Thank You

To all:

Thank You

The 2011 Women’s Film Festival celebrated its 20th Year in March. We raised just over $15,000 for the Women’s Freedom Center while enlightening and entertaining 2,700 film goers. Our venues, Latchis Theater and New England Youth Theatre were wonderful partners and helped the festival to run smoothly, and we would like to thank Darren Goldsmith, Ned Phoenix, Ben & Jerry Stockman for being responsive to our every need.

We are an entirely volunteer-organized event, and some folks, notably Steering Committee and Film Selection Committees work all year-round to make this festival what it is. We would like to acknowledge all of the volunteers, donors and sponsors, who helped make this our best year yet.
We would like to acknowledge and thank our organizing committees: Steering Committee: Marilyn Buhlmann, Kevin Burke, Gail Haines, Lissa Weinmann; Film Selection Committee: Merry Elder, Liz Hanson, Michele Immler, Donna Faith K-Brooks, Diane Laverdi;Fundraising: Ruth Austin, Marilyn Buhlmann, Lisa Jane Clarke, Robbie Paley; Banner: Siri Peterson; Best-in-Festival Coordinators: Mal Herbert & Nita Harrison; Bookkeeper/Finance/Festival Accounts: Jaki Reis & Marilyn Buhlmann; Data Compilation: Pat Halloran & Jaki Reis; Designer (Website, Program, Flyer & other print media) Kevin Burke of Pawblo, LLC & Lynn Zimmerman of Lucky Dog Design; Pass Design: Harry Saxman; Pass Distribution: Sandy Brodsky; Film Submissions: Kam Adhikary, Marilyn Buhlmann, Gail Haines, Guy Wood; Film Trackers: Gail Haines, Jaki Reis, Beth Spicer; Hospitality: Brenda Davis, Sarah Hagedorn, Lerna, Meg Lyons, Beth McKinney; Receptions: Katherine Barrett, Marilyn Chiarello, Brenda Davis, Jerry Ann Jacobs, Sherri Leining, Linda Moyse, Judith Thomas (chair), Women’s Freedom Center Board; Proofreaders: Gail Haines, Eve Ness, Rochelle Garfinkle; Program Ad Sales: Marilyn Buhlmann, Liz Kenton, Quinn Maguire Cartelli; Public Relations, Publicity, Marketing & Special Events ( Print, Radio, TV and Web Media): Robin Antepara, Mellisa Cain, Arlene Distler, Karen Henry, Nina Karp, Liz Kenton, Diane Laverdi, Louise LeGouis, Paige Martin, Linda Moyse, Michel Moyse, Anne Newsmith, Robbie Paley, Lissa Weinmann (Chair); Volunteer Coordinators (box office): Pat Halloran, Liz Kenton, Leigh Pumilia; Show Volunteers: Hannah Aleshnick, Ellice Amanna, Katherine Barratt, Hollis Carlisle, Craig Divis, Alissa Feller, Moriah Floyd, Eka Gabelia, Emma Gardner, Amanda Graff, Lyn Haas, Gail Haines, Pat Halloran, Liz Kenton, Anna Knecht, Lerna, Louise LeGouis, Sherri Leining, Tiffin Mabry, Sue Madrigan, Paige Martin, David Mischke, Susan Pelis, Jeanette Pfeifer, Pamela Reagan, Jaki, Reis, Beth Spicer, Bonnie Stearns, Kathy Urffer, Shea Witzberger, and Ellen Woodbury.

Special Events speakers & panelists and film directors & subjects: Montana Berg, Charlene & Jeffrey Chapman, Susan Edwards, Cynthia Fujikawa, VT Senator Peter Galbraith, Kate Gillespie, Liz Kenton, Dolores Klaich, Mary Murphy, Robynn Murray, Sara Nesson, Toni Ortner, Robin Rieske of Know Media, Ann Stanton of Union Institute & University, Nancy Storrow, and Meredith Wade.

Many businesses and individuals contribute financially to the festival. Our major sponsors this year were: Platinum Sponsors: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, The Kates Foundation & Latchis Theater/Brattleboro Arts Initiative; Silver Sponsors: Key Bank & Meadowlark Inn; Bronze Sponsor: Brattleboro Savings & Loan; Patrons: Bernstein & Fisk Psychotherapy Associates; Crosby House Bed & Breakfast, Dr. Elizabeth McLarney, Park Place Financial Advisors, Dr. Janet Zinter; Supporters: Brattelboro Area Farmers’ Market, Cheryl Wilfong. A special thank you to Kris McDermet who made a beautiful hooked rug based on the WFF poster of a couple of years ago and donated the proceeds of the sale.

