Women's Film Festival - Brattleboro Vermont
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| A view of Downtown Brattleboro Photo courtesy Suzanne d'Corsey |
Brattleboro, Vermont holds one of Spring’s premiere events in the tri-state region, the Women’s Film Festival, this year being presented March 12 to March 21 during Women’s History Month. In its nineteenth year, the Women’s Film Festival will screen around 30 cutting-edge documentaries and feature films made mainly by women, highlighting women’s lives around the world, telling women’s stories with drama, wit, and candor.
Shown in three downtown locations just minutes from Brattleboro’s Amtrak station. Special hotel/restaurant/festival package available through the Latchis Hotel (www.latchis.com).
All proceeds go to benefit the Women’s Crisis Center of Windham County.
Film Update
Begging Naked has been removed from the line-up, due to circumstances beyond our control. We are sorry to see this film go. We hope this does not cause any inconvenience for you.
19th Women’s Film Festival March 12-21, 2010
March in Vermont is traditionally mud season, with cold winds, waning cabin fever, and St. Patrick’s and Town Meeting Days. In Brattleboro, it has also come to mean the Women’s Film Festival, when this southern Vermont town hosts a premier event showcasing films made by women about women. Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Women’s Crisis Center, which helps women and children affected by domestic or sexual abuse.
Starting with a special benefit screening of Academy Award-nominated “Precious” on March 5th at the Latchis Theater, then continuing on March 12th and running for ten days through March 21st, Brattleboro becomes headquarters for the finest in cutting-edge, innovative, and informative film-making.
In this, the Festival’s nineteenth year, twenty-five award-winning documentaries and feature films will be presented, hailing from Colombia, Iran, Canada, South Africa, England, the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, and France. Owing to the Festival’s growing reputation, more directors than ever will be present to introduce their films.
The festival opens with “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls,” a New Zealand film about yodeling lesbian country-western singers, called “provocative and disarming.” Other highlights of the festival include “The Beaches of Agnes,” a poignant and cinematically creative memoir by Agnès Varda, short-listed for an Academy Award; the heroic tale of an artist street-survivor, “Begging Naked;” Kim Longinotto’s “Rough Aunties,” a documentary about women in South Africa who work to save children traumatized by sexual abuse and assault, documentary-making at its finest and most inspiring; “The Jazz Baroness,” about filmmaker Hannah Rothschild’s aunt who became the benefactor of Thelonius Monk, narrated by Helen Mirren.
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| Photos of the 2009 Women's Film Festival Click here |
The Festival closes with a one-time screening of “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” an award-winning feature-length documentary directed by Aviva Kempner about the life of Molly Berg, a pioneer in TV comedy, weaving Berg’s personal story with the history of early television and Jewish-American life in the first half of the 20th century.
This is only a small sample of the films lined up for this year’s Festival.
On view at the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery will be another special feature of the Festival—“Visions,” a show of women’s art and craft, with proceeds from the month-long silent auction also going to the Crisis Center. The show opens on Gallery Walk Friday, March 5th.
On Saturday, March 27th, a festive closing party will include the final evening of bidding on the artwork in the “Visions” exhibit and a screening of the film chosen by festival-goers as “the Best of the Fest."
Finally, on Sunday, March 28th, the Women’s Film Festival welcomes Boston's Cappella Clausura: Sacred Music by Women Composers, performing a special benefit concert for the Women's Crisis Center.
