SF International Women's Film Festival Call For Entries (Early Deadline: 8/31)

San Francisco International Women's Film Festival 2011 Call for Entries Early Deadline is now approaching!

“We’re open to professional and emerging filmmakers of narrative, documentary, music video, animation, and experimental works,” says festival founder Scarlett Shepard. “The only constant is that submissions must be directed or co–directed by women.”

SFWFF will be accepting online entries submitted via Withoutabox.com global filmmaker community. Their internet-only submission platform uses one master entry form and is an economical, eco-friendly, and secure alternative to traditional hard-copy DVD submissions: https://www.withoutabox.com/login/4231

The early deadline for submission is August 31, 2010. Entry fee: $20. Any questions regarding submissions can be emailed to: sfwomensfilmfestival@gmail.com or call (415) 754-3456.

Founded in 2004, the SFWFF celebrates the achievements of women working behind the camera and raises awareness about the need for more opportunities for female filmmakers: http://www.sfwff.org

About the Women’s Film Institute (WFI):
'Amplifying the Voices of Women and Girls through Film + New Media'
WFI is the presenter of the annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (April 6-l0, 2011), WFI Shorts Tour, and year-round educational programs and events. WFI is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media. Independent Arts & Media is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to expand civic dialogue by increasing access to independent voices: http://artsandmedia.net

Check out SF Weekly Photo Booth Pics from GHMAP Benefit

The Women's Film Institute (WFI) held a night of fun and networking to raise funds for Generation HERstory Media Arts Project initiative (GHMAP) with special guest Jan Wahl (Photograph: Left, Jan Wahl. Right, Scarlett Shepard, Executive Director of WFI). GHMAP identifies and fosters the next generation of media-makers and broadens public access to arts enrichment by providing free hands-on filmmaking training and mentoring for diverse low-income and at-risk young women (ages 12-19) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Young women are given the tools to create short films and public-service announcements that authentically reflect their voices.

Check out SF Weekly Photo Booth Pics:
http://www.sfweekly.com/slideshow/generation-herstory-media-arts-project-2081788

About WFI:
WFI's mission is to honor, showcase, and facilitate the creation of films that are directed or co-directed by women. WFI is the presenter of the annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (SFWFF), WFI Shorts Tour, Generation HERstory Media Arts Project, and year-round educational programs and events. WFI is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media. Independent Arts & Media is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to expand civic dialogue by increasing access to independent voices. Independent Arts & Media is dedicated to producing and promoting independent media and supporting and serving independent artists and media producers: http://www.sfwff.com, http://artsandmedia.net

Join WFI and Jan Wahl to benefit Generation HERstory Media Arts Project

San Francisco based Women's Film Institute is holding a night of fun and networking to raise funds for our Generation HERstory Media Arts Project initiative (GHMAP).

GHMAP identifies and fosters the next generation of media-makers and broadens public access to arts enrichment by providing free hands-on filmmaking training and mentoring for diverse low-income and at-risk young women (ages 12-19) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Young women are given the tools to create short films and public-service announcements that authentically reflect their voices. Films created in GHMAP will premiere at the 7th Annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (April 2011).

All proceeds from the event will go toward providing scholarships for up to 8 young women to enroll in GHMAP free of charge for the Fall session beginning in September.

Stop by for a drink, to learn more about the Women's Film Institute and Generation Herstory, and participate in our silent auction:

Location: Tonic Bar, 2360 Polk Street (at Union) San Francisco (21 + with Valid ID): http://www.tonic-bar.com

Time: 6-9pm

Date: Thursday, August 12th

• We'll be behind the bar mixin and fixin up drinks for the crowd (No host bar). All tips made during the evening will be donated to Generation HERstory.

• 6-7pm is happy hour-- all drinks are two for one!

• Silent Auction. Bid on some great film-centric and lifestyle items!

To RSVP: http://tiny.cc/wfi0812

We hope you will celebrate with us! Please RSVP, as space is limited.

WFI Benefit is co-presented by SF Weekly:
http://www.sfweekly.com/

About the Women’s Film Institute (WFI):
WFI is the presenter of the annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (SFWFF), WFI Shorts Tour, and year-round educational programs and events. WFI is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media. Independent Arts & Media is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to expand civic dialogue by increasing access to independent voices. Independent Arts & Media is dedicated to producing and promoting independent media and supporting and serving independent artists and media producers. Visit us: http://www.sfwff.org, http://artsandmedia.net

SFWFF 2011 Call For Entries Is Open!

The Women’s Film Institute announces its call for film and video entries in all lengths and genres for the 7th annual San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival (SFWFF). The festival will take place April 4-10, 2011.

“We’re open to professional and amateur filmmakers of narrative, documentary, music video, animation, and experimental works,” says festival founder Scarlett Shepard. “The only constant is that submissions must be directed or co–directed by women.”

