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.”
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.”
