CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival will present these exceptional films directed by women from around the world on May 4-7, 2023 at the Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, WA. You can find our Official Selection of 2022 here. Below are our films for 2023.
2023 Festival Selections
Short Films
BIENVENIDOS A LOS ÁNGELES
LISA COLE / UNITED STATES
Inspired by true events and shot on location at LAX airport, “Bienvenidos a Los Ángeles” tells the timely story of Imani, a Nigerian single-mother living in Los Angeles, who offers to help a perfect stranger reunite with her son. In doing so, Imani learns this simple act of kindness threatens to jeopardize her own path to citizenship.
THE OUTING
JOANNE MITCHELL / UNITED KINGDOM
1970s: A lonely divorcee, Nellie, meets widower Frank on a trip to the seaside. Nellie lets herself be swept away by the hope of connection. But as the seagulls circle overhead and Frank begins to ask too many questions, Nellie realizes she will never be able to escape a monstrous family secret.
ŽIVA
Natasa Prosenc Stearns / Slovenia
Živa is inspired by the poem The Baptism on Svica (1836), a national epic about the violent Christianization of the Slovenes. Živa was a pagan goddess of love and prosperity. The meaning of her name is Life, Alive, Living. In nine semi-abstract scenes, the film shows the transformations of the goddess through her relationship to nature and to historic events, suggesting the senselessness of wars.
تصال / The Call
Shireen Ayache / United Kingdom
Sponsored by Anne Hildebrand
Leila, a Lebanese architecture student and her mother Dana are based in the UK, when they receive a call and find out an explosion has occurred in their home country, Lebanon. Their inability to help their loved ones and their city, brings to light the generational gap that deeply separates them. They must try to heal from the experience and find a resolution, despite their conflicting views on whether to leave the UK and return to their family home in the heart of the devastation.
Pearl In the window
Nil Unerdem / United States
Sponsored by Heron’s Haven
Pearl Morris, irritable and isolated, perches in her small apartment, staring out a window to the world outside, longing for connection. The only person who comes into her life is her chipper daily caregiver, Ada, who has her own struggles. After Pearl insults Ada, Ada doesn’t show up the next day. Pearl’s irritation soon turns to worry, and she decides to take the harrowing journey to Ada’s house.
INDIGENOUS DIRECTOR
MisTik
JULES ARITA KOOSTACHIN / CANADA
Sponsored by KAREN LERNER & JOHN MOFFAT
“MisTik” follows Cree twins who carry the last of the healthy trees on their backs, with the hopes of saving what is left of the world they once knew. MisTik visually explores our humanity as Indigenous peoples, and our relationships to the world around us as—in a post-apocalyptic world; young Cree twins NiiPii (Water) and SiiPii (River) understand the dire need to plant the last trees back into the ground, but where? The story bears significant socio-political and environmental relevance of today because it speaks to the impact of capitalism and the current destruction of Indigenous lands and waters. Not only does this film touch on the importance of our familial relationships, but draws attention to our role as land, air and water protectors.
Les Calins Cheaps (Cheap Hugs)
SARAH BASKIN / CANADA
Sponsored by Northshore Veterinary Clinic
Based on the short play, “Les Câlins Cheaps” is a story of two grieving women over the recent suicide of their mutual friend. Their loss has re-colored the details of their lives, turning their respective worlds upside down. The juxtaposition of their movements through the city of Montreal reveals their response to the question of how to live with this hole in their heart. One woman’s openness to the pain counters the other’s avoidance, ultimately leading them toward an unexpected connection that stirs something more hopeful in both of their hearts.
A GHOST STORY
Melissa Ann Bruning / UNITED STATES
Sponsored by Deborah Loober and Jane Burns
A familiar song, a message in a letter, a strange bird, a vision from the past in the hall- all parts of the transition from life to death and after. Why don’t we talk about these stories more often? In ‘Ghost Story’ a World War II veteran on his deathbed tells a hospice worker about his ghost. As Charlie, the veteran, played by Ed Begley Jr., needs the hospice worker to talk to as much as he needs his ghost to guide him. It’s important to know “we’re all connected,” as Charlie says, and embrace the unknown.
