University at Buffalo’s Gender Institute (Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender) announces “Crossings: the 11th International Women’s Film Festival,” offering features and documentaries from Bosnia to Buffalo that portray women’s experiences in the world. The festival runs on six successive Thursday evenings at 7pm from January 25th through March 1st at the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre, 639 Main Street in downtown Buffalo.
The six nights of programming cover films produced or filmed in Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Bangladesh, Scotland, and the United States. Common issues weave among the characters’ lives in these films: memory; creativity; disability; the power of language; racial and ethnic divides; artistic conflicts; the challenges of motherhood; and the all too prevalent experience of war and torture. Directors Guita Schyfter and Faisal Lutchmedial will join festival audiences to discuss their films, and local women filmmakers will present new short films produced specifically for the 2007 IWFF.
The festival begins on January 25th with director Guita Schyfter presenting her film, Faces of The Moon (Las Caras de la Luna), a witty look at a fictional jury for the Latin America Women’s Film Festival in Mexico City. Combining humor, feminist politics, and tributes to survival, this film illustrates the diversity of women’s work and lives.