Rated: NR    Runtime: 90 mins.
Co-Presented by The Roxie Theater, Women Make Movies and Bay Area Women In Film & Media. (see schedule below)

AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
Women Make Movies, Bay Area Women In Film & Media, and The Roxie Theater present a seven day festival of documentary features and shorts made available by Women Make Movies, the world’s leading distributor of independent films by and about women. Most of these films are San Francisco or West Coast premieres.. Bay Area filmmakers Gemma Cubero & Celeste Carrasco’s film SHE IS THE MATADOR, and internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto’s ROUGH AUNTIES open the series. SEE THE SCHEDULE BELOW.

So sacred was the bullfighter’s masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport. SHE IS THE MATADOR (2009) (ELLA ES EL MATADOR) reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary, with profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena: the acclaimed Maripaz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. Filmmaker Gemma Cubero will be in attendance; Kim Longinotto’s ROUGH AUNTIES follows a remarkable group of women unwavering in their stand to care for the abused, neglected, and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa as they wage a daily battle against systemic apathy and corruption to help the most vulnerable members of their communities. The film was the winner of the Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize in 2008.

Highlights include: Bay Area filmmaker Ann Hershey’s TILLIE OLSEN –
A HEART IN ACTION (2007) documents revolutionary writer, feminist, and labor organizer Tillie Lerner Olsen who immortalized the lives of working class women and single mothers, bringing their much-needed perspective to the literary world. The film employs extended interviews during the last years of her life and footage from her readings and lectures. Filmmaker Ann Hershey will be in attendance; Award-winning Korean-American filmmaker Grace Lee’s THE GRACE LEE PROJECT (2005) plunges into a clever, unscientific investigation of all Grace Lees who break the mold, including the fiery social activist Grace Lee Boggs, the rebel Grace Lee who tried to burn down her high school; Barbara Caspar’s WHO’S AFRAID OF KATHY ACKER? (2008) is a multi-layered work featuring animation, archival footage, and interviews with notables William Burroughs, Carolee Schneemann, and Richard Hell, capturing the essence of Kathy Acker, the late outlaw writer and punk icon whose inventive novels, published from the 1970s through the mid-’90s, challenged assumptions about gender, sexuality, and the literary canon.

Julie Whang of Women Make Movies will be attending from Friday Aug 28 to Tuesday Sept 1.

Regular admission: $10.00
BAWIFM membership admission: $7.00

Schedule
Fri, August 28 at 7:00
ELLA ES EL MATADOR (SHE IS THE MATADOR)
A film by Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco U.S./Spain, 2009, 62 minutes

Fri, August 28 at 8:30
ROUGH AUNTIES
A film by Kim Longinotto
Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary. South Africa, 2008, 103 minutes

Sat, August 29 at 2:00
THE GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO
A film by Lisa F. Jackson 2007, 76 minutes

Sat, August 29 at 4:00
BLOODLINES
A film by Cynthia Connop
Australia, 2008, 52 minutes

TO SEE IF I’M SMILING
A film by Tamar Yarom
Israel, 2007, 59 minutes

Sat, August 29 at 7:00
TILLIE OLSEN – A HEART IN ACTION
A film by Ann Hershey
2007, 66 minutes

Sat, August 29 at 8:30
TIGER SPIRIT
A film by Min Sook Lee
Canada, 2008, 78 minutes

Sun, August 30 at 2:00
SISTERS IN LAW
Winner of Cannes Film Festiva’s Prix Art et Essai. Cameroon/UK, 2005, 104 minutes

Sun, August 30 at 4:00
DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE
A film by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini England, 1998, 80 minutes

ARUSI Persian Wedding
A film by Marjan Tehrani
US/Iran, 2008, 63 minutes

Sun, August 30 at 7:00
SAY MY NAME
A film by Nirit Peled
US/UK, 2009, 73 minutes

Sun, August 30 at 8:30
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH
A film by Pilar Prassas
2007, 56 minutes

SEARCHING 4 SANDEEP
A film by Poppy Stockell
Australia, 2007, 56 minutes

Mon, August 31 at 7:00
THE GRACE LEE PROJECT
A film by Grace Lee
2005, 68 minutes

Mon, August 31 at 8:30
WE WANT ROSES TOO
A film by Alina Marazzi
Italy, 2007, 84 minutes

Tues, Sept. 1 at 7:00
SHOOTING WOMEN
A film by Alexis Krasilovsky
2008, 54 minutes

Tues, Sept. 1 at 8:30
FOUR WIVES, ONE MAN
A film by Nahid Persson
Sweden/Iran, 2007, 76 minutes

Wed, Sept. 2 at 7:00
MRS. GOUNDO’S DAUGHTER
U.S./Mali, 2009, 60 minutes

Wed, Sept. 2 at 8:30
THE SARI SOLDIERS
A film by Julie Bridgham
US/Nepal, 2008, 90 minutes

Thu, Sept. 3 at 7:00
FILMING DESIRE
A film by Marie Mandy
France, 2000, 60 minutes

BLACK AND WHITE
A film by Kirsty MacDonald
New Zealand, 2006, 17 minutes

Thu, Sept. 3 at 8:30
WHO’S AFRAID OF KATHY ACKER?
A film by Barbara Caspar
Austria/Germany, 2008, 84 minutes