Our community partners this year, who helped in many ways to promote the festival and bring audiences to the movies were: AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, Austine School for the Deaf, Brattleboro Retreat PTSD program personnel, Center for Digital Art, Union Institute & University & the Vermont Commission on Women who sponsored a listening forum where area women could speak out about issues that affect them here in Southern Vermont.
We also are grateful to the businesses that provided goods and services for our receptions, our special events and hospitality services for our visiting filmmakers and directors: Amy’s Bakery Arts Café, Back Side Café, Brattleboro Food Coop, Coffee Country, Elliot Street Café, Experienced Goods, Fireworks Restaurant, Flat Street Brew Pub, Front Porch Café, Grafton Village Cheese Company, Hannaford Supermarket, Landmark College Food Service, Latchis Hotel, Meadowlark Inn, New England House, Ninety Nine Restaurant, North Country Natural, Pepsi Bottling Group, Price Chopper, Putney Diner, Putney Food Coop, The Tavern Restaurant, Thai Bamboo, Three Stones Restaurant, Twilight Tea Lounge, and Vermont Country Deli.

We live in an incredibly generous community! Thank you everyone. We apologize for anyone who we left off this list. And we look forward to having additional volunteers for 2012. Please visit our webite womensfilmfestival.org and click on the volunteer link.

Thank you,
Marilyn Buhlmann & the Women’s Film Festival Steering Committee

Power and Social Norms

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about female soldiers. It touched on issues of power, accountability and how power distorts accountability. I want to follow up with some more comments about power and social norms.

It is no secret that some segments of society have more power than others. Whites, males and the wealthy have more power than do minorities and women.

There are many aspects of power, and a full discussion is obviously beyond the scope of this blog. But one important aspect of power is the ability to create the assumptive framework that undergirds a culture. This is the ability to establish values and priorities, i.e., to say what is of greater or lesser importance and to assign high prestige to some roles and to devalue others.

We often tend to treat this assumptive framework as a given, often forgetting that it is biased in favor of the powerful and against those with less power.

Here's an example. In most cultures, men hold more power over women, and so define the culture's values. Values and norms are androcentric. Margaret Mead did a cross-cultural study of what activities were generally done by males and what activities were generally done by females. She found wide variation among cultures in terms of what men tended to do and what women tended to do. But one thing was consistent: What men did was more highly valued than what women did.

Take this to our own culture, and you can see why force is more highly regarded than nurturance, why football is more prestigious than cooking, and, more generally, why masculinity is seen as better than femininity. In college, in fact, I read a book by a major Spanish philospher in which he shamelessly said that women were not fully human.

These days, people may not say overtly that women are inferior. Or at least not publicly. But this tendency to devalue women has other means of expression. Women may be seen as "other". Or women may be seen as deviant. These views, of course, presuppose that the definitive human being is male.

Moreover, gender differences, legitimate or not, are interpreted so that men appear superior.

For example, if a woman is less practical than a man, she is seen as frivolous and irresponsibile. If a woman is more practical than a man, then she fails to understand male idealism

No, that issue of not understanding male idealism is not a parody. I actually read it somewhere, and it was written in all seriousness!

On the surface, these attitudes appear to be changing. But scratch the surface, and those old assumptions become visible, even in the supposedly enlightened West. It is certainly true in more traditional and conservative cultures.

I saw the film "Bhutto" last weekend. It's a documentary about the late Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. The film was very rich on many levels, but one scene really stood out in the context of this topic. The army asked her husband to be Prime Minister instead of her, because they did not want to salute a woman.

Many of the films of the Festival are about women achieving goals in such hostile, devaluing cultural contexts. This is what makes the Women's Film Festival so special.

So what is the take-away point of all this? It is that cultural values about gender are not value-free. They are not definitive. They came from somewhere. And that somewhere is male power -which accrues from male forcefulness and violence - and the resulting male entitlement to define women in ways that serve their own interests.

This means that these assumptions are not to be taken as axiomatic or definitive! They are to be confronted, with their assumptions and implications questioned.

Final Weekend

The Women's Film Festival in Brattleboro, VT is entering its final weekend.