BRIDE STONE
Guzel Duishenkulova / Kyrgyzstan
Sponsored by Megan Taylor and Kent Stoddard
In a village in Kyrgyzstan there is a stone that looks like a woman. According to local beliefs, a young woman quarrels with her husband and father-in-law, and runs away from home. The father-in-law puts a curse on the woman, and the fleeing woman turns to stone. This legend is still believed by local women, and local men, taking advantage of superstition and the stone woman, to exert both physical and moral pressure on women.
jung & restless
joanna priestley / united States
Sponsored by Glenda Henifin
An animated dreamlike synchrony of sound and image that uses patterns and mandalas to explore the poetics of psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. The film takes a deep dive into unconscious thought to express the incommunicable through color, light, line, movement and sound. And to create the experience of feeling mystery and wonder.
UNCHARTED WATERS
MOLLY DENNIS / CANADA
Sponsored by Cindy & Jonathan Franklin
TAPPING INTO OUR PAST, TAPPING INTO OUR FUTURE: AYODELE CASEL
JENNIFER BURTON / U.S.
URSULA BURTON / U.S.
JENNIFER BURTON / U.S.
URSULA BURTON / U.S.
Sponsored by Virginia Gilkey Money
Ayodele means joy, and Ayodele Casel’s choreography creates a joyful celebration of the rich tradition of tap by Black women and men. Named one of the top breakout stars of the year by the New York Times just before the pandemic, choreographer Casel creates work inspired by the history of Black tap dancers who came before her. The film also makes visual the fact that as artists and engaged citizens, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
A FEMINIST LENS
PAMELA FRENCH / UNITED STATES
SPONSORED BY CAROL SNOWBALL
“A Feminist Lens: The Art and Activism of Photographer Joan Roth” is an intimate portrait of internationally acclaimed photographer Joan Roth. The film focuses on five decades of Roth’s pioneering use of her camera to advocate for homeless women in New York City; document leaders in the U.S. women’s movement from the 1970s to today, and shine a light on the diverse lives of Jewish women around the world.
Sugar People
SUZANA DINEVSKI / MACEDONIA
Sponsored by Greenwood Cider Company
Can one accidental meeting at a street light cause several worlds to collide? Elena, a young HIV-positive woman meets Fillip, a young romantic man at an intersection in the city of Skopje. They spend the next couple of days walking around the city and getting to know each other while forming a special bond. Their strong feelings for each other makes their limited time together longing for more and leads to revealing more about themselves than they normally would, since both believe they will never see one another again. And what if their once in a lifetime encounter at the street light was just a possibility for creating a story, which might have never even happened?
NUBECITA
KATALIN EGELY / Hungary
An animated journey between the magical pink clouds, which cannot be missed when we fall in love. Charming animation, childlike voices on the soundtrack, sentimental images of flowers, animals, and insects, but also of a lovely female couple, all in a style that is once fetching, charming, engaging, and repetitive.
MADE OF FLESH
FLORENCE ROCHAT & Séréna ROBIN / FRANCE
With a touch of blush and a few drops of lip gloss, Lucie is getting ready to start her training day to become a hostess at a motor show. A lifelong car enthusiast, she has the secret hope of being noticed by the prestigious EBBE brand. However, she is unaware that the training has only one true goal: to make her and the other 15 girls into premium women.
LA NUIT des CHASSEURS
PASCALE ARBILLOT / FRANCE
SPONSORED BY MEGAN TAYLOR & KENT STODDARD
Zorine and Milo, two high school students, get lost in the forest during an orientation race without telephones. Their wandering leads them to a disused amusement park. There they meet Lewis, an anti-hunting activist and his pet boar, Bambi. He is preparing an operation against the hunters in the region. Between the hope of returning home them and the obsessions of Lewis, Zorine and Milo will have a restless night.
LOVE, BARBARA
BYRDIE O’CONNOR / UNITED STATES
In her collection of over 100 films, pioneering experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer centered her own body, community, and love to create performative documentations of her lived experience as a lesbian. Her imprint on the art world, on women artists, and on the lesbian community is profound and indelible.
MOUTON NOIR
Déborah François / France
Since the murder of her parents, Ania has been in a psychiatric hospital where she receives regular visits from her sister Lyssa. After many years of absence, Gab, the younger brother of the siblings, returns to visit Lyssa. This becomes an occasion for a long settling of scores, around the deep secret surrounding the double parricide.
