for immigration reform.

"Neighbors," dir: Meredith Holch, USA, 2009, animation, 14 min. English. This colorful and captivating frame-by-frame animation was inspired by the invisible wall of fear that prevents undocumented Vermont dairy farm workers from going to the grocery store, to a doctor, or simply outside for a walk.

"Lejos del Mar" ("Far from the Sea"), dir: Josefina Mata, Mexico/USA, 2009, narrative short, 18 min., the film shows us the real and abstract Mexican city Ciudad Juarez, by exploring how a mother's grief drives her to madness after the disappearance of her beloved daughter.

Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m. Squeaky Wheel

"Resistances III," dir: various, North Africa & Middle East, 2006-2009, documentary & experimental shorts, 80 min. This is the third volume of a collection of experimental film and video art from the Middle East and North Africa by the French label Lowave. Featuring nine artists from a variety of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, these intimate, poetic and documentary works are witness to the region's complexity, vitality and diversity of creative energies. Co-sponsored by Squeaky Wheel and the UB Gender Institute.

Thursday, March 10, 7 p.m., Market Arcade

"Grace, Milly, Lucy…Child Soldiers," dir: Raymonde Provencher, Canada, 2010, documentary, DVD, 73 min. Acholi with English subtitles. This film presents the plight of child soldiers in Uganda through the eyes of young girls forced to join the rebel Lord's Resistance Army as soldiers, wives, killers, and mothers. The film focuses on three women who are part of a movement to collectively empower former girl soldiers as well as to educate others and one another about their experiences.

"Robes of War (Robes de guerre)," dir: Michèle Cournoyer, Canada, 2009, short, animation. The film shows how war has invaded a woman's very being. The thirst for justice becomes a thirst for revenge. The woman's body is a weapon, her robes her armor. She who once gave life will deal out death.

"The Delian Mode," dir: Kara Blake, Canada, 2009, short documentary, DVD, 25 min. English. This is a short, experimental documentary revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her groundbreaking electronic sound treatment of the "Doctor Who" theme music.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17– UB Spring Break – no screening

Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m. Market Arcade

"Oxhide" (Niu Pi), dir: Liu Jiayin, China, 2005, narrative, 110 min. Mandarin with English subtitles. Daily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this intimate portrait of a working-class Chinese family. Boldly transforming documentary into fiction, Liu Jiayin cast her parents and herself as fictionalized versions of themselves. With virtually no budget and boundless ingenuity, Liu Jiayin's eye-opening debut, shot when she was 23 years old, consists of twenty-three static, one-scene shots within her family's fifty-square-meter home.

"Flawed," dir: Andrea Dorfman, Canada, 2010, animation, 12 min, English.

This animation is a charming film about a budding romance that forces to the surface some serious issues: the ability to appreciate our physical "flaws" as part of our unique individualities.

Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m., Market Arcade, with guest filmmaker Emily Hubley

"The Toe Tactic," dir: Emily Hubley, USA, 2008, experimental narrative, 84 min. English. When she finds out her childhood home has been sold, Mona Peek is jarred by delayed grief over her dead father. Her emotional plight is the subject of an esoteric card game played in another dimension by four animated dogs.

"Her Grandmother's Gift," dir: Emily Hubley, USA, 1995, animation, DVD, 4.5 min. English. A grandmother discusses past and present attitudes toward menstruation.

"Witch Madness," dir: Faith Hubley, USA, 1999, animation, 35mm, 8 min. English.

The film traces the violent persecution of women throughout history, climaxing in the frenzy of the European witch hunts of the Renaissance, which resulted in the murder of hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of women.

Friday, April 1, 8 p.m. Hallwalls

Emily Hubley introduces short animated films by her parents, Faith and John Hubley. A rare chance to see these films. Co-sponsored by Hallwalls and the Gender Institute.

For information, visit the institute's website: http://genderin.buffalo.edu/filmfest.php or call 716.645.5200. Film stills are available.

The Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender was established through the University at Buffalo's Office of the Provost in 1997 to promote gender-related research and to enhance gender-inclusive curricula. Through its multidisciplinary programming, the Gender Institute develops the academic interests of faculty, staff, and students at UB and engages community partners in our work.