CASCADIA Laurel

CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival will present 37 exceptional films directed by women from around the world on April 16-20, 2020 at the Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, WA. You can find our Official Selection of 2018 here. Below are our films for 2019.

2019 Festival Selections

ABANDON

ARC Film Festival Partner Film

GEORGIA PARRIS / U.K.

Shot in one take, Abandon follows Ciemmie, an ambitious dancer in her early thirties when she finds out she’s unexpectedly pregnant. She’s forced to put her emotions and anxiety aside for the final day of rehearsals of her most demanding show yet. Her understudy eagerly waits for an opportunity to step out. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

ABJECTIVE

ARC Film Festival Partner Film

MARIE-THERESE HILDENBRANDT / AUSTRIA 

Abjective is a fashion film exploring abject and abjection. The abject, a term formed by Julia Kristeva, is transported by the ambiguous object of hair, that can be seen on the one hand as an object of desire but in this case, leads to a break out of crisis triggered by the disgust. The sound level that is once more emphasizing on the inner crisis the main character is undergoing underlines the disruption of the perfect family. Watch trailer.

ADRIFT

PAULA CURY MELO / DOMINICAN REPUBLIC / U.S.

In director Paula Cury Melo’s home country of the Dominican Republic, sexual education is almost nonexistent, teen pregnancy rates are staggeringly high, and abortion is illegal in all circumstances. Adrift seeks to expose layers of social issues including disregard for women’s rights, toxic masculinity, domestic violence, and a political system coerced by religion. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

AJO / SHE

MORE RAÇA / KOSOVO

To escape an early marriage arranged by her father, Zana has to make a courageous decision. Ajo was considered for 2019 Oscar nomination in the Short film category, Foreign Films. Watch trailer.

Anita

FREIDA LEE MOCK / U.S.

The intensity of the 1991 Senate hearing for the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court by looking at Anita Hill’s personal story of sexual harassment. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

BEING ERNEST

VICTORIA FISTES / GREECE

Ernest is a nine-year-old boy who happens to be blind since birth. A curious interview with him granted us the opportunity to feel life from his perspective and share it with the world. Through this short animated film, we attempt to illustrate how Ernest experiences intangible concepts, such as colors, dreams, and memories.

BECOMING ASTRID

PERNILLE FISCHER CHRISTENSEN / SWEDEN, DENMARK

Teenaged Astrid Lindgren, who later went on to write the popular Pippi Longstocking series, leads a carefree life with her family in the forests and fields of rural Sweden. Restless and eager to break free from the confines of her conservative upbringing, she accepts an internship at a newspaper where she attracts the attention of its married editor. What happens leads her to newfound courage that later forms the foundation for her vast and beloved body of work. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

BOYS WHO LIKE GIRLS

INKA ACHTÉ FINLAND / NORWAY / INDIA 

Teenager Ved comes from a violent home in the Mumbai slums. When he joins a project aiming to foster healthy masculinity, he begins to realize there may be a brighter path for his future than the one paved by his abusive, controlling father. This is a coming-of-story set in the aftermath of the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape and the rise of the #MeToo movement. Will Ved’s generation of boys be the first who actually likes girls?

CANDACE

EMMA WEINSTEIN / USA 

Drama Comedy LGBTQ The day before Charlie leaves for college, her relationship with her best friend Nina explodes as they figure out how to say goodbye. Candace explores questions of race, queerness, and identity through the messy intimacy of young female friendship.

7AM Wednesday

CASCADIA

DEANNA MILLIGAN / CANADA

A young girl must travel on her own across a remote West Coast island in order to get help for her family but is challenged by her deepest fears and the mysterious ways of the ancient old growth forest.

CHINA LOVE

OLIVIA MARTIN McGUIRE / AUSTRALIA 

China Love takes us on a wild journey into the warmth of the family web in China into the hearts of our characters and into their personal dreams with an understanding of why and where these aspirations come from. The project explores China’s new position as a globalized country from its restrictive and highly traditional past. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

CUANDO TE VAS

ISABEL CAROLINA MONTES / USA

Camila returns home on a break from college to find her crass and cranky Cuban grandmother hasn’t been taking her pills. After they spend a funny and wistful day together, Camila begins to understand how someone so full of life could be ready to end it. Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

BIIDAABAN

AMANDA STRONG / CANADA

Accompanied by a 10,000-year-old shape-shifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighborhood of Ontario, Canada. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

DOORS OF PERCEPTION

arc film festival partner film 

CAROLINE SCHWARZ / USA

In a world where everything is black infinity, a nameless person has to overcome the temptation of the visible to be free. The limitation of perception causes the fear of the unknown. The unknown seems unimaginable. Does truth lie in the visible? Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

SGAAWAAY K’UUNA

GWAII EDENSHAW AND HELEN HAIG-BROWN / CANADA

Haida Gwaii, 1800s. At a seasonal fishing camp, two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiit’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid-“the Wildman.” When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

FRIENDS ONLINE

SAMANTHA WHITE / FRANCE, UK

“Friends” communicating online are not always who they appear to be and lead to some embarrassing discoveries. Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

EINSTEIN-ROSEN

arc film festival partner film 

OLGA OSORIO / SPAIN

A short sci-fi comedy. Summer of 1982. Teo claims he has found a wormhole. His brother Oscar does not believe him … at least not for now. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

