The 12th annual Athena Film Festival (AFF) has unveiled its lineup. To be held in-person March 11-13 at Barnard College in New York City and virtually March 11-20, the fest will celebrate women leaders with film screenings, panel discussions, and programs designed to support the pipeline of women creatives.
The 2022 edition will open with Mariama Diallo’s feature directorial debut, “Master,” which sees three women reckoning with their elite college’s racist past — and present. Diallo will participate in a Q&A after the film’s screening on March 11.
Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ “The Janes” will serve as AFF’s Spotlight film. The documentary is the story of the Jane Collective, an underground network that provided safe, accessible, illegal abortions in Chicago before Roe v. Wade. The directors will attend a post-screening Q&A on March 12, which will then be followed by a panel on reproductive rights.
Among the film lineup’s other highlights are a 20th anniversary screening of Patricia Cardoso’s coming-of-age drama following a college-bound Latina teen, “Real Women Have Curves”; Clara Kuperberg and Julia Kuperberg’s doc about the only woman director in Hollywood during the ’40s, “Ida Lupino: Gentlmen and Miss Lupino”; and Kim Bartley’s three-year chronicle of the life of a young Native American woman, “Pure Grit.”
Panels will include “Let’s Talk About Sets: How Intimacy Coordinators Are Making Sets Safer,” “Thinking Beyond the Binary: Should Gendered Categories Still Exist?,” and “Accessibility is a Right, Not the Newest Hollywood Trend.”
“As we enter into our 12th year of the Athena Film Festival, we have a wide array of fresh, unique, and critical voices and programming to share with audiences this year. We look forward to opening the festival with Mariama Diallo’s feature narrative debut, ‘Master’,” said Melissa Silverstein, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of AFF and Founder and Publisher of Women and Hollywood. “I’m also very proud of the slate of panel conversations we’ve curated which touch on some of today’s most pressing issues, including reproductive rights and women’s political leadership.”
AFF 2022’s full lineup is below. Head over to the fest’s website to purchase passes or find out more.
FEATURES
The Conductor
Documentary
Director: Bernadette Wegenstein
Writers: Stefan Fauland, Bernadette Wegenstein
Producer: Annette Porter
Leonard Bernstein’s protege Marin Alsop reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.
Deadly Cuts
*New York Premiere*
Narrative
Writer/Director: Rachel Carey
Producers: Liz Gill, Auveen Lush, Ciara O’Sullivan
A black comedy set in a working-class Dublin hair salon where the stylists become accidental vigilantes and community heroes as they take on the gang members and gentrifiers threatening their community.
Exposure
Documentary
Director/Writer: Holly Morris
Producers: Michael Kovnat, Jill Mazursky, Holly Morris, Eleanor Wilson
A team of women from the Western and Arab world makes a bid to reach the North Pole. This unprecedented expedition navigates open leads of water, the specter of polar bears, and -40 degree temperatures in an extraordinary story of resilience and global citizenry.
*Alfred P. Sloan STEM Showcase
FANNY: The Right to Rock
Documentary
Director/Writer: Bobbi Jo Hart
Producers: Bobbi Jo Hart, Robbie Hart
Meet one of the most important rock bands that you’ve never heard of. Their lead guitarist could shred. Their musicianship and songwriting were stellar. They were embraced by rock royalty, released five critically-acclaimed albums with Top 40 charted songs, but never broke through. Oh, and they were women. FANNY: The Right to Rock reveals the fascinating, untold story of a phenomenal band that almost became the “female Beatles.”
I Am Belmaya
*New York Premiere*
Documentary
Directors: Sue Carpenter, Belmaya Nepali
Writers: Sue Carpenter, Kat Reynolds
Producer: Sue Carpenter
An inspirational tale of rebellion, courage and hope in patriarchal Nepal. Silenced and subjugated for most of her life, uneducated Belmaya takes up the movie camera to tell her story.
Ida Lupino: Gentlemen and Miss Lupino
*US Premiere*
Documentary
Writers/Directors/Producers: Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg
Ida Lupino was the only woman director in Hollywood in the late 1940s. She made movies about women, tackling such risky subjects as rape, bigamy, and abortion. For two decades, the Directors Guild of America was made up of 1,300 men and “Miss Lupino.”
The Janes
*Spotlight Film*
*New York Premiere*
Documentary
Directors: Directors: Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes
Producers: Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin
In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Seven women were arrested and charged. The accused were part of a clandestine network. Using code names, blindfolds, and safe houses to protect their identities and their work, they built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions. They called themselves Jane.
*Will be released on HBO later this year
The Justice of Bunny King
Narrative
Director: Gaysorn Thavat
Writers: Sophie Henderson, Gregory King, Gaysorn Thavat
Producer: Emma Slade
A triumph over adversity tale about women fighting their way back from the bottom of society.
Kili Big
*New York Premiere*
Documentary
Director/Writer: Ida Joglar
Producers: Sam Kretchmar, Ida Joglar
A group of plus-sized women from around the world attempt to climb the tallest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.
