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WOMEN IN FILM AND TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL
presents the first
SHORT FILM SHOWCASE
In celebration of International Women's Day
The Showcase celebrates the filmmaking talents of women worldwide, highlighting the strength of our extraordinary global network while HONORING each Chapter's distinct identity. As the house lights go down on all March 8, 2006, screenings across the WIFTI network, we'll sit back in style to pay tribute to our craft, listen to our narratives, and travel the world fantastic!
As announced to the worldwide membership along with a call submission in June 2005, the film selections in the WIFTI Short Film Showcase were chosen by WIFTI's International Board at the LA Summit from final selections comprised in the NYWIFT/Hamptons International Film Festival's to the Point: Women Telling Tales through Media and the WOW Festival Australia. WIFTI is grateful to both of these distinguished partners for their invaluable collaboration and assistance with this inaugural edition.
ATLANTA SHOWCASE
WIFTA cordially invites all WIFTA members AND non-members to the 1st annual 2006 WIFT International Short Film Showcase, an international event showcasing some of the world's most exciting Female Filmmakers.
The event, scheduled to take place in a number of locations around the world on Women's Day, (March 8, 2006), will screen various local and international short films, and aims to celebrate, promote and advance the filmmaking talents of women globally.
18 Women in Film chapters are participating worldwide including: Alberta, Atlanta, Australia, Dallas, Washington DC, Jamaica, Montreal, New England, New Mexico, New Zealand, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.
"The goal was to hold a simultaneous worldwide one-day screening event on International Women's Day," says event coordinator Sherry Richardson. "This exciting event connects women filmmakers and audiences from all over the world by paying tribute to our unique voices. We are not only viewing narratives, but we have the opportunity to applaud the accomplishments of women who are living their dream."
Special Guest Speaker is Rita Owens, publisher of Atlanta Woman Magazine
WEDNESDAY MARCH 8, 2006
Regal Cinemas Stadium 16 at Atlantic Station
261 19th Street NW
Atlanta, Georgia
404-347-9894
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Cocktail reception to follow at FOX Sports Grill with a special performance from musical artist Kitty Sias!
Tickets
$20 for General Public [purchase now]
$10 for WIFTA members [purchase now]
No tickets will be mailed, your reservation will be held at the door. You may pay at the door, but you must RSVP.
Seating is limited. RSVP to Sherry Richardson at wifti@wifta.org or 770-621-5071.
Proceeds from this event will be shared by WIFTA and WIFTI (www.wifti.org) non-profit organizations.
Sponsorship opportunities still available! Contact Sherry Richardson at wifti@wifta.org.
Promote your business and show your support for WIFTA by placing an ad in our program book. Full page ads are only $100! To place an ad in our program book, download the ad info.
SHOWCASE FILMS
THE MEMORY OF HISTORY
5 minutes - DRAMA
Producers: Micah Stansell, Parker Davidson, and Charity Harvey
Director: Micah Stansell and Parker Davidson - USA, Atlanta, GA
Film Synopsis
With a nod toward the French New Wave Cinema, this film explores history, memory, and image as a personal history is remembered through five found photographs.
Charity Harvey's Bio
As long as she can remember, two things have been important to Charity Harvey—music and photography. Charity Harvey, hailing from Dothan, Alabama, is obsessed with art. She's involved in several local improv jazz bands, and makes her living as a professional photographer and assistant. Art is Charity's obsession. However her two main loves of music and photography don't easily flow into each other. That is, until Charity discovered the world of filmmaking while starring in this, her film debut. The newfound medium of film allows a fusion of her favorite forms of art. Charity hopes to continue this journey into filmmaking well beyond acting. "I want to create beautiful things for people to see," Charity says.
MOUSTACHE
13 minutes - COMEDY
Director: Vicki Sugars - AUSTRALIA
Film Synopsis
Sometimes, it doesn't pay to change your true self for the person you love.
Director Bio
Vicki Sugars has worked as an assistant director for a number of years. In 2004 she was the associate producer on the feature film LOOK BOTH WAYS. MOUSTACHE is her first film as a director and writer. She is currently producing a 5 minute claymation on plastic surgery and in pre-production on her second film PAST MIDNIGHT, a half-hour drama on psychological violence. She has a feature film in development, about a writer struggling to write her first feature. Vicki has yet to decide if it's comedy or tragedy!