EGGS & SOLDIERS

IMELDA O’REILLY / USA

A single Irish Dad forgets the tree on Christmas Eve. Older son Ned’s humanity is challenged when he risks everything to give his younger brother Marco a real Irish Christmas. Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

g-DOG

FREIDA LEE MOCK / USA

G-DOG goes within the vast family of Homeboy Industries and show how intimately its success derives from the personality of its founder, Father Greg Boyle. Boyle refers to himself as G-DOG, but the Jesuit priest has a gift for connection: taking a street-level approach to his ministry. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

DONNA WHEELER / USA

A differently-abled prodigy musician in an oppressive family seeks to break free and pursue her prodigious musical gifts.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

GRIT

SASHA FRIEDLANDER & CYNTHIA WADE / USA

Tragedy is witnessed on an epic scale as a tsunami of toxic mud displaces over 60,000 people in Indonesia and leaves a flowing geyser of gritty goop scarring the ecosystem. The film sees the fight for justice through the eyes of Dian, a 16-year-old whose family was displaced by the disaster. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

HEAD SPACE

EMMA HUIBREGTSE / USA

A single mother concerned with her son’s inability to cope, then sees the tables turn when faced with danger. Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

JANEK / BASTARD

MURIEL NAIM / USA, ISRAEL

Inspired by real events and roughly based on the Director’s grandfathers’ story of the intricate relationship between a Christian and a Jewish boy in 1942 Poland during the Holocaust. The goal is to review the trauma, pain, and identity crisis of the Jewish boy, along with a wide-eyed approach to the Christian family, looking into the other side’s feelings in a human, more personal way. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

LA LEPRE

LANA VLADY / ITALY

Young sprinter Maria has to face the greatest race of her life in order to reunite with her best friend and find a long-lost connection to her mother.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

LABYRINTH

SHIVA NOURI / IRAN

Set in a park, The Labyrinth has several stories of very different people who are all involved with other in an abnormal way–A young drug dealer knows there an old dealer who is angry with her, two young graffiti painters know there is a watchman to stop their illegal activities and young man has a date. A strange phone call will get them all involved. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

LE GRAND BAL

LAETITIA CARTON / FRANCE

The French documentary is an evocation of a festival of traditional and French and European dances which takes place each summer in the French community of Auvergne, the Grand Bal de l’Europe. The film tells the ball through its dancers, musicians the stories and meetings that are made and undone. Watch trailer.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

LIFELINES

CATHARINE PARK / CANADA

Overwhelmed by the trials and tribulations of high school, Arielle finds refuge in a dangerous habit – until her best friend discovers her secret. At its heart, LifeLines is a story about two friends struggling to cope with a crisis that could destroy their relationship. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

LONG DISTANCE TRAIN

LYDIA FARNA / USA

An animated short about a living person and a ghost girl balancing their long-distance relationship.

Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes

MADE PUBLIC

FOSTER WILSON / USA

The night before he says ‘I do’; Dave commits a cardinal sin: His doubts about tying the knot go viral. Alone at the altar, Dave must confront his own cold feet, a Greek chorus of bridesmaids, and the bride herself – all to save his marriage before it’s even begun. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

MOURAS

arc film festival partner film 

OLGA OSORIO / SPAIN-GALICIAN

A few hours before the summer solstice, Ana speaks to her daughter, Iria, of some legendary beings, the Mouras, guardians of the forest that only exist in the legends. Or maybe not. Watch trailer.

OChiSkwaCho

OChiSkwaCho

JULES KOOSTACHIN / CANADA, CREE

OChiSkwaCho is a sacred being, known to many Indigenous people as a spiritual messenger. Kokoom, an elderly (spiritually ailing) two-spirit woman has to decide whether to stay with her grandchildren or follow the OChiSkwaCho. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

OVUM

CIDNEY HUE / USA

In the near future, a woman must make a life-changing decision regarding her reproductive rights after a mind-bending technological/medical procedure flashes her future into her mind. Watch trailer.

OChiSkwaCho

PLURAL OF BLOOD

MARY-LYN CHAMBERS / USA

The effects of a shooting in the community test the marriage of Alejandro and Diana. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

RENEWAL

JESSICA PLUMB / USA

Featuring an emerging young scientist from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Renewal is a heartwarming story of transformation and restoration. Supported by HHMI and Tangled Bank Studios, this short film is part of the “Think Like A Scientist” series. This short is also a follow-up story to a feature film by the same Producer, Return of the River, chronicling the largest dam removal in history. Watch trailer.

OChiSkwaCho

SOLITAIRE

PAOLA BERNARDINI / BRAZIL , USA

In this dark comedy, we follow a young woman who has secluded herself in her palatial estate from any human interaction. When she hires a handyman in the hopes of relieving her lack of companionship, she finds herself overwhelmed with attachment to this man which quickly snowballs when she attempts to leave the estate. Watch trailer.

7AM Wednesday

TSHWEESH

FEYROUZ SERHAL / SPAIN

The football World Cup kicks off today and the people of Beirut are eager for the big-awaited event. While life moves on normally on such a day, the signal of the first match seems to be disrupted by strange audio waves. The frustration in the air builds up giving way to a bigger live event. Watch trailer.

UNSPOKEN CODE

UNSPOKEN CODE

JENNIFER SCHWERIN / USA, CHINA

A female Artificial Intelligence robot finds herself caught between developing her own AI to its full potential and her coding, which programs her to please, with devastating consequences. Designed for sophisticated tasks, she aspires to develop past expectations but is thwarted by her human host, who pushes her buttons. Watch trailer.