9th Annual Women of Color Film Festival

In its ninth year, the Women of Color Film Festival showcases a diverse array of innovative short films and videos from sisters of color. It celebrates the distinct perspectives of individuals who are united in giving voice to an underrepresented group.

The curators are proud to highlight women of color as filmmakers, not only in the directorial role, but also in less visible but equally crucial positions as writers, cinematographers, and producers.

From the power of media manipulation in the animated world of teenage girls in Oakland to the poignant reunion between a father and his daughters on the streets of Tokyo to the remarkable love between a married couple during the 1921 Tulsa race riots, each filmmaker delivers a universal yet deeply individual slice of life.

- Linda Charmaraman, curator


Saturday March 13

6:30 The Liberation of Everyday Life
The journey to find one's purpose and confront its consequences is magnified and electrified in tonight's array of shorts. Film subjects include an idealistic woman who loses tolerance for her banal corporate existence in The Liberation of Everyday Life (Juli Kang), an attempt to listen between the lines of the late June Jordan's poems of resistance in the experimental California Telephone (Haruko Tanaka), and the double-edged sword of leaving an abusive marriage in Against My Will (Ayfer Ergun, Pakistan 2000).

Also included: Passing (Karen Earl, Canada, 7 mins); Barely Audible (Chinaka Hodge, Vivian Wenli LIn, Katherine Copeland, Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, 2002, 3 mins); War on Iraq: Casualties of American Empire (Regan Kruse, Bianca Darville, Monica Galindo Heim, Cristina Lee, Tim Tsai, 20 mins) Total running time: 100 mins plus discussion

9:00 Ways of Love

This collection of shorts illuminates love in its many expressions. Wenhwa Ts'ao's lyrical Exercise with Chin Yung (8 mins) depicts the filmmaker's struggles as the daughter of an old-fashioned Chinese father. Ohm-Ma (Ruthann Lee, 2002, 5.5 mins) is an intimate video- letter by a queer artist. The filmmaker's affection for her subjects is evident in the beautiful documentary Love in an Elevator (Thea St. Omer, 2002, 17 mins, B&W, 16mm), a love story of a couple in their eighties.

Also screening: Exercise with Chin Yung (Wenhwa Ts'ao, 8 mins); Bessie's Blues (Marsha Battee, 8 mins), One Week Wake (Tammy Apana, 2001). Total running time: 95 mins plus discussion

Filmmaker discussion will follow each program.