Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Female Eye Film Festival 2011, March 16-20


The 9th edition of the Female Eye Film Festival kicks of tonight in Toronto with a premiere screening of the Student Super 8 Filmmaking Workshop 2011. Many of the directors will be in attendance and will participate in a Q&A session. It takes place at 7pm at WARC Gallery, 122 - 401 Richmond Street West. The event is free.

Tomorrow night, the festival has a more official opening night gala screening of Amazon Falls by Katrin Bowen. This screening and reception takes place at 7pm at the Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton Street. The film had its premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival hosts a number of tributes. They will have an honourary director tribute for Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron. The recipient of the Maverick Award & Tribute is producer Anne Tait. In addition, they will have a screening and tribute for the late great actress Cayle Chernin who sadly passed away recently from ovarian cancer.

Apart from opening night, all screenings take place at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front St East. Industry events are pay-what-you-can and take place at the Novotel Toronto Centre, 45 The Esplanade.

The Female Eye Film Festival runs from March 16 to 20.

http://www.femaleeyefilmfestival.com/
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Female Eye Film Festival Program


Screening Tickets are $8 at the door (Carlton Cinema and Rainbow Cinemas Market Square).
For advance tickets, visit TicketBreak.com or call 1-866-9-GET-TIX.
Panel Discussions, Workshops & Script Readings are PWYC (Pay what you can) – Novotel Toronto Centre, 45 The Esplanade.
Female Eye Networking Brunch & Special Tribute to Honourary Mary Harron is $25.00 – Novotel Toronto Centre – Dining Room.
*Discounts for Students and Seniors. WIFT Members receive 20% off.
**Please note when purchasing tickets that each film is attached to a specific program, if you are looking for a specific film make sure you select the correct program. Consult our online program guide to find which program your film is attached to.

Wednesday March 16th 2011

 

Location: Novotel Centre, Cafe Novotel, 45 The Esplanade
FeFF Welcome High Tea & Toronto Film Tour
Join us, for a HIGH TEA & STUDIO TOUR, 12pm at Novotel Toronto Centre – Cafe Novotel, 45 The Esplanade. – Goodies freshly baked, teas and coffee.
TORONTO FILM STUDIO TOUR at 1:30. Cost $20 to cover High Tea and Travel.
Location: WARC Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 122
Meniscus will take you on a journey into human nature where we learn what some would say our souls already know. The spirit is more powerful than the flesh. Naked bodies move together as one body of flesh, pulsing to the rhythm of life. Meniscus will envelope you in intoxicating and evocative images of human being’s physical and spiritual cycle of birth, death and life.
Optical and mechanical — rotating, tumbling, reassembling, rearranging, arrested and in flux, loose and continuous — a view of Coney Island and its denizens in patterns of shape, color and sound. Multilayered and transparent, a lopsided ode to the place a local calls ‘like spending three minutes inside an f***ing pinball machine.’
A girl is traveling through her emotions and her thoughts in order to accept the lost of her significant love one.
An epistolary video essay that charts a long distance correspondence between two friends – one American, the other South Korean. It is a work of experimental ethnography, which uses personal memory as a mode of exploring female intimacy, self discovery, and issues of cross-cultural translation.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Intermission (15 min)
3rd Edition of Student Super 8 Filmmaking Workshop 2011:
A young woman who drinks and does drugs still manages to hold her life together. She’s on a quest to find a balance… or a way out. She still hasn’t decided.
School can take over your life and kill you…literally.
Lost in a world full of expectation, a young woman finds herself consumed by the way beauty is portrayed in magazines. She is craving acceptance, love and understanding. She finally realizes that her imperfections make her the beautiful person she is.
Love and family always comes first in our community. No matter where we end up we can always look back and remember who we are through them.
In Cree culture twins are believed to carry medicine over from the spirit world.  One day, an older Native male spirit visits our world speaking of the special gifts that twin boys Pawaken (Totem) and Tapwewin (Truth) will share during their life on Earth.
Living the Big City life, trying to get by to live your dreams but can’t help being so homesick for all your loved ones, you keep in your heart & for the safety of “home” but still trying to make them proud of you living the “Big City Life”.
Did anyone ever stop to think about how that sidewalk Indian got there? And what type of life they lived and the effects that history has done to First Nations people in Canada.
The tenuous life of the honeybee in an attempt to expose the fragility of human existence.
Event Sponsored by WARC Gallery. Special thanks to LIFT Workshop Facilitator, Zoe Gordon.
Q & A with filmmakers to follow screening.
Film performance with projected super 8, improvised storytelling and live music.
Produced in partnership with ANDPVA and Liaison of Independent Filmmaker (LIFT). Produced under the auspices of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC).
Event Sponsored by WARC Gallery.

