Canadian University Press Releases/Newswire

Source: St. Francis Xavier University
http://www.stfx.ca/media/2006-11-02.htm#reellife

Reel Life: StFX Welcomes 2006 Women's Film Festival

November 3, 2006

ANTIGONISH, NS - A series of edgy, independent films shot through a feminist lens will be showcased during the 2006 Women's Film Festival at StFX, which will run Nov.8 to10.

Festival coordinator and women's studies professor Nancy Forestell says the festival will present a collection of women's stories featuring more realistic subject matter than what mainstream movie-goers are typically exposed to.

"These films depict real life, which is not always pretty," Forestell says. "But that's reality, and the experiences they portray are the kinds of things people can actually relate to."

This is especially true for women, she adds, as popular movies tend to present females in a way that is largely unrealistic.

It's something the festival's featured filmmaker, Andrea Dorfman, has been tackling head-on since the mid-1990s. After graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Dorfman became a one-woman show - writing, directing, shooting and editing several experimental short films through the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-op.

But it was her 1998 short film Swerve, that earned Dorfman international attention; a lesbian road trip movie that explored an all-female love triangle, it marked her official debut as a dramatic short filmmaker, and became of one of the first Atlantic-based films to redirect the characterization of women on the big screen.

Her follow-up effort, Parsley Days, went on to premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Dorfman is now regarded as one of Canada's most promising cinematographers. She will discuss her filmmaking experiences on Nov.9.

The work of other trailblazers in the world of feminist film will be featured throughout the festival, and include Martha Rosler, Glenda León, Tracey Deer, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby. Their films will be shown at Nicholson Hall and curated by Dr. Susan Lord, an associate professor in film studies from Queen's University.