11am (inter)NATIONAL COMMODITIES
Screening & Panel Discussion
Co-sponsored by GABRIELA Network and INCITE! Chicago
From comfort women to the roots of the US invasion of Afghanistan, women
and girls are casualties on the global landscape. Members of the panel
will discuss transnational adoption, particularly of girls; the federal
export of Filipina women in service to America as a debt relief strategy;
women in developing countries; the American woman as a commodity; and
"the other woman" in the subjective definition of woman. Discussion
will follow screening.
Parai 
Leena Manimekalhi India beta 46'
A poignant documentary about lower caste women in a rural Indian village.
Their stories of rape, torture, constant harassment and abandonment is
based in their relationship to higher castes, men of their caste and their
children.
Something Between Her Hands
Sonya Shah Cambodia/Chicago beta 39'
Within a refreshing international and historical context, Shah tells the
story of several woman sold into sexual slavery in South East Asia. Unsatisfied
displaying the subjects of this documentary as victims, she demonstrates
the roots of the problem and looks at programs in Cambodia that help women
who get out of the situations they've been forced into.
Panelists:
Christina Perez, Moderator
Professor of Sociology
Leena Manimekalhi
Filmmaker
Kristin Milikan
Chicago INCITE!
Lani Montreal
GABRIELA Network
Santita Jackson
Executive Producer, "UpFront with Jesse Jackson," activist
2pm YOUNG & RESTLESS
Hlavni Nadrazi (Main Station)
Laura Horak Hungary/US beta 8'
The revenge of youths on bitter adults can be so sweet.
Share Our World
Ramalah Yusufzai beta 14'
An enthusiastic documentary about a group of diverse Muslim youth living
in New York City.
Fire & Hope
Shannon Walsh Canada/South Africa beta 16'
Youth activists talk about safe sex and attitudes towards AIDS in S. Africa,
with an excellent hip-hop soundtrack.
Burza (The Storm)
Suzanne Allee Poland beta 12'
A foreboding and quiet narrative reminiscent of Kieslowski. A precocious
schoolgirl, a young mother, a bored hearing impaired boy and others converge
in a marketplace on a day when the sky is threatening and the end is sudden
and surprising.
Daughters of Abraham
Hilla Medalia Israel/Palestine beta 45'
It was a shocking event: a Palestinian girl detonated the explosives strapped
to her chest, killing herself, a security guard, and an Israeli girl who
was returning home from the market. This stunning work takes a careful,
unflinching look at the families of both girls, revealing radically different
opinions of the same event and examining their lives in light of the ongoing
Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
4pm PRISON LULLABIES:
Screening & Discussion
Co-sponsored by Beyond Media
Lina
Matta & Odile Isralson beta 83'
Following five women who were incarcerated on drug charges while they
were pregnant, Prison Lullabies shows the struggles and triumphs
of these women who are part of a unique program that allows their children
to stay with them while they are toddlers. The documentary goes beyond
their release to accompany the women as they work to fit back in the world
outside of prison walls with children who have become estranged to them,
families who have lost and regained trust in them, and partners who range
from extremely supportive to absent. Not content to display only a shiny
happy success story, makers Matta and Isralson document the very human
joys and sorrows that these women experience with an objective frankness
that is at turns gut wrenching and exhilarating.
Screening & Discussion led by Joanne Archibald,
CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers) Advocacy Director
and former prisoner.
6pm RADICAL HARMONIES
Dee Mosbacher beta 90'
An amazing and moving documentary about the birth of music created for
and by women, collectively called women's music. The film charts the determined
beginning steps, music arising from the peace, women's liberation, and
specifically lesbian movements of the sixties and seventies, when women
were told that lesbians were an undesirable nightclub clientele and that
there weren't enough talented female folk singers to include even one
in a local folk festival, to the exuberant contemporary MI Women's Music
Festival with clips of the Butchies and Bitch and Animal. The film features
archive materials about the first women's production and recording companies,
rock bands, and explorations of diversity -- racial, sexual, and differently-abled.
Screening with:
-2.20
Billy Roisz Germany beta 4'
Abstract image and sound combine to draw the viewer into a space of pure
light, line and acceleration.
8pm DYKE NIGHT
Co-sponsored by dykediva.com
LezBeFriends
Lisa Hayes Canada 16mm 13'
They were always best friends, but now a filmmaker has to deal with her
compañera and roommate's coming out in this comical tale we can
all relate to.
firepussy
Laurel Almerinda 35mm on DVD 19'
A troubled woman meets a beautiful stranger who helps her come to terms
with her past.
Isn't It Obvious?
Shelly Prevost beta 9'
A documentary of the services and demonstrations following the murder
of a trans youth, Gwen.
D.E.B.S.
Angela Robinson & Power UP beta 11'
The SATs are secretly measuring girl intelligence, and the best of the
best become DEBS (secret agents!) in this queer spoof of Charlie's
Angels.
Lucille
Enid Baxter Blader 16mm on miniDV 2'
A hot chick and the dirty hog that loves her.
What's in a Name?
Hallie Bourne beta 13'
This succinct documentary follows a lesbian couple in Ohio through what
is under normal circumstances a routine procedure: a legal name change.
But what ensues is far from normal.
Passing
Karen Earl Canada beta 7'
The pleasures and dangers of changing lanes and gender roles.
Butch Mystique
Debra Wilson beta 35'
A varied group of African American women consider what it means to be
butch.
10pm CRYING & WANKING
I'm Thursdays
Helena Smith beta 17'
Older men gather to toast a common lover who still holds their affections
- in the home of her widower.
Crying & Wanking
Alys Hawkins UK beta 6'
Lost love is the subject of this dreary and bitterly humorous animated
tale.
Un Amor Sin la Vida
Subina Shresta Nepal beta 17'
A woman wanders the streets of Katmandu reminiscing on her melancholy
Argentine lover and her loathing of life. Lust, loss and letting go.
To the Happy Few
Stella Friedrichs Germany 16mm 4'
Asha Bosle supplies the soundtrack to this contemplation on the world
and "where do we go from here?"
Spin
Eun Hee Cho Chicago/Korea 16mm 11'
Blending the metaphors of cocoon and chrysalis, a spider keeps watch over
her prey in a refrigerator, unravelling him and slowly taking on his nature
until a complete transformation has occurred.
Ent.Homo.Philia
Hima B. beta 10'
A Kafka-esque exploration of lesbian sex and power relationships through
the scientific lens of an entomologist. If William Burroughs had been
a lesbian
Psalm 51
Kris Barberg miniDV 3'
Reminiscent of Maya Deren, this beautiful black & white silent film
expresses through dance the prayer of Psalm 51: a request for alleviation
of personal pain brought about by sin.
The Knowledge
Stef Penney UK beta 11'
Two voice artists share a passionate exchange in a sound studio and decide
that they will have sex once and one time only. To get it right, they
engage in phone conversations to discuss their likes and dislikes. But
how will it come to an end, so to speak?
Parthenogenesis
Marina Zurkow beta 1:30'
Love, loss and rebirth in a cartoon test tube world
Cupboard Love
Emma Farrell UK beta 12'
An obnoxious college student terrorizes her shy, Nutella-loving housemate
in a dark version of the underdog-versus-the-popular-girl trope.