Thursday March 17th 2011




HONOURARY DIRECTOR TRIBUTE: Mary Harron
11am – 1pm – BRUNCH: Novotel Toronto Centre, Café Nicole, 45 The Esplanade
2pm – 4pm – TRIBUTE – INTERVIEW: Novotel Toronto Centre – Champagne West, 45 The Esplanade
Tickets are available at the door for $25.00 on a first come, first served basis, advance tickets available at Ticketbreak.com
THE FEMALE EYE BEST IN THE BIZ SERIES – TRIBUTE proudly presents an Intimate Conversation with our 2011 Honourary Director, acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, I Shot Andy Warhol and The Moth Diaries). Join moderator Carol Whiteman, the award-winning producer of the Women in the Director’s Chair program followed by a mini-master class from one of Canada’s filmmaking treasures. This honourary festival event is sponsored by Creative Women Workshops Association and Novotel Toronto Centre.
Canadian writer and director Mary Harron is best known for her films I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page and soon to be completed, The Moth Diaries. Harron first made an impact on the world of American independent cinema with her 1996 feature directorial debut I Shot Andy Warhol. Join moderator Carol Whiteman, the award-winning producer of the Women In the Director’s Chair program followed by this mini-master class from one of Canada’s filmmaking treasures. The widely acclaimed film, which detailed the short, strange life of S.C.U.M Manifesto author Valerie Solanas, earned both an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Film and a Special Jury Award for star Lili Taylor at the 1996 Sundance Festival.
Mary Harron also worked for a number of British publications, including New Musical Express, for which she wrote a history of the Velvet Underground, and Melody Maker, for which she wrote a detailed history of Andy Warhol and the Factory. Harron began her film career as the director of a number of documentaries for BBC TV and Channel Four. She also made six short films about pop culture, including one entitled How to Make an Oliver Stone Movie. Following I Shot Andy Warhol, her acclaimed feature directorial debut, Harron began adapting (along with co-writer Guinevere Turner) Brett Easton Ellis’ controversial novel American Psycho for the screen. The Notorious Bettie Page released in 2005, is about the 1950s pinup model who became a cult icon of sexuality and who helped popularize pornography. Harron shows Page as the daughter of religious and conservative parents, as well as the fetish symbol who became a target of a Senate investigation of pornography. Harron saw Page as an unwitting feminist figure who represented a movement for women’s sexual liberation, ironically similar, yet dissimilar to Solanas.
Audience Q & A with Director, Mary Harron.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Lake Ontario sends a message from her shores. Please send love, not garbage.
Over 200 First Nations communities are without clean drinking water – they call this a developed world. Thirst is a story about one community with poisoned water, poisoned with uranium.
This two-year student documentary film project is the personal journey of a Cree woman, the documentarist, as she starts to remember her first language, Inninimowin (Cree). The film addresses the impacts of genocide on the Inninuwak, who have been systematically severed from their language. More specifically, it focuses on the Cree peoples who originate from the Mushkegowuk territory, in northern Ontario. Cree is spoken in several communities across Canada, although considered most preserved; it too is at risk of disappearing. Cree is the vehicle for carrying forth the traditional Indigenous knowledge, customary laws, identity, spirituality, as well as the arts. Inninimowin carefully embraces the sacred stories, ceremonial practices and the ancestral teachings of the Mushkegowuk.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Hanging suspended in layers of dense fog is a city that cannot see the forest, or the trees. ‘Terranaughts’ follows a young boy’s adventure though this eerie, sweeping landscape as he searches for the source of a mysterious light.
A solo male performer confronts a white wall that stands relentlessly in front of him. RUSH is about the power of momentum to drive and destroy us.
