BW Brain Center for Community Engagement will host a Women’s Empowered Film Festival in honor of Women’s History Month on March 20th at the Center of Innovation and Growth. This event will showcase student-made films followed by question-and-answer sessions after each film.
Anne Antes, a sophomore theater, acting, and directing major, was inspired to revive the event from when it began during COVID by BW alumni who hosted it prior. Since there wasn’t a lot of information to be given from how the event was run, she had to “build it from scratch.”
“Professor Battle at the time, before he left, gave me some information, but there wasn’t a whole lot I had to work with. They didn’t leave a manuscript of how they did it. What I knew is that students wrote these scripts and they had a deadline to adhere to,” Antes said.
Ellie Burns, a senior film studies major, is one of the co-creators for the festival. She said an overall goal for this festival is to “keep film alive at BW.”
“We’re aware that the [film] major did get cut last semester and we want to make sure that people don’t just completely forget about it, and that it’s still an option for people to engage with film,” Burns said.
Sage Mullins, a sophomore film studies major, is a second co-creator for this event, using her connections with the Brain Center board. She said a goal of this event is to “give women-identifying people a platform to use their voices and show their art to the world.”
“As someone who’s made projects like this before, I know it’s really fun to show them to people. It’s a really fun process, and I’m really glad that I could be part of something that gives other women a voice and a chance to show their work,” Mullins said.
Antes said the experience of creating the festival has been “crazy and exciting,” but with a “ton of challenges.”
“I’ve never done a project like this before and I don’t know every single thing about film, but having a ton of help from Sage [Mullins] and Ellie [Burnes], was incredible. I could not have done any of this at this point without a team of people, without the support of the Brain Center, and the students who were really excited about this,” Antes said.
In an industry that is often male dominated, Mullins said the Women’s Empowered Film Festival aims to give the filmmakers “proper spotlight time to get to know the people involved and get to ask questions about their process.”
Burns said that it’s important now more than ever to showcase that women can create art and not be held back in the industry.
“There are great women directors, actresses, screen writers, and producers in literally all areas of film that create just as amazing stories and just as amazing performances as men do,” Burns said.
Antes said a lot of the time women are not seen in the film industry and she hopes the festival can be an inspiration moving forward and to “shed light” on what is going on in the industry.
“There was a documentary, I believe, that came out in 2018 or 2019 about women filmmakers and the struggles within that, and how they are not being paid as much compared to a man.” Antes said.
Antes said that this year’s Grammys have shown that this year has been a “women dominating year.”
“That was incredible to see how the times are changing, but there’s also a ton of things we aren’t currently aware of.” Antes said.
Antes said one of the filmmakers that has inspired her is Viola Davis, an actress who starred in a film called “Woman King.”
“You could see there were so many black actors and actresses in that film, and that really sheds light to black culture and how black women specifically have a harder time in film… If you’re a woman of a different race, it’s 10 times harder for you to be seen and Viola created a paved way for that.” Antes said.
Mullins said a female figure in film history that has inspired her is Greta Gerwig, especially with how she phenomenally interpreted the patriarchy through her film “Barbie.” She specifically also highlights the “intense and beautiful” monologue by America Ferrera, who plays Gloria in the film.
Burns said that she hopes the audience will take away from the film festival that film is alive within our student body.
“While the administration took away film studies, the students did not, and that’s really important to emphasize, because a major getting cut from the university is a huge deal, and especially when a lot of the first things to go were art majors…we want to show everyone that we’re still thinking about this, and we still want it to be prevalent, not only just for everybody, but for women’s minds and creativity, especially since we’re still showcasing our ideas and have creative outlets,” Burns said.
The Women’s Empowered Film Festival will be taking film submissions until March 7.