FEATURE FILMS
CINEMA SABAYA
FLORENCE ROCHAT & Séréna ROBIN / FRANCE
Co-sponsored by Robert and Sheila Goodwin, & John and Renee Remeny
A group of Arab and Jewish women attend a video workshop at a small town community center run by Rona (Dana Ivgy, Zero Motivation), a young filmmaker from Tel Aviv, who teaches them to document their lives. As each student shares footage from her home life with the others, their beliefs and preconceptions are challenged and barriers are broken down. The group comes together as mothers, daughters, wives, and women living in a world designed to keep them apart, forming an empowering and lasting bond as they learn more about each other… and themselves.
HONORED GUEST FILM PROGRAM
GUMBO COALITION
BARBARA KOPPLE / UNITED STATES
SPONSORED BY SAN JUAN BROADBAND
Gumbo Coalition follows two visionary Civil Rights leaders, Marc Morial and Janet Murguía, as they work to empower African American and Latino American communities through three turbulent years in America. Directed by two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, “GUMBO COALITION” takes us on an intimate — and sometimes humorous — journey into their lives, homes and the family histories that motivate their mission to achieve a more just and equitable country.
*Not available for online viewing.
CALL ME DANCER
PIP GILMORE & LESLIE SHAMPAINE / UNITED STATES
SPONSORED BY BARBARA vz HOWARD
When a hip-hop dancer accidentally walks into a dance class in Mumbai, his world opens up and a passion is born. The tough ballet master recognizes his talent and dares him to fulfill his dreams of dancing professionally – giving him the courage to defy family, culture and poverty. Call Me Dancer is a story of hope, heartache, and hard work. Together, student and teacher transform each other’s lives, searching to uncover who and what they are.
SATURDAY EVENING FEATURE FILM
TELL IT LIKE A WOMAN
Directors Silvia Carobbio, Catherine Hardwicke, Taraji P. Henson, Mipo O, Lucía Puenzo, Maria Sole Tognazzi, Leena Yadav / United States
‘Tell It Like A Woman’ is made up of seven short film segments directed by a diverse and international group of women filmmakers. Each segment is an inspirational and empowering story about women, by women, for everyone. The cast consists of internationally renowned actresses, such as Jennifer Hudson, Marcia Gay Harden, Eva Longoria, Cara Delevingne, Leonor Varela, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anne Watanabe, and many more. Directors are Silvia Carobbio, Catherine Hardwicke, Taraji P. Henson, Mipo O, Lucía Puenzo, Maria Sole Tognazzi and Leena Yadav.
*Not available for online viewing.
INDIGENOUS DIRECTOR
BONES OF CROWS
MARIE CLEMENTS / CANADA
SPONSORED BY WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY’S LONGHOUSE PROJECT
“BONES OF CROWS” is a sweeping epic film told through the eyes of Cree Matriarch Aline Spears as she survives a childhood in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse. She uses her uncanny ability to understand and translate codes into working for a special division of the Canadian Air Force as a Cree code talker in World War II. The story unfolds over 100 years with a cumulative force that propels us into the future.
HONORED GUEST FEATURE PROGRAM
HARLAN COUNTY, USA
BARBARA KOPPLE / UNITED STATES
SPONSORED BY PAUL McMULLEN
Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line. It was named an American Classic and added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1991 and selected as one of the Greatest Documentaries of All Time by Sight and Sound magazine.
BONUS FILM FOR FESTIVAL PASS HOLDERS
WOODSTOCK THEN & NOW
BARBARA KOPPLE / U.S.
If you were there, if you just wanted to be there, if you’re angry that you’re just 17 and were born a quarter century too late to be there — at Woodstock— then this is the documentary for you. The film combines footage of the festival from the original documentary, unseen footage, stills taken by people who were there, as well as personal interviews with those people. There are wonderful stories behind footage of the memorable performances, such as Jimi Hendrix, who rearranged “The Star Spangled Banner” against the wishes of his band members, Grace Slick waking up the half million muddy sleepers at dawn with “Somebody to Love,” and Graham Nash telling how Crosby, Stills, and Nash had had one previous gig before their historic performance.
The film will screen at 5:15 p.m. Monday, May 8, as part of our Kopple Retrospective Film Program in partnership with the Pickford Film Center. Free admission for festival pass holders. Tickets available through Pickford Film Center. Wear your Woodstock gear or bring a photo or memory to share with the audience
*Not available for online viewing.