Set in the Canadian Arctic, this is an intimate, first-hand account of how the tiny, isolated Inuit community of Cape Dorset became the internationally celebrated art capital of the North. The Baffin Island community of Cape Dorset is world-renowned for the art produced at the Inuit owned and operated Kinngait (pronounced ‘kingnight’) Studios. Weaving together 1st-hand accounts with images of iconic artworks, the film is a captivating chronicle of how art-making replaced fur-trapping in the 1950s, detailing the complex relationships between the artists and their network of supporters. ”Kinngait: Riding Light Into The World” brings together artworks of successive generations that eloquently illustrate the immense changes experienced by Inuit to their way of life and their environment over the past half-century.
Once upon a time a small band of artists, activists, and cancer survivors believed they could change the world. Together they created the art exhibition, ‘Survivors In Search of a Voice: The Art of Courage’. For more than 3 years, the exhibit toured North America where it became known as the Cancer Monument. The film chronicles the journey of the show, the creators, and the men and women who shared their lives with the filmmaker’s camera. The Art of Courage is truly an inspiring affirmation of the human spirit and the power of art.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
A sexy look at how the modern human functions within its societal bounds.
Life and art intersect on a spectacular Newfoundland farm, when visual artist Colette Urban stages 13 performance artworks in her fields and barns. Resilient, determined, self aware and funny, Colette embraces the transformative power of art.
In the Shadow of Buddha takes us to the seldom seen world of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in northernmost India. Many Buddhists believe that one cannot attain enlightenment in the body of a woman, so what compels these women to dedicate their lives to being a nun? Through their own voice, without narration, we explore the paradox that being a woman within Tibetan Buddhism represents. For these women the notion that a woman can be educated and that being born a female is not a punishment of past deeds is currently challenging thousands of years of history. The stark images seem as familiar as they are exotic, but there is a world more beautiful and mysterious that is not often witnessed by the eye of western enthusiasm.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton St. Toronto
Opening Statement by FeFF Founder/Executive Director, Leslie Ann Coles and City of Toronto Councillor (TBA)
Meet Scott: a 260 pound red-headed, fun-lovin’, bi-polar, hockey-playin’ sexual deviant who recently turned forty and who has spent the last 15 years living in Los Angeles, out of work and overweight. No job, no girlfriend, a lot of cereal and too much internet porn. On a particularly lonely Christmas Eve, Scott decides the answer to all his problems may lie in North Hollywood-his name is Keith and he’s willing to wear pantyhose if Scott comes over.
It’s a hot summer day. Thirteen-year-old Tina loves to dream. But today she must confront the idle pleasures and confusions of teenage life.
FEATURE GALA – A DEBUT FEATURE PRESENTATION with Director, Katrin Bowen
Starring April Telek, Anna Mae Routledge, Zak Santiago, and William B. Davis. Amazon Falls tells the story of a faded B-movie actress, Jana, who refuses to give up her dream of being a star. But the clock is ticking. She is on the cusp of forty and it’s now or never. Despite her best efforts to live clean and expand her skills, Jana is ultimately overcome by the burden of a dream in a business that would seem to punish more for virtue than for vice. Faced with perpetual futility and diminishing returns, when is it time to finally let the dream go? Amazon Falls – runs theatrically – Friday March 18th – March 24th, Carlton Cinema. Screening sponsored Magic Lantern Theatres.
Q & A with Dir. Katrin Bowen, and special guests to follow the screening. 
9:30pm, Amazon Falls – RECEPTION – Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton St. Toronto. Join us for cocktails.

