FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| FILM herland The word on the street is that herland, Calgary's 9th Annual Feminist Film Festival and Video Celebration, is going to be the best little film and video festival to hit Calgary this year. The excitement and commitment of Michelle Wong and Kelly Langaard, two volunteer organizers of the festival, confirms this. Both Kelly and Michelle began their relationship with the festival after having their works shown in previous years. Since then, they've worked hard to broaden and share their experience with other women in the Calgary community. "The most exciting thing about herland is that it's local, it's here in Calgary," Kelly says. "Apart from the $100 film festival there are no other festivals like it. In Canada, herland is the longest running women's film and video festival around. It's the one place where women can show their work." Four programming committees view the submission, then come to a consensus on the themes of the festival. "The programming process is a lot more organic than people realize," Michelle adds. "The themes grew out of the work that was submitted." "It means that the artists are determining what's important, rather than us as festival administrators saying, 'This is what we want,'" Kelly points out. That approach results in a wide range of works, from low budget produced by entry-level participants, to big budget with high production values. "This is because representation and diversity are really important to us. For us, choosing films is about creating the space for as many kinds of work to go in as possible. We're looking at stories and the beat of it, the soul of it." says Michelle. "If you just picked all the obvious good-looking stuff, then you would just have a mainstream festival that you could see anywhere. We show stuff that may not get into any other festivals." "That's where we are a feminist festival and that's where our politics come in - in wanting to represent not just technically good stuff, but concentrating also on the importance of content," Kelly adds. The festival's alternative focus is reflected by the inclusion of lesbian celebration night, and programming for Aboriginal women and women of color. "There is this political aspect of our festival that's different than just the popular, easy to see identifiable films," Michelle explains. However, the political aspect may intimidate people who still think feminism is a dirty word. Michelle remembers an encounter she had when passing out program guides with a guy who said "Whoa, feminists!" She suggested that instead of just taking one definition of what feminism means, he should check out the festival and get a wider view. "Don't be scared or intimidated by the work. It's there and it's sending out the redefinition and the changing meaning of feminism." She wants people to see a women's festival as celebration rather than competition. "Hockey night at the bar is about getting together as a group of guys and having an experience together. In terms of herland, it has to do with getting together and celebrating the space that we create together as women." If there is one all-encompassing theme for this year's herland, it's celebration. Kelly feels the programming in this year's festival is extremely strong and recommends "My Feminism," a documentary by Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cardona, as the must-see quintessential piece of the festival. Michelle singles out "Stolen Moments," a piece that will be shown on lesbian celebration night, as another important film. "Margaret Wescott went around North America and documented lesbian herstory. It took 10 years to bring it to fruition and it's a feature-length, 90-minute film." This year's herland festival has grown in scope from earlier versions, including a new workshopping aspect. Kelly credits the funding received from the Canada Council for giving it stability and enabling organizers to think ahead. "We're running three workshops trying to get women in the community involved. We're not just supporting artists by screening their work and getting it shown, but by giving them the skills to distribute their work." One is a distribution workshop and one is an introduction to production. Dana Claxton, an Aboriginal woman from Vancouver, will speak about how to get started. Michelle points out that even producers of big, glossy films had to start somewhere. "There's a lot of experimental pieces in the festival and people may say, 'Gee, there's a lot of stuff here I don't understand... I'm not having a catharsis, this isn't worth it.' But people will walk out of the theatre and years later they'll say, 'I saw a film that I didn't understand.' It will affect them. They won't be talking about Titanic or Terminator 2." |