Best Foreign Film: Créteil International Film Festival, France 2005
Audience Award Winner, Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA 2005
Best Film Audience Award, Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, Brazil 2005
Official Selection Venice Film Festival, 2004
HERREN'S: A SWEET SOUTHERN SPIRIT
26 minutes - DOCUMENTARY
Director: Suzan Satterfield - USA, Atlanta, GA
Film Synopsis
"Herren's: A Sweet Southern Spirit" is a journey through downtown Atlanta through the eyes of those whose lives were forever changed by their experience at Herren's Restaurant. It's a story of fellowship and racism, of prosperity and depression, of overcoming and rejuvenation—and of course, of food.
Director Bio
Suzan Satterfield is a Managing Partner of Picture Window Productions, LLC., and cofounder of SaltRun Productions, Inc., along with her husband and partner, Allen Facemire. Picture Window Productions creates and produces television series, and is currently in production on the 10th season of "Ground Breakers" for HGTV and a new series, "Fresh From the Orchard," for the Do It Yourself network. SaltRun Productions, Inc. has produced numerous documentaries, television specials and segments, as well as the series "The Natural South" for Turner South. SaltRun Productions is proud to bring the story of "Herren's: A Sweet Southern Spirit" to the screen.
WANNA BE
12 minutes - MOCKUMENTARY
Director: Shani Harris Peterson - USA, East Point, Georgia
Film Synopsis
This biting mockumentary follows Tat, an awkward suburban teen who puts it all on the line to pursue her life-long dream of being a video vixen.
Writer/Director Bio
A filmmaker and psychologist, Shani Harris Peterson joyfully bridges her passions to create thoughtful, entertaining social commentaries that are equally intimate and universal. She maintains a full schedule that includes screening her latest short film, Wanna Be; serving as the film and video coordinator for TreshaONE Media; and promoting her latest feature-length screenplay. In addition, Shani researchers strategies to incorporate applied media into health interventions, and recently developed an interactive DVD-ROM around issues of sexual risk-taking for adolescent girls.
Screenings
Atlanta Urban Mediamakers Film Festival (October 2005)
African American Short Film, National TV Broadcast, (Jan-Mar 2006)
Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles (February 2006)
Hayti Heritage Centers' Black Diaspora Film Festival, Durham, NC (February 2006)
Santa Barbara African Heritage Film Series (March 2006)
Reel Sisters Film Festival, New York (March 2006)
Atlanta Hip Hop Film Festival (April 2006)
A PLACE TO CALL HOME
23 minutes - DOCUMENTARY
Director: Polina Yemelyanova - RUSSIA
Film Synopsis
"A Place to Call Home" is a story of several Russian children that have been adopted by American Families. These kids not only found love and new parents in the U.S.; they were also given a chance to live, a chance so many Russian orphans never get.
Writer/Director Bio
Polina Yemelyanova was born in Russia in a family of a professional journalist. She and her three siblings grew up in Yakutsk—one of the coldest cities in Siberia. After graduating from high school, Polina went on a one-year Rotary Exchange Program to Oregon, USA. She then stayed at a community college there to study journalism. In 2002 Polina received a Georgia Rotary Student Program scholarship and moved to Augusta. Before receiving her bachelor's degree in 2004, Polina was offered a job as an associate producer at WAGT News Channel 26 in Augusta. A year later, she became producer at WRDW News Channel 12 in North Augusta, SC. Polina moved to Moscow in 2005 and is currently working for her country's first 24-hour English-language news channel "Russia Today."
HOO HOO - LOSING HER TONGUE
8 minutes - DOCUMENTARY
Director: Sandra M. Yee - USA, Smyrna, Georgia
Film Synopsis
In this short documentary, a Chinese American granddaughter reaches across the gaps of generation, culture and language to commemorate the domestic rituals of her immigrant grandmother.
Writer/Director Bio
Born to a long line of Chinese peasants in Phoenix, Arizona, Sandra Yee grew up a stellar honor student. She confounded her family when she chose to major in art at the University of Arizona and, upon graduation, abandoned art, and began working her way around the world. Her family wondered from where she had inherited her wanderlust, as her ancestors had taken such great pains to leave (or escape) China and instill the values of security, safety, sparing-ness, and self-denial in their offspring. But off she went to Western Europe, then China, then Southeast Asia, then the Middle East, collecting tales of language barriers, financial woes, post-youth crises, career disappointments, sexual harassment, and betrayals of intimacy that she surely could have experienced all at home in the air-conditioned comforts of Phoenix, AZ, USA.
