Tracey Deer’s “Beans” will open the 11th annual edition of the Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College. The coming-of-age drama about a 12-year-old Mohawk girl set against the backdrop of the 1990 Oka Crisis will make its U.S. premiere at AFF, which is being held virtually this year due to COVID-19.
Set to take place March 1-March 31, AFF will include “film screenings, in-depth conversations with filmmakers and industry experts, a series of programs that support the pipeline of women creatives, and a wide variety of events focused on celebrating and amplifying the stories of bold, courageous women leaders,” a press release detailed. “This year, AFF has curated a selection of films that react and respond to this challenging moment in time, including: Making it Happen: Women in STEM; Tear it Down: Dismantling White Supremacy; Discovery; A Look At Health; Resilience through Uncertainty; Imagining a New Future; Nothing About Us Without Us; and Come As You Are.”
Titles set to screen include Luchina Fisher’s “Mama Gloria,” a documentary about trans icon Gloria Allen, Shatara Mitchell’s #MeToo drama “Test Pattern,” and “Through the Night,” Loira Limba’s award-winning doc about a 24-hour daycare center. Ashley O Shay’s “Unapologetic” and Yoruba Richen’s “How It Feels to Be Free” are also among the films in AFF’s 2021 program. The former follows Black women abolitionists in Chicago and the latter examines the intersections of Black women entertainers.
“While planning this year’s festival, we wanted to prioritize relevant and timely films that spoke to the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the myriad ways we’ve experienced our world shift this year. We were also focused on inclusion — building on our history of featuring new and diverse voices and challenging the status quo to lead the industry forward,” said Melissa Silverstein, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of AFF and founder and publisher of Women and Hollywood. “I think we’ve done that. The films and conversations at this year’s festival will tackle complex, emotional, and diverse subjects with voices from across the industry. While this year’s festival will feel very different, I could not be more proud of the incredible slate of programming which is 90 percent women and nonbinary directors and 51 percent women and non binary directors of color that we will bring to our audiences across the United States for the 11th annual edition.”
“The festival will also feature a number of films that will screen alongside conversations that address issues confronting our culture,” AFF notes. “These screenings and conversations will include Jacqueline Decker and Tim Mullen’s short documentary ‘My Name is Ada Hegerberg’ which will lead into a conversation around equal pay in sports titled ‘How Women Athletes Are Leading the Way on Gender Equality and Racial Justice,’ the World Premiere of ‘The Third Strike’ will screen in conjunction with a conversation on ‘The Push for Decarceration,’ and following ‘What Would Sophia Loren Do’ there will be a conversation between award-winning producer and Athena Film Festival Founding Sponsor Regina K. Scully and the subject of the film, her mother Nancy Kulik.”
AFF’s program includes a number of industry related events such as “Producing during/after COVID,” a Writers Roundtable, and in partnership with Stephen’s College, a “Master Class with Showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett,” the creator of “One Day at a Time.”
Head over to AFF’s website to purchase tickets and passes and to check out the fest’s complete lineup.