Friday March 18th 2011



Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Alsace Room, 45 The Esplanade
The Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) is proud to announce the return of the Directors Round Table workshop to this year’s festival line-up. Lead facilitators for this workshop will be Founder/ Executive Festival Director, Leslie Ann Colesand award-winning Women In the Director’s Chair, WIDC Producer, Carol Whiteman will be joined by invited Industry Guests.  Within a round table discussion format invited Industry Guests will engage in facilitated conversations with session participants including the festival’s attending filmmakers and interested members of the public, with the aim of provoking thought, lively debate, observations, and even some recommendations around the topic of Success and the Female Filmmaker.
Following a brief introduction by the lead facilitators, Industry Guests, will be placed at each table and given a key Debate Question to discuss with session participants for up to 30 minutes.  Then session participants will rotate in turn to the three other Discussion Tables.  The Industry Guests will stay at their designated table and continue to discuss the question with other participants in turn.
At the end of the table rotations, the Industry Guests will report out to the assembled group on the outcomes of their respective discussions. As time permits, at the head table Industry Guests will be encouraged to engage each other in a discussion about the session outcomes.
Following the FeFF Directors Round Table the Female Eye Film Festival will undertake to issue a report outlining the outcomes of this session along with pertinent recommendations about what women filmmakers might want to start doing; stop doing; and continue doing in order to be more successful?  Recommendations to government and / or the industry at large may also be among anticipated outcomes of these discussions.
Debate Questions include:
1. GETTING FILMS MADE: with funding dollars being squeezed even more, and women-driven projects still not fairing well in larger budget categories, what strategies can women filmmakers utilize to get their films made in today’s economy?  Is it time for a new model? Perhaps a Women’s Filmmaking Cooperative?
2. DISTRIBUTION: The distribution of theatrical release films is getting so competitive that the smaller, more intimate films directed by women do not stand a chance.  What innovations can women filmmakers utilize to get their films to audiences?
Industry delegates TBA
11:00AM – 12:00PM : ⇑ FEATURE DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Many of us assume that there are only two genders and that being female or male follows from the sex of our biological bodies. Inspired by the photographs of acclaimed New Zealand photographer Rebecca Swan, Assume Nothing focuses on the art, photography and performances of five “alternative” gender artists of Maori, Samoan-Japanese, and Pakeha-European descent, posing the questions: “What if “male” and “female” are not the only options? How do other genders express themselves through art?” Intimate present-day interviews and actuality are interspersed with lush Super-8, 2-D and 3-D animations and beautifully staged performances – blurring the conventions of documentary, animation, drama and gender in the process. Meticulously crafted, playful and provocative, Assume Nothing travels from Wellington’s Red Rocks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to explore the potent creative world that flourishes between and beyond genders.
Q & A with special guest.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Caught between her upbringing and a desire for intimacy with Hassan, Tabitha turns towards the insights of her six year old daughter to help determine their future.
The Guests tells the story of so many Palestinian refugees who seek asylum in Canada after being driven away from their homes with no alternative place to go. The difficulties they face on their way to Canada are surmountable compared to the human suffering when they meet their new home country, Canada, refuses to help them.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Some appetites aren’t easily satiated, “Hunger” is the story of a group coming together for a typical dinner party, which we quickly discover is anything but. Within the suspension of time, secret desires are acted out upon with those seated at the table. What would you do with/to the person sitting across the table from you if there were no repercussions? What is your most intimate hunger that goes unfed?
Broken hearts confess their stories through monologues modeled after famous paintings.
It’s the last night of the summer in Toronto and Carter (Wade Gamble) wants to live life to its fullest. Joined by two friends, Ryan and Rainbow, Carter takes the audience on an adventurous night set against the BIGGEST rave of the summer. With high adrenaline and nothing to lose, DROP is one night you don’t want to miss.
Set in 1940′s rural America a desperate woman ‘Edie’, abandons her aging mother in a cornfield and is haunted by childhood memories. Will she will leave her mother to die in order to free herself? Destined to confront a painful past, three parts of Edie’s personality unsympathetically compel her to take her first steps toward reclaiming her life. In this mysterious crucible of family betrayal and emotional healing, Abandon ME represents a deeply internalized form of visual storytelling rich with metaphoric layers and symbols, which elegantly unfold into a message of hope and empowerment for women.
Prom Date is a musical comedy about asking people to prom in an overly romantic high school. Evan Jacobs wants nothing more than to ask his dream-girl, Deanna to Prom, but will he be brave enough to go through with his plan? This is a story about high school, unrequited love, friendship, dreams, and above all, getting what you want, no matter what.
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Out Late is an inspirational and moving documentary about five individuals who made the courageous and life altering decision to “come out” as senior citizens. Their stories are nothing less than extraordinary: many lived straight lives complete with marriage and children, and now face the challenge of beginning again late in life. Why did they wait until their 50’s, 60’s, or 70’s to come out? And what was the turning point that caused each of them to openly declare their sexuality? From Canada to Florida, to Kansas, we explore what ultimately led these dynamic individuals to make the liberating choice to live openly and honestly amongst their family, friends and community, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Café Nicole, 45 The Esplanade.
Screenwriters: Franky Sanchez, “That White Girl”; Matt Hilliard- Forde, “Kindred”; Natalie Hanson, “Aftermath”; Mark Winzer, “Queen of Vengence”; Johnny Sanchez, “That White Girl”, Dorothy A. Atabong, “Daisy’s Heart”; Michael O’Day & Pepa Albornoz, “Fe Esther” ; Patti Flather, “Kiss That Alaska Highway” and Denise Landau, “Wasp Coffee”.
Industry Guests: Christine Tyson, Head of Development Buffalo Gal Pictures; Byron Martin, Byron A. Martin Productions Inc.; Angela Argento, Literary Agent, Catalyst Talent Creative Management and more delegates.
Presented by Berkshire Axis Media, Mark Sanders. Sponsored by Quebecorp Fund. 

