FILM FESTIVAL: Feminist Border Arts Film Festival
Saturday, October 24, 2020 12am – Sunday, October 25 12am
GET YOUR TICKETS
Tickets: $10 / $8 members $ students: With a purchased ticket, you will gain access to all of the films for the weekend (Saturday & Sunday, October 24 & 25).
Presented in conjunction with 516 ARTS’ current Feminisms exhibition (on view through January 2, 2021), the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF) is a series of short films by student, independent, and professional filmmakers, domestic and international. Shakti Bhagchandani, director of LostFound, described FBAFF programming as “nuanced, complex, uplifting jewels that explore issues such as the coming-of-age of transgender identities, the pain and secrecy of sexual violence, the infinite difficulties faced by undocumented immigrants, and the injustice endured by women in societies from all over the world.” Developed on the campus of NMSU in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival celebrates the power of cinema as a creative tool to reflect upon urgent social issues and thought-provoking representations of identity and difference. The festival emphasizes artistic vision in telling these stories through short film (15 min. and under), including live-action narrative, documentary, essay film, video art, and animation. The festival seeks shorts that explore topics connected to gender identity, sexuality, race, indigeneity, class, dis/ability, transnationality and diaspora, migration, refugees and displaced persons, activisms, the environment, food/water insecurity, and other social justice perspectives and experiences. Films include:
Speak Near
directed by M. Catherine Jonet & Laura Anh Williams, 2020 (US)
Language: English
Runtime: 2:38
Research philosophy. Curatorial rationale. Speak Near illustrates how Feminist Border Arts—a university-based humanities & arts project merging research-creation and film curation, featuring the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival—interrogates and traverses gaps between academia, artist, public culture, and self. Dr. Jonet and Dr. Williams would like to thank 516 Arts for offering us the opportunity to curate this FBA retrospective and for giving us the “assignment” of making this film.
Kalunga Line
directed by Ami Kenzo, 2019 (Canada / Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Language: English, unlisted languages
Runtime: 9:33
Kalunga Line is a biomythography, a term first coined by Audre Lorde to describe her 1982 book “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name”, that explores trauma, healing, and the manner in which the cross section between history, biography, and myth informs one’s process of identity formation.
Al Ghorba
directed by Alia Hijaab, 2018 (Canada)
Language: Arabic & English
Runtime: 6:11
Through a series of dreams, a Syrian woman living far from home tries to deal with being unsettled and displaced from her war-torn country.
Drum Wave
directed by Natalie Erika James, 2018 (Australia)
Language: Chinese
Runtime: 10:25
A young pianist is forced to confront her fear of motherhood when she marries into a remote island community with bizarre fertility rituals.
Patchwork
directed by Maria Manero Muro, 2018 (Spain)
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 8:24
Patchwork is the story of Loly, a person who needed a new liver because hers get broken.
LostFound
directed by Shakti Bhagchandani, 2016. (US)
Language: English
Runtime: 12:00
In the monotony of her life’s daily routine, a young wife and mother discovers what is missing from her life is standing right in front of her.
BEACH BODY READY
directed by Céline Ufenast, 2019 (UK)
Language: English
Runtime: 1:47
Are you beach body ready? Are you beach body ready? Are you..?
Reclamation
directed by Viveka Frost, 2018 (US & Germany)
Language: English
Runtime: 3:44
A short poetic documentary film about Indigenous Identity.
The Etiquette of American Massacres
directed by Alexandria Searls, 2018 (US)
Language: English
Runtime: 8:44
Mass shootings in the United States have become so common that they impact the way we live, the way we see ourselves, and the way we experience grief, almost on a daily basis. We forget some and not others. We grieve more and less at different times. We adapt to the onslaughts. But what adaptations allow us to keep our souls? Filmmaker Alexandria Searls recounts her reactions to the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. A painted bridge offers a metaphor for our collective predicament.
Swêdî
directed by Sosi Chamoun, 2018 (Sweden)
Language: Turkish & Swedish
Runtime: 5:00
A woman trying to buy menstrual pads is surveilled by a clerk who won’t leave her alone.
Bajo el Agua
directed by Fernanda Galindo, 2018 (Mexico)
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 15:56
After 8 years, I returned to the desert to meet again with my father and I discovered that he told stories of worlds gone under water.
Onself Story
directed by Géraldine Charpentier, 2018 (Belgium)
Language: French
Runtime: 4:53
Lou tells his story, the way he feels about gender. Girl or boy, he/she chose not to choose, for now.
Òsùn’s òpárá: When Everything is Born
directed by Pâmela Peregrino, 2018 (Brazil)
Language: Portuguese
Runtime: 4:16
Stop-motion animation tells the story of the Orixá of the sweet waters, the goddess of fertility that makes everything grow and fertilized in the strength of Axé.
So Far From Kabul
directed by Joel Cartaxo Anjos, 2019 (France)
Language: Persian
Runtime: 10:55
Marina Gulbahari, a very famous actress in Afghanistan, received several death threats in her country after being photographed at an international film festival without her head covered. Since 2015, she has lived as a refugee in France, wheres he has given birth to a girl. Without knowing what her future will be, how can she rebuild herself and start anew life in France?
The Porous Body
directed by Sofia El Khyari, 2018 (UK)
Language: French
Runtime: 6:15
A meditative poetic trip inside the skin.
Sirens
directed by Juli Tudisco, 2018 (Hungary)
Language: Italian
Runtime: 4:00
A sad bride-to-be sits thinking about her looming wedding. She observes a group of girls singing and building a boat, care-free and full of wonderment, ignoring the pressures of society.
Fee
directed by Guen Murroni, 2017 (UK)
Language: English
Runtime: 10:00
Fee is out celebrating with her friends, but a voice from the past keeps plaguing her.
Special thanks to The Guild Cinema and FilmIndie.tv.