credit: Maggie Tran | edited from film and audio by Jesse Johnson

The Davis Feminist Film Festival is a grassroots effort of local activists, students, and faculty affiliated with Gender and Global Issues at UC Davis. This festival celebrates local cultural workers & filmmakers while highlighting the links between local, national, and international social struggle.

Curation Update! Go to the calendar section for information about this year’s film lineup.

About the Davis Film Festival:

Gender and Global Issues is proud to present its third annual Davis Feminist Film Festival, a 2-night grassroots festival of short films featuring local, national and international filmmakers side by side. Mixing narrative, documentary, and experimental styles, the films highlight perspectives and issues that are too often missing from mainstream media. The third annual festival will be held February 28 & 29, 2008 at the Veteran’s Memorial Theatre on 14th St. in Davis, CA. Doors open at 7pm and films begin at 8pm.

Films like “Alma,” a story about a teenage girl unaware of her status as an illegal immigrant, and “Milk,” a bouncy and artistic interpretation of a new mother’s feeling that her breast milk could save the world demonstrate the breadth of this year’s festival. “I’m really excited about this year’s lineup,” says event coordinator Jaleen Francois. “A number of films challenge borders - on maps and in our minds - but there’s a wide array of topics and techniques.” This
year’s event also plans to provide information on several feminist activist groups and volunteer opportunities in the area.

Tickets will be available at Armadillo Records in Davis, The Next Chapter Bookstore in Woodland, and The Beat in Sacramento; pre-sale tickets cost $10 each night or $15 for both nights for students, and $15 each night or $25 for both nights for adults. (Ticket prices at the door differ slightly, see website for details.) Concessions will be for sale, including beer and wine.

“Many people—not only women—are excluded from the media machines, including working class men, people of color, the disabled, queer and transgendered folks,” explains event creator Danielle Fodor. “In choosing the word feminist, we decided to include films based not only upon the gender-identity of the filmmaker, but upon positionality and viewpoint.” While ‘feminist’ can be a word wrought with negative connotations, the collections represent the broad scope of issues that feminism includes. “I’ve been particularly proud of the comments I’ve heard from past audiences,” says GGI coordinator Margareta Lelea. “People have called the event surprising and refreshing. It illustrates ties to pressing social issues that go beyond the typical
stereotypes of what feminism is, and people have been really receptive.”

The festival is hosted by the Gender and Global Issues (GGI), a research, teaching and outreach academic subgroup of the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of California, Davis. GGI addresses articulations of gender with a range of global issues, including reproductive health, sexuality, environmental justice, human rights and cultural diversity, seeking understanding and action through education. Sponsors include the Women’s Resources and Research Center, Women and Gender Studies, Technocultural Studies, LGBT Resource Center, Art Studio, and GreenCine.

For more information on the event, or for ways to sponsor or volunteer, visit the website at http://www.femfilmfest.org or call (530) 752-8205.