NOVOTEL TORONTO CENTRE – Champagne West, 45 THE ESPLANADE

Tickets are: PWYC (Pay what you can).  All proceeds will be donated to The Cayle Chernin Memorial Fund.
An Intimate Conversation with Female Eye Maverick Award Winner 2011, Anne Tait. The Female Eye Maverick Award signifies innovation, creativity, and perseverance in the Film and Television Industry. Last year, the award was presented to Kit Redmond, and to Linda Schuyler of Epitome Pictures (2009). Facilitated by Television & Interactive Producer,LAURA JAMES of Mulberry Media.
“I’m thrilled to be honoured with the Female Eye Maverick Award – by a Festival I admire so much. As a casting director, I have championed the talent of hundreds of women, and recently I produced the award-winning film IRON ROAD which has as its heroine a feisty Chinese woman disguised as a guy, who helps build our railroad through the Rockies. IRON ROAD is the first co-production between Canada and China since 1989, and took me 10 years to get on screen. I hope this Maverick Award will inspire other women in our business to be tenacious in pursuing seemingly-impossible projects like this one.” – Anne Tait
ANNE TAIT is a producer, casting director, writer, director and broadcaster. For 7 seasons she was the head casting director of Road to Avonlea, has cast hundreds of feature films and TV series, written and directed stage plays and screenplays, hosted a TV public affairs series and a radio series for CBC.
Her film IRON ROAD won awards from the Roma Fiction Festival, the Dominican Republic Global Film Festival, a recent Gemini and 4 Leos.
Anne was nominated for an Emmy and won 2 Anik Awards for casting. She also cast 2 seasons for the Stratford Festival.

Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
An introverted romance novel addict, Becka, goes out on a blind date, and gets an unexpected visit by Juan Philipe, a character from one of her books.
Dave is a seemingly ‘normal’ psychologist who ultimately discovers that his patients aren’t exactly who they appear to be.
Yogurt Cups is a closely observed film about a relationship between a retired widower and his spirited caretaker. Mr. Kolar lives on a farm in a rural area of the Czech Republic. When his aide suggests an alternative method of treatment to subside his tremors caused by Parkinson’s, he grumpily refuses until a chain of events makes him change his mind.
Living amongst the ruins of the Dust Bowl and in the absence of a mother who has fled, Claire longs for freedom from a father who blames her for the family’s misfortunes.
A young girl; a lover of music, yearns for some sense of peace and identity while suffering under the oppression of mother’s demands. With a little help from her dreams and the music she loves the most, she transcends her anguish via an uncanny metamorphosis.
Marie is a single mom, her sister is in a coma, and her Mama is a rosary clutching leave-it-to-God kind of woman. Marie is haunted by her sister, who has been in a coma for 3 years, to pull the plug. And yet, neither of them feels like living. This all changes after one intoxicated night when Marie meets a wandering spirit that helps her realize not only her sister’s wish for freedom, but also her own.
Featuring a stellar cast of Canadian talent including Tara Nicodemo, Elana McMurtry, Maria Vacratsis, Rosie Elia and Richard Clarkin, this magical film stirs up the meaning of being alive.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
6:45PM – 8:45PM : ⇑ CANADIAN FEATURE PRESENTATION
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
A LOVER’S FRAGMENTS is about remembering and forgetting. There are two lovers who are separated from each other in each part. A letter – form Part 1 deals with materiality of memory showing how it works when it worn away. The physicality of memories transforms onto the film from digital image, which was shot originally as a home video from the director’s real life partially using optical printing. A diary – form Part 2 is shot in fictional way and it turns its attention to a lover who struggles to forget the loved one over time. The repetitive action mimics the character’s attempt to forget. Combining both experimental and narrative ways of film shooting, this film is expanding its perspective.
FEATURE PRESENTATION
Deborah Chow’s dark drama centers on the burgeoning relationship between an unlikely pair. . . Nathalie (Isabelle Blais) is expecting her first child and Henry (Zach Braff) is on his way to his next drug deal. Their paths fatefully collide one night in an event that will irrevocably change their lives. A marvel in her raw performance as a woman carrying the tragic reminder of a shattered dream, Blais is the perfect counterpoint to Braff’s conflicted Henry, who manages to earn our sympathies in unexpected ways. The two capture the cross-currents of emotion in their inevitably doomed relationship and enliven Chow’s fine script. Chow has clearly cultivated the talent she displayed in her short film The Hill, which premiered at the Female Eye Film Festival in 2004. It is a delight to present her mature, heartfelt and accomplished debut feature.
9:00PM – 10:30PM : ⇑ SUSPENSE AND THRILLERS
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Pillow Talk is a story of love gone sour. Boy meets Girl. Boy loses Girl. Boy finds another Girl.
A female Canadian aide worker, Lisa, is kidnapped in Darfur. Her husband desperately seeks her release, but is tangled by bureaucratic red tape. Her only hope lies with a stern government case worker, Mpumi, whose refusal to budge on policy stems from a past she can’t bear to face.
Alice, sixteen years old, wakes up by a pond near a forest. She cannot remember how she arrived there, nor why she is naked and her clothes are hanging in the branches of the trees. Her first instinct is to run home. But something sinister hangs in the air, and it follows her like a cloud. Her body begins to show signs of injury and, as she gets closer to her destination, she is haunted by memories, both nostalgic and terrible, that blur her sense of reality.
Krista (Shannon Lark) leaves her boyfriend behind and drives to a rundown desert motel to await the arrival of her sister Maddy (Elissa Dowling). Broken and abused, Krista downs prescription pills and cheap vodka to forget her troubled past and her grip on reality lessens.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Max is an offbeat writer caught between his past and future tenses. His words take on a life of their own as they fly off the typewriter carousel and guide him to decisive moments in his past. This uniquely vivid landscape leads him on a journey of reflection and self-discovery.
Five strangers find themselves around a Black Jack table in an unknown location served by a mysterious croupier and an omniscient supervisor, who tests their humanity in the Petri-dish of a casino. As the stacks of chips rise so do the gambler’s spirits. But when luck turns, their true selves emerge and we find ourselves looking into the darkest corners or human nature. In true “Twilight Zone” fashion, some secrets are kept and new truths are exposed.
FOREIGN FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Language: Hebrew and Russian with French & Russian subtitles. The dark corners of growing up as a new immigrant are powerfully explored in this intense documentary. Sophie’s wrenching journey into darkness is strikingly documented as her decent into drugs and prostitution leads not only to a powerful film, but to the possibility of moving on.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.