Master
*Opening Night *
Narrative
Director/Writer: Mariama Diallo
Producers: Joshua Astrachan, Brad Becker-Parton, Andrea Roa
Three women strive to find their place at an elite Northeastern university as old as the country. When anonymous racist attacks target a Black freshman — who insists she is being haunted by ghosts of the school’s past — each woman must determine where the real menace lies.
*Will be released in theaters and on Prime Video globally on March 18, 2022
Ninjababy
Narrative
Director: Yngvild Sve Flikke
Writers: Johan Fasting, Yngvild Sve Flikke, Inga Sætre
Producer: Yngve Sæther
Astronaut, forest keeper, cartoonist: 23-year-old Rakel can imagine herself as lots of things, but not a mother. So when she finds out she’s almost seven months pregnant, her notebook fills up with depictions of the “Ninjababy, who thinks it can just hide in there, have a good time, and sneak out nine months later.” After her drawings come to life as an animated fetus in a bandit mask, Ninjababy becomes a raucous and funny coming-of-age story.
In Norwegian, with English subtitles
Pure Grit
Documentary
Director: Kim Bartley
Producers:Rachel Lysaght, Lesley McKimm
Chronicling three years in the life of a young Native American woman, Pure Grit is a thrilling and intimate tale of extreme bareback horse racing, young love and hope when all seems lost.
Queen of Glory
Narrative
Director/Writer: Nana Mensah
Producers: Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins, Jamund Washington
Ghanaian-American Sarah is all set to abandon her Ivy League doctoral program to follow her married lover across the country when her mother dies suddenly and makes her the owner of a neighborhood bookshop in the Bronx.
Real Women Have Curves
*20th Anniversary Screening*
Director: Patricia Cardoso
Writers: Josefina Lopez, George LaVoo
Producers: Effie Brown, George LaVoo
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old is torn between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown, family-owned textile factory.
Strong Female Lead
Documentary
Director/Writer: Tosca Looby
Producer: Karina Holden
One in three Australian women experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Australia’s first and only female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was one of them.
SHORT FILMS
Black Birth
Director: Haimy Assefa
Producer: Dominique Turner
Three expectant mothers, including the director, navigate the joys, fears, and complexity of Black motherhood in America.
Black Goat
Director/Writer: Tang Yi
Producers: Prabin Kumar Rawat, K Sab Pandey
Pasang gets her first period.
Change the Name
Director/Co-Producer: Cai Thomas
Co-Producer: Donald Conley
An intimate portrayal of Black youth organizing on the west side of Chicago, Change The Name follows a group of 5th graders from Village Leadership Academy as they embark on a campaign to rename Stephen A. Douglas Park after freedom fighters Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass. Over the course of the three-year grassroots campaign the students tackle bureaucratic Chicago Park District systems, underestimations of their capacity to make real change as well as a pandemic and global uprising.
Cold Beds Lits Froids
*US Premiere*
Director/Writer: Laëtitia Martinucci
Producer: Jonathan Hazan
After getting locked out, Mona, a young seasonal worker of Italian origin, tries to fight off the cold while looking for shelter.
Girlsboysmix
*New York Premiere*
Director/Writer/Producer: Lara Aerts
Producers: Laura Verduijn
Why is it so important to be a boy or a girl?
God’s Daughter Dances Sin-ui Ttal-eun Chum-eul Chun-da
Director/Writer: Sungbin Byun
Producer: Suji Bong
A transgender female dancer, Shin-mi, gets a call from the Military Manpower Administration, to attend the Military Service Examination.
The Hairdresser La Coiffeuse
Director/Writer/Producer: Lorraine Price
In this short, poetic documentary Kathleen reflects upon her 31 years as a hairdresser for the terminally ill in palliative care.
In Accordance With
*New York Premiere*
Directors: Sarah Ema Friedland, Alessandra Lacorazza
Writer: Sarah Ema Friedland
Producers: Sarah Ema Friedland, Alessandra Lacorazza
A short science fiction film about the reality of access to abortion in the U.S.
It’s Very Common
Director/Writer/Producer: Megan Hess
The feel good miscarriage movie you didn’t know you needed.
Little Sparks
*New York Premiere*
Director: Denali Tiller
Producer: Rebecca Stern
Three children in the Bronx navigate the challenges of remote learning
Militant Mother
*US Premiere*
Director/Writer/Producer: Carmen Pollard
Producers: Lisa Jackson, Lauren Grant
Militant Mother tells the story of the women of a Vancouver housing project who took on the CNR to ensure that their kids had a safe route to school.
My Grandmother is an Egg 我的阿婆是一顆蛋
Director/Writer/Producer: Wu-Ching Chang
“As a child,” says the filmmaker, “my grandmother was given to be raised as a future daughter-in-law.” The film reflects upon women’s oppression and struggles for freedom.
Not the Science Type: Ciara
Director/Writer: Julio Palacio
Producer: Christine Arena
Dr. Ciara Sivels is a nuclear engineer with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and the first black woman to earn a Ph. D from the University of Michigan in nuclear engineering. It was her high school science teacher who first identified her ability in science and encouraged her to apply to MIT.
ReByrth
*New York Premiere*
Director/Writer/Producer: Cydney Tucker
A Black doula fights to save the lives of Black mothers as they journey through childbirth into parenthood.