Marilyn Buhlmann, who heads the Festival's steering committee, reports a record turnout, with as many passes sold during the first two days than in entire previous festivals.

The closing weekend promises to be full of great films and special events.

Special events include visits by:

Robyn Murray, Iraq vet and subject of "Poster Girl", along with Sara Nesson, who directed this Academy Award nominated film.

Mary Murphy, the director of the new Harper Lee documentary.

Montana Berg, a Canadian Academy Award nominated producer.

A special family event.

The world premier of a controversial film about Marilyn Monroe.

For full descriptions of films and special events, plus other information, including venues and ticket prices, visit the Women's Film Festival website, at http://www.womensfilmfestival.org

The Issue of Power

One film from last year's Women's Film Festival, To See if I'm Smiling", is going to be shown again this year. The film documents the experiences of several female Israeli soldiers. The women talk about their experiences as soldiers and also as female soldiers. Bearing witness to indignities, and even atrocities, perpetrated by their own side, they discuss the psychological and spiritual consequences they endure, both as witnesses and as active or passive collaborators.

Another blogger on this site mentioned that the film was about how power corrupts those that have it, and that got me thinking.

In war, people find themselves in dominant positions with subordinates, captives, or even civilians. We hold certain soldiers accountable for abusive behavior, yet we allow others to abuse people with impunity.

In Abu Ghraib, for instance, soldiers were reportedly ordered to abuse prisoners, yet when they did, they were sent to prison. One female soldier was separated from her baby when she was incarcerated. Yet the higher ups experienced no consequences that I know of. Were the line personnel justly punished for sadistic atrocities? Or were they scapegoated to give the illusion of ethical concern, while those in command, who gave the orders, were allowed to act with impunity?

War is full of moral confusion and collateral damage. The only way to have a safe war is to have no war. Hopefully, the time will come when this will be more than a naive utopian fantasy.

As women increasingly fill the ranks of the powerful, female subcultural values will, hopefully, balance male subcultural values, which may result in a more responsible and life-affirming culture of political leadership. And, hopefully, a culture where people are less worshipful of power, and are less corrupted by it.

OUR HISTORY

The year 2011 marks the 20th year of the Women’s Film Festival (WFF) in , celebrating the lives of women all over the world. As always, the theme for the festival strives to represent the lives, relationships, struggles and triumphs of women and girls, not as victims of circumstance, but as innovators of their own realities. This March 39 films, some new and some returning, will be shown in Brattleboro. They all show women surviving and thriving in a world that often does not recognize—or accept—their gifts.

Beginning in 1992, the festival was conceived of as a perfect fundraiser and a perfect outreach program for the Women’s Crisis Center. In an interview with Christie Herbert, who was on the committee for the festival throughout its first six years of operation, said the film festival “was always not only a fundraiser, but sort of a consciousness raiser. It had both an educational outreach part to it, as well as a fundraising part to it.”

The film festival began through the inspirations and visions of the women at the Women’s Crisis Center. “I don’t think there was any event per se that began the festival,” Herbert said. “The needed money, and the WFF derived more from answering the question, ‘What would be a good fundraiser that would also support the mission of the center?’” But then, during the summer of 1992, Judith Hart Fournier was killed by an ex-lover who had followed her and a friend to a gas station and stabbed Fournier to death as she sat in her car. Herbert remembers, “It was just remarkably shocking, and a tragic situation of violence that happened against a woman.”

The current chair of the board of directors for the Women’s Freedom Center, as the center is now named, Marilyn Buhlmann, remembers that event vividly. “It really rattled the whole community. I remember there were a number of vigils. And my daughter, she was about 16, was very moved by it too. We didn’t know Judith. We were totally shocked… It was probably our community’s really most dramatic violent and visual sign of men’s violence against women.” The festival that occurred later that year was dedicated to the memory of Judith Hart Fournier and,
Buhlmann continues, meant “to point out the problems of women in the world, to point out how women survive, against a pretty steep slope.”

Long-time veteran of the festival, Merry Elder, who has volunteered every year since its inception, has helped to shape the festival through her thoughtful film choices. The festival, due to the efforts of Elder and other members of the Film Selection Committee, is now known for its high quality and high standards in both drama and documentary films. “I was called to help out with the festival. I have always been a film buff and they (the board) thought I would be interested.” The committee began by looking at blurbs for films and choosing ones that seemed to fit within the goals of the festival. Elder, with a slight chuckle, described
this method of film selection as a “very risky way to do it.”