SFWFF will be accepting online entries submitted via Withoutabox.com global filmmaker community (Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2010). Their internet-only submission platform uses one master entry form and is an economical, eco-friendly, and secure alternative to traditional hard-copy DVD submissions:
https://www.withoutabox.com/login/4231

“The festival is a powerful and vital forum that brings the voices of women to a wider audience, as well as celebrating their achievements in the world of cinema,” notes Shepard.

Founded in 2004, the SFWFF celebrates the achievements of women working behind the camera and raises awareness about the need for more opportunities for female filmmakers: http://www.sfwff.org

About the Women’s Film Institute (WFI):
WFI is the presenter of the annual San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (SFWFF), WFI Shorts Tour, and year-round educational programs and events. WFI aims to bring the highest quality films to the community. WFI is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media. Independent Arts & Media is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to expand civic dialogue by increasing access to independent voices. Independent Arts & Media is dedicated to producing and promoting independent media and supporting and serving independent artists and media producers: http://artsandmedia.net

Coming soon to SF Jewish Film Festival: You Won't Miss Me by Ry Russo-Young

San Francisco International Women's Film Festival is proud to co-present the following film at this year's San Francisco Jewish Film Festival:

You Won't Miss Me (2009 | USA | Color and Black & White | 81 min) Directed by Ry Russo-Young

Loner, dissenter, flirt, enemy, lover, that's Shelly Brown, and 23-year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. She's back in New York City seeking solace and affirmation but finding little of either.

Balancing order and abstraction, verite and high theatricality, Russo-Young applies a daring and emotionally honest style to the material reminiscent of indie filmmaking pioneers John Cassavetes and Agnes Varda.

Date: Sat, July 24, 2010 at 10:15 p.m.

Admission: $12.00 (General ), $10.50 (Senior discount)

Location: Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA

For more information and to purchase tickets:

http://www.sfjff.org/film/detail?id=5093

Coming Soon: 30th Annual SF Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Women's Film Festival (SFWFF) is proud to be a community partner at this year's San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

SFWFF co-presents a film screening of Grace Paley: Collected Shorts directed by Lily Rivlin

Lily Rivlin's (Gimme a Kiss, SFJFF 2002) intimate documentary is rich, inspiring portrait of Jewish writer and activist Grace Paley, who passed away in 2007. Paley's acclaimed first short story collection, The Little Disturbances of Man, established her reputations with its brilliantly sad and funny chronicles of Jewish American urban females much like herself.

Paley's New York tales, filled with an emotional and sexual frankness especially bold at the tail end of the frightened 1950's, soon became classics of the short fiction form. Not content to rest on her laurels, however, Paley combined her evolving literary career with passionate pursuit of her political concerns through the 1960's, 70's and 80's.

"Art is too long and life is too short," wrote the outspoken Paley, "There's a lot more to do in life than writing."Indeed she spent the rest of her life on the front lines of the anti-war and women's movements, where she endured being arrested time and time again.

Rivlin's film confidently juggles all aspects of Paley's extraordinary story, told in candid recollections and passionate reading by Paley herself, along with fond remembrances by literary critics, family and writer-friends Alan Gurganas and Alice Walker.

Throughout, Grace Paley: Collected Shorts casts and important and penetrating light on a brilliant and highly principled woman who consistently reinvented her life and art.- Thomas Logoreci

Location: Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010

Time: 11:00 a.m.

Admission: $12.00 (regular), $10.50 (Senior discount)

For more information and to purchase tickets:
http://www.sfjff.org/film/detail?id=4871

New Podcasts: Interviews with Joan Braderman director of Heretics & LA Film Grant with Carole Dean

We are excited to relaunch our podcast that highlights notable women in the world of cinema.

Interview with Carole Dean

In this podcast interview, Lindsay Castillo talks with Carole Dean. In 1992 Carole Dean created the Roy W. Dean Grant Foundation in honor of her late father. To date Carole’s grant and mentor-ship programs have provided filmmakers with millions of dollars in goods and services and have played an instrumental role in establishing the careers of some of the industry’s most promising filmmakers. Learn more about Carole Dean and how to apply for the LA Film Grant (Due June 30, 2010).

Listen to podcast interview:

http://www.sfwff.com/podcast

Interview with Joan Braderman

In this podcast interview, Scarlett Shepard, Executive Director of the Women's Film Institute, talks with Joan Braderman about her latest documentary film 'Heretics.'

Braderman traces the influence of the Women’s Movement’s Second Wave on art and life, The Heretics is the exhilarating inside story of the New York feminist art collective that produced “Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics”.

In this feature-length documentary, cutting-edge video artist/writer/director Joan Braderman, who joined the group in 1971 as an aspiring filmmaker, charts the collective’s challenges to terms of gender and power and its history as a microcosm of the period’s broader transformations.

On the road with her camera crew from New Mexico to Italy, Braderman reconnects with 28 other group members. Still funny, smart and sexy, the geographically dispersed participants revisit how and why they came together and the extraordinary times they shared—supporting and exploring women’s art and demanding the right to be heard.

Listen to podcast interview:

http://www.sfwff.com/podcast