The Shaman’s Apprentice Angakusajaujuq
Director: Zacharias Kunuk
Writers: Zacharias Kunuk, Jonathan Frantz
Producers: Neil Christopher, Nadia Mike, Jonathan Frantz
A young shaman must face her first test—a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill.
Since you arrived, my heart stopped belonging to me
*New York Premiere*
Director/Writer/Producer: Erin Semine Kökdil
Central American mothers journey by bus through Mexico, searching for their children who migrated north towards the United States but disappeared en route.
Susana
Director/Producer: Laura Gamse
Writer: Susana
Despite the danger to herself and her family, former slaughterhouse worker Susana returns to the scene at night to care for animals on their way to the kill floor.
Tarcila: Indigenous Solutions to Climate Change from Peru
*New York Premiere*
Director/Writer: by Sarah Kuck
Producer: Leigh Newman-Bell
Quechua elder Tarcila Rivera Zea fights for Indigenous Rights to sovereignty and food security in the face of climate change.
To the Future, with Love
Director: Shaleece Haas
Writer: Hunter Pixel Jimenez
Producer: Shaleece Haas
Meet 19-year-old Hunter Pixel Jimenez, a nonbinary trans boy caught between the expectations of his Guatemalan immigrant family and his dreams of living “happy and gay” with his long-distance boyfriend.
You and Me Ana Wa Enti
Director/Writer: Alexandra Muhawi-Ho
Producers: Alexandra Muhawi-Ho, Polina Buchak, Camila Grimaldi, Alyssa DiMartino
33-year-old Amira struggles to find her place in between her Arab and American identities while living with and navigating her relationship with her culturally traditional, yet loving mother.
PANELS
Accessibility is a Right, Not the Newest Hollywood Trend
As the pandemic continues, there are those who simply want to return to “normal.” But for many that “normal” was inhospitable and ableist, and is no longer acceptable. The pandemic brought with it a renewed focus on how to make the world of film more accessible, from the conversations around captioning, to virtual description on virtual panels, to Crip Camp being nominated for an Oscar, putting the power in the hands of actual disabled people to tell their own stories. But with every positive push, there have been setbacks, from the Oscars never truly building an accessible stage or for disabled critics going back to be locked out of access. As we chart the new normal, how do we ensure that the shifts we saw during the pandemic not only remain but are codified into the industry?
Let’s Talk About Sets: How Intimacy Coordinators Are Making Sets Safer
Set safety has been a topic of increased discussion since 2017 and the explosion of #MeToo. This panel will delve into the recently created role of intimacy coordinator with the pioneering people forging this new movement to discuss how they are creating safe sets for actors who participate in sex or other intimate scenes in film and television production. The panel will also discuss COVID protocols for intimacy, any pushback on their roles, and what they see as the next steps for making the workplace safer.
Thinking Beyond the Binary: Should Gendered Categories Still Exist?
This year the Gotham Awards announced that they would be getting rid of gendered categories for their awards, following the lead of the Grammys and the VMAs, and other award ceremonies. In this panel we’ll explore moving beyond the binary, the importance of representing everyone and the implications of removing gendered categories.
Women in Political Leadership
The story of women’s leadership in government is primarily told from a lens of scarcity — how few female leaders we have, how bad the statistics are, the sexism that women leaders experience, etc. It is time to reframe the conversation. This panel will explore the narrative around women in political life, how they are covered when they run, win, lose, and lead, how this has changed during COVID, and we will shed light on the successes of female leaders from around the globe. We’ll bring together political journalists, current elected officials, and those that support them to discuss and investigate the complex relationship between gender and politics today and why things may not be as dire as some say.
The Future of Latinx Stories in Hollywood
Twenty years on, Real Women Have Curves has become a seminal movie, both because of its beautiful portrayal of a young Latina coming of age and because it’s a reminder of an unfulfilled promise for films by and about the Latinx community. On this anniversary, we look back at this film and discuss the future of Latinx stories in Hollywood.
What is the Next Phase for Reproductive Rights?
With the Supreme Court poised to overrule Roe v. Wade this term, states will soon have free rein to ban or otherwise restrict abortion. It is expected that nearly half the states will do so. Hundreds of thousands of pregnant people will have limited access to essential health care services and be forced to travel hundreds of miles to obtain care or look for abortion pills on the gray or black market. With the new super conservative majority on the Supreme Court, we are at an inflection point. This discussion will address the future for the fight for reproductive rights from the people who are on the front lines.
Pushing Boundaries in a World Full of Limits: A Conversation About The Challenges of Creating Entertainment Today
Barnard Women in Entertainment hosts a conversation about creating fresh and thought-provoking content amidst a constantly shifting “new normal.” Between the pandemic, climate disasters, cancel culture, and political turmoil at home and abroad, one might argue that we’ve never needed compelling, thought-provoking entertainment more than we do today. But how do you create in a world that can sometimes feel like it’s on fire? In this panel, women who work in diverse areas of the industry will discuss how we can rise to the challenge of creating important work within today’s ever-changing boundaries.