In the first half of its existence the festival operated out of the Latchis Theater. Elizabeth Latchis would take the list of suggestions made by the committee and book what movies she could each year. Another early volunteer and former member of the board of the , Diane Leary, remembers the entire festival committee working together to research and preview films. “There was a printer in town that we would get to print up brochures,” remembers Leary. “[The festival] was smaller than it is now. We didn’t get corporate sponsorship. We didn’t get local sponsorship. It was such a small committee all we did was get the films, preview the films, and we were mostly working with Latchis Theater at that point.” After about six years the Latchis Theater’s commitment to the festival became too much for them, and Elizabeth Latchis said ‘no more.’

The split from Latchis became an opportunity for the festival to continue in a new direction and provided an avenue to entirely reinvent the festival. As a result, the festival became a lot more work. “We didn’t even realize what we were getting ourselves into,” Elder stated as she shook her head. The year after the split from the Latchis, the festival held on by a thin thread in 1999, showing just three films. The following year, after a revamping of the festival and a recreation of the committees, the WFF survived and began thriving in the Brattleboro community. Another long-term volunteer, Arlene Distler, who has chaired the festival and is a member of the publicity committee, became a part of the volunteer force the last year that the festival was supported by the work of Elizabeth Latchis. “It was an interesting transition to an all-volunteer run festival. It took a lot of work. And people burn out.”

The reputation of the film festival is growing by leaps and bounds and it has become a widely anticipated annual event for the residents of Windham County. The survival of the festival is credited to the efforts of the volunteers, but also to the valuable viewers of the films. Distler is grateful for some of the films she has viewed and time she has spent with the festival. “I’ve had people say to me that the films they have seen at the festival have changed their lives. For myself, it certainly has broadened my perspective…The festival has helped me see that we are all so much more connected at what we go through than what one would think.”When asked if the film festival has stayed true to the original goal, Christie Herbert replied, “Yes, I think it has transcended it. It was just a great idea, in a really great community that supported it.”

Poster Girl Nomination

Sunday is a big night for Robynn Murray and Sara Nesson a couple of the many film folks coming to Brattleboro the weekend of March 19 and 20 as part of the fest's 20th anniversary special events. On Sunday they will be attending the Academy Awards to see if their film "Poster Girl" wins 'Best Short Documentary.' Just being nominated is honor enough, and this 38-minute film about a high school cheerleader and national merit scholar who volunteers for service and ends up a machine gunner in Iraq deserves the praise. This film is powerful, compelling and important. It should be required viewing for everyone because it depicts what life is like for a growing number of young vets returning from war with health and life challenges those of us who stayed comfortable at home can never imagine. Robynn is the subject of the film. Director Sara Nesson found her when she was shooting a film about vets healing themselves through art. Robynn was featured on a poster for an army publication featuring female vets, and now she is a poster girl for how vets cope with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Vermont has become a national center for the treatment of PTSD. The Brattleboro Retreat just opened a clinic for uniformed service personnel and the national center for PTSD of the Veterans Administration is in White River Junction. Sara and Robynn are amazing people with a story to tell. I look forward to hearing it when they come to the New England Theatre for the 4pm screening of Poster Girl (shown after "To See if I'm Smiling" (60 min), an Israeli film about female soldiers, but more about how abject power corrupts souls).

More from the Womens Film Festival

From March 11-20, 2011, Brattleboro, Vermont will host the 20th annual Women's Film Festival.

The festival presents films by and about women, showing women's strengths, aspirations, accomplishments, struggles and tragedies.

One film, which will have its world primiere showing at the Festival, is the documentary My Marilyn. This film shows how Marilyn Monroe became both Hollywoods greatest star and its most vulnerable icon.

Another film, To See if I'm Smiling, presents the frank testimonies of six female Israeli soldiers, who describe how gender, ethics and moral responsibility intersect during war.

Another film, Bhutto, describes the life and legacy of Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to lead a Muslim nation.

39 films are scheduled. Films will be shown at two venues, the historic Latchis Theater and the modern New England Youth Theater.

Several films will be followed by panel discussions.

The Women's Film Festival is run entirely by volunteers. All proceeds go to the Women's Freedom Center (formally known as the Women's Crisis Center). The Women's Freedom Center assists women and their children victimized by domestic violence. It serves the greater Brattleboro area with vital services that, sadly, remain desperately needed.