HAND SUM
8min, 3 secs - EXPERIMENTAL
Director: Eva Colmers - Canada
Film Synopsis
Miro moves through life without much conviction until a magical incident prompts an escape from the routine of her daily life. Miro climbs onto a cloud, listens to the birds and has an adventure. Shot as stunning shadow projection and rich in images, HAND SUM is driven by a compelling rhythm. Miro is the allegorical "everyone", searching for the meaning of life.
Director Bio
Many years ago, Eva Colmers traveled to the islands of Java and Bali and fell in love with shadow theatre. In Hand Sum, she tries to incorporate some of the wayang kulit elements into her screen work. Eva has created a variety of film work, which includes short films, film scripts, a documentary with the National Film Board of Canada and a PSA. Her work has been seen at national and international festivals as well as on television. Eva is also very active in her film and theatre community. She loves photography and likes to travel.
REPLACING DELPHINE
10 minutes - DRAMA
Director: Kasia Kowalczyk - USA, Atlanta, Georgia
Film Synopsis
Twenty-five years after losing his daughter in a house fire, Professor Paroux begins to lose his way in this haunting fairytale about love, loss, and taxidermy.
Director Bio
Kasia Kowalczyk was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1977. As a little girl she dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but upon meeting actor Tal Harris, she was drawn into filmmaking. In 2001, Kasia and Tal made their first films The Wedding Night and Seeing Clearly. After forming Tal Kasia Productions in 2002, they made the silent fairytale Replacing Delphine (2004), featuring music by Paul Mercer. Currently, Kasia is promoting her newest short The Bread Squeezer (2006), which explores an orphan's growing addiction to squeezing bread. This project was one of the five finalists for the 2004 Southeastern Media Award.
2004 Atlanta Film Festival
2004 Atlanta Film Festival "Best of the Fest"
2004 Rhode Island International Film Festival
2004 International Festival for Cinema of the Deaf
2004 IFP/LA Cinema Lounge
2005 RiverRun International Film Festival
2005 Ms Film Festival
2005 International Festival for Cinema & Technology
WASP
23 minutes - DRAMA
Director: Andrea Arnold - United Kingdom
Film Synopsis
When 23-year-old single mum Zoe gets asked out on a date, she lies about having four kids and leaves them outside the pub.
Director Bio
Currently editing feature RED ROAD for project ADVANCE PARTY produced by ZENTROPA (Denmark) and SIGMA (UK) and originated by Lars Von Trier. ADVANCE PARTY involves three filmmakers writing a separate feature film using the same nine characters. RED ROAD was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters lab in 2005 and is due for release in 2006. Made 3 shorts. WASP has won 37 International Festival Awards including the Academy Award 2005. DOG won The Jameson Award (UK) and screened at Cannes (Critics Week) in 2002. MILK was also selected for competition in Cannes (Critics Week) in 1998.
WASP's 37 International Awards in 2004–2005 include:
ACADEMY AWARD LIVE ACTION SHORT
JURY AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL FILM MAKING - Sundance International Film Festival
GRAND PRIX THE GOLDEN DRAGON - Cracow 44th International Short Film Festival, Poland
BEST LIVE ACTION FICTION FILM - Worldwide Short Film Festival Toronto, Canada
BEST OF FESTIVAL - Palm Springs International Short Film Festival USA
BEST SHORT FILM - Stockholm International Film Festival Sweden
SHARING OUR SOULS
1 minute - EXPERIMENTAL
Art Director: Raquel Asturias - USA, Norcross, Georgia
Film Synopsis
The project is an experiment in which 11 artists sat around a nude model and sketched 3 poses. The drawings were animated and put together in a collage where women, with different faces, dance to the rhythm of the music. Shorts phrases allow the connection between the drawings and their authors' state of mind.
Director Bio
Raquel Asturias is a Computer Graphics Animator from Quatemala City who has been living in Atlanta for about ten years. She graduated from Graphic Design in Guatemala in the early Nineties and worked for the fashion industry making illustration, merchandizing display and decoration store windows. She joined the Graphic Design Team of LAPTV in 2001 where she does TV graphics for 4 Movie Channels which are broadcast to all Latin America.
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