Announcing the 2011 Lineup!

Women's Film Festival Announces Line-Up for 20th Anniversary with
More Eclectic, Exciting Films than Ever Before

January, 2011, Brattleboro, Vermont: The Women’s Film Festival (WFF) of Brattleboro, Vermont, the longest-running women’s film festival in New England and one of the oldest in the country devoted to films by and about women, announced its special 2011 20th Anniversary line-up today with more entertaining and illuminating films than ever before– films that raise awareness of the struggles, accomplishments and creativity of women around the corner and around the globe. A full list of film and blurbs can be found at the WFF website at www.womensfilmfestival.org.

This year the festival is bigger than ever: Over 10 days in March (Women’s History Month) 39 films will be screened at the historic art-deco Latchis Theater and the modern New England Youth Theater in Downtown Brattleboro, a cultural magnet town voted one of the top 25 small cities for art in America by American Style magazine.

The festival opens on Friday, March 11 with “Women Without Men” a surreal and exquisite drama from Iranian-American filmmaker and artist Shirin Neshat and closes on Sunday, March 20th with the world premiere of Allan Holzman’s “My Marilyn,” examining the dark psychological corners of Marilyn Monroe’s life.

An opening gala will be held during Brattleboro’s monthly Gallery Walk on Friday, March 4 where women’s digital art and an overview of upcoming films will be spotlighted at the Latchis Theater. On Saturday, March 26, the festival will officially close with a repeat showing of the ‘Best of Fest’ audience favorite and new high school video competition winners at the New England Youth Theater.

First-time screenings include: “Bhutto,” which will include a post-film discussion (Sunday March 13 4:00 pm) with Vermont State Senator and diplomat Peter Galbraith, a close friend of the slain Pakistani leader; “Poster Girl,” a hard-hitting documentary about a high school cheerleader turned gunner in Iraq shortlisted for an Oscar nomination; as well as films that deal with family issues, the environment, food, aging, art and many other topics. Several films will be accompanied by Q&As with directors and experts following the screenings.

To celebrate its 20th year, the 2011 WFF will also devote some screenings to the best films of festivals past, such as the acclaimed musical-drama “Joanna D’Arc of Mongolia” (featured on the festival poster), audience favorites “I, Doll, The Story of Barbie,” “Heart of the Sea” and Agnes Varda’s acclaimed “The Gleaners and I.”

This is the first year WFF is collaborating with the Center for Digital Art to highlight women’s digital art and mount a national “Min Vid” competition through You Tube for high school students. There will be cash prizes and special screenings awarded to the top
entries illuminating the theme ‘Woman’ in less than two minutes. Details on entry can be found at the Women’s Film Festival website under the heading “High School Video Contest.”

The festival is unique in that it is fully volunteer run and 100% of proceeds benefit the Women’s Crisis Center, a non-profit organization that helps women and children from southern Vermont and surrounding areas protect themselves against domestic violence while educating the community about everyone’s role in stopping the cycle of violence all around us.

WFF chooses films over the winter through a committee process that offers a final roster of cream-of-the-crop features and cutting-edge documentaries from festivals around the world; and a call-for-entries that yields surprising gems. Over the years the festival has had area premiers for much-lauded films such as "Born Into Brothels" and "Bend It Like Beckham"; numerous films screened at the festival have gone on to receive Academy-Award nominations.

In 2010 the WFF received a prestigious grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to provide free access to members of youth, elder and multi-cultural organizations, bringing greater diversity to festival audiences.

Brattleboro itself is reason enough to come and celebrate WFF’s 20th year. Nestled in the Green Mountains in the south-east corner of the state only two hours from Boston and three hours from New York City, this creative hub features its own art museum, fine restaurants, unique boutiques, four independent bookstores, and many other arts venues. One may enjoy the charm of the town while taking in top-notch film fare that may never make it to the local multiplex. The manageable size of the festival makes it a stress-free experience that offers a roster of women’s films unsurpassed by larger festivals in big cities.

The festival should come with a warning: whether you are a man or woman -- you will not leave unmoved! Tickets can be purchased ahead of time. Full details, the film line-up and a continually updated calendar of events related to the WFF can be found at the Women’s Film Festival website at www.womensfilmfestival.org.