Saturday March 19th 2011



Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Champagne West, 45 The Esplanade

10:30 AM- 12PM: CTV WIDC CAREER ADVANCEMENT MODULE CAM PANEL
Moderated by Carol Whiteman, President & CEO CWWA and Producer of The Women In the Director’s Chair program (WIDC).
Industry insiders including Rebecca Dipasquale (SPACE), Anne Frank (Telefilm Canada), and another mentor to be confirmed, discuss the current shifts in the marketplace and what it now takes for content creators to tell their stories and sustain healthy careers while navigating the relentless curve of change. Presented by Creative Women Workshops Association through the support of the CTV-CHUM Tangible Benefits and in collaboration with the Female Eye Film Festival.

12PM – 1PM : CTV WIDC COFFEE BREAK
Join us for refreshments and networking
1PM – 5:00PM: CTV WIDC CAM ** Closed door session.

The FeFF congratulates the following directors:
Katrin Bowen, dir. “Amazon Falls” (Vancouver, BC)
Valerie Buhagiar, dir. “Small, Stupid and Insignificant” (Toronto, ON)
Anna Sikorski, dir. “Missing” (Montreal, QC)
and former FeFF Alumni Director, Sharon Lewis (Toronto, ON)

12:00PM – 5:00PM : ⇑ SCRIPT READING SERIES

Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Champagne West, 45 The Esplanade

Tickets are: PWYC (Pay what you can).  All proceeds will be donated to The Cayle Chernin Memorial Fund.
Sponsored by Quebecor Fund. Presented by Berkshire Axis Media, Mark Sanders. Special thank you to actor participants!
Title: “Daisy’s Heart”, written by Dorothy A. Atabong.
Logline: A white entrepreneur and a black South African clothing designer embark on an indissoluble love affair despite prevalent clashes and unfortunate circumstances that propel them toward tragedy.
Title: “Kiss That Alaska Highway” , written by Patti Flather
Logline: Kiss That Alaska Highway is a feature drama about a retired African-American historian who must return to the wartime highway he helped build and face past demons to create the family he always wanted.
Title: “That White Girl” , written by Johnny Sanchez
Log line: A teenage white girl, immersed in the urban culture of hip-hop, becomes a graffiti artist and a member of the infamous African-American gang, the Crips. Inspired by a true story.
Title: “Wasp Coffee” , written by Denise Landau
Logline: Country-girl Reba, from Crockett County, TN has hot romance with an outsider, but when he cheats, she takes revenge through mysticism and granny magic.

Industry delegates TBA.

Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Teenager Jude is happy and confident about her pregnancy until she overhears her father Michael telling her teacher it’s a terrible mistake. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Jude flees the school and Michael chases her into a busy street market. Only Jude’s brave stand when a Chinese DVD seller is mugged shows him he needs to stand up for his daughter.
Ellie is in high school and has been trying to deal with unwanted sexual attention from an older boy. She’s been unable to cope with this on her own and has started staying away from school. Ellie eventually gets help in order to stand up to her bully, and sees him as he really is.
On a cold fall evening, Leila is left alone to tend the family convenience store. A series of strange clients keep her in a constant state of apprehension. Language and cultural barriers also contribute to the making of a nerve-racking evening.
Canadian Grandmothers welcome African Grandmothers to Canada on a journey into solidarity to end HIV/AIDS in African communities. Traveling across Canada into over 40 communities in 65 days, the AfriGrand Caravan carried visitors from Africa to meet the Canadian Grandmother groups who have been supporting them through the Stephen Lewis Foundation. African Grandmothers and Grand Daughters shared their stories first hand of what present day living is like in the wake of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, and what work they are doing to change their futures now. The relationships nurtured on this journey are touching and an ever present example of what a group of compassionate people can do together, while reminding us that women are the makers of change.
My Slave Sister Myself is a compelling documentary film that depict the effects of the Transatlantic slave trade on enslaved African females and correlate them with feelings deeply embedded in the souls of today’s African American women. The comparisons are compelling! It also exposes how slavery shaped perceptions about African American manhood. My Slave Sister Myself sheds light on a dark and tragic period in American history and addresses a myriad of issues that were borne in slavery, yet continue to plague African Americans today. Men, women, young and old alike of all ethnicities can benefit from the information this film conveys.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
A collaboration with poet Margaret Christakos, based on her poem “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Drawing from the dominant themes in the poem, the film reflects on the desires of girlhood from the vantage point of a woman through a kaleidoscope of paper dolls, Renaissance paintings, textured fabrics and colourful jewelry. The film includes both filmed and cameraless imagery, and draws on the unique colour saturation and textures of photograms and re-photographed super 8 images.
Second Bodies is an intimate and semi-autobiographical exploration of the avatar experiences of three women in online gaming. This part-Machinima documentary poetically reflects on the perception of self, disability/body image, mental illness, feelings of otherness, and unrequited love, via the virtual reality world of Second Life.
Olivia, a young girl learning to swim, meets the Underwater Princess in her backyard pool. Escape into another world.
Feature Documentary:
Atlantic Crossing: a Robot’s Daring Mission is the story of a passionate team of scientists led by world-renowned oceanographer Scott Glenn, who make history by successfully navigating the first autonomous underwater robot across the Atlantic Ocean. Visionary oceanographer Scott Glenn leads a team of world-renowned ocean scientists and engineers at Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Lab (COOL Room) as they race against time to launch the first transatlantic autonomous underwater robot. RU27, or “Scarlet”, will be the first successful glider robot to explore the vast uncharted waters of the North Atlantic. Scarlet’s historic mission will inspire a future robotic oceanographic observation network critical for monitoring and predicting climate change.
Q & A with directors to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
An autobiography told in a dreamlike state and in which the idea of dreams are explored as related to fragmented memories.
Independent Crissi Cochrane shines in this music video’s journey through Nova Scotia, Canada captured in brilliant photos as she makes her way home.
A high-powered fashion director must confront her relationship regrets when she discovers that her little sister is getting married. Add notables?
DEBUT FEATURE:
Lily returns once again to her family’s lake cabin for the summer. Only this time, Mom and Dad are not around, and her friend Lady has come along for the ride. A chance encounter at a gas station brings best friends, Lady and Lily, together with a local off-the-grid boy. Set along the scenic landscapes of Northern Idaho, with the backing of an original indie music soundtrack, Lady Lily (adventures in god’s country) displays the intimacy of friendship, love, and every strange happening in between.
Q & A with director , Danielle Barbieri, cast member, Eileen Barbieri, David Brandwein (producer, music supervisor, sound designer) and Thomas Barbieri (Executive Producer) to follow screening.

Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Stuck in her domestic routine, a woman discovers a sense of authority and pride within her domestic work. Her control of her domestic environment allows her to obtain a sense of power similar to that in which her male counterparts contain in every other environment.
Mother and daughter dolls live together in their ruined home. They spend all of their time together in this dystopian world.
A power struggle between an embittered father and his dutiful daughter ends with a potent lesson in honesty and trust.
DEBUT FEATURE
Peach Plum Pear is the story of Jesse, a troubled young man from Los Angeles, and his friend Will, who find themselves stranded in small- town Nebraska on their way to Chicago when their car is stolen. The purpose of their trip has a vague connection to Jesse’s father, who lives there. During their stay, they work for Hank, a rough and tumble handyman in exchange for his car, who is married to Sharon, the kind bartender who agreed to take them in temporarily. Hank, Sharon, and neighborhood girl Dora, who has strained relationships with the men in her life, teach Jesse surprising lessons about relationships and himself.
Q & A with producer Annelise Dekker, writer Samantha Genovese, and cast Mackenzie phillips, Tyler Blackburn, Alanna Masterson and Joris Jarsky to follow screening.
Q & A with directors to follow screening
9:30PM – 12:00AM : ⇑ LATE NIGHT THILLER SUSPENSE
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
A young girl with a mysterious past uncovers a family secret that puts her in great danger from a determined supernatural force.
DEBUT FEATURE:
A vacationing couple discover their camp site isn’t as secluded or safe as they had hoped in this thriller written and directed by Vilma Zenelaj. When Eva (Greta Zenelaj) and Steve (David Landry) are nearly shot by Carl (Rocco Di Nobile), a careless and mysterious hunter, the couple quickly suspect his presence in the forest is more than a coincidence. With Carl watching their every move and his attraction to Eva becoming more evident by the moment, the couple try desperately to flee these mountains where phone service is nonexistent and the way out is miles away on foot. When Steve breaks his ankle, it is up to Eva to find a way out of the forest for both of them! Anora Wolff and Keyvan Kiafer co-star in this thriller that’s sure to keep only the most adventurous campers from daring to venture… INTO THE WOODS.
Q & A with director to follow screening


Sunday March 20th 2011



10:30AM – 12:00PM :⇑ DIRECTORS PANEL DISCUSSION

Location: Novotel Toronto centre – Champagne West, 45 The Esplanade

“Women In Film, Women and Story”, a moderated panel discussion with Female Eye Founder/Exec. Director, Leslie Ann Coles and directors.
11:00AM – 1:00PM : ⇑ SUPERNATURAL SHORTS AND FEATURE
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street
Fourteen-year-old Roberta is set to perform in her East Vancouver high school’s production of ‘The Stranger: The Musical!’ until she accidentally consumes a large quantity of hallucinogenic mushrooms. In her ensuing state (and with help from her idol, TV’s ‘Bunky the Vampire Killer’) Roberta gains the power to defeat her real-life enemies.
According to the doctrine, 32,000 years ago, a fleet of spacecraft arrived into South America from the planet Capela bearing an alien race. From this civilization came the spirit of Pai Seta Branca, who chose Tia Nieva, a female Brazilian truck driver to build, construct and complete a temple, lakes, shrines and most importantly an entire religion on 22 hectares of dusty ground in the middle of Brazil. The people who live in the Valley of Dawn in Brazil believe they originate from the Planet Capela and that the fabulous and outrageous clothes they wear connect them to their interplanetary spirit guides. Are they crazy? Or does the energy of this tribe and their exotic and glamorous costumes really lead to a whole new spiritual life? Adrienne Grierson finds the answer in the most eccentric and colorful religion on earth.
Filmmaker Agata De Santis sets out to uncover the world of the evil eye – where one can become physically ill by another’s envious glances, where the only remedy is a phone call to the old woman down the street, and prevention involves wearing strange-looking amulets.
Q & A with director and cast to follow screening.
12:00PM – 5:00PM : ⇑ SCRIPT READING SERIES

Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Champagne West, 45 The Esplanade

Tickets are: PWYC (Pay what you can).  All proceeds will be donated to The Cayle Chernin Memorial Fund.

Sponsored by Quebecor Fund. Presented by Berkshire Axis Media, Mark Sanders. Special thank you to actor participants!
Title: “Kindred” written by Matt Hilliard – Forde
Logline: An unorthodox female detective struggles for her sanity when she discovers she’s related to the serial killer she’s hunting.
Title: “Aftermath”, written by Natalie Hanson
Logline: A woman and her boyfriend believe the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina will provide them the perfect opportunity to commit a heinous crime: the murder of the woman’s ex-husband. A corrupt cop who discovers their crime and the nation’s greatest natural disaster add to the chaos as they all desperately try to stay one step ahead of catastrophe.

15 minute Intemission

Title: “Queen of Vengence” , written by Mark Winzer.
Logline: A passionate leader, a loving mother…and the slayer of 70,000. Based on the true life of Queen Boudicca, whose legend has become an international icon of feminine power.
Title: “FE, ESTHER”, written by Michael O’Day and Pepa Albornoz
Logline: Perceptions can be deceiving. A Colombian journalist covers the appearance of the Virgin Mary in a Venezuelan border town. A deeper story then unravels involving deception, Colombian guerrillas and her own past.

Industry Guests TBA

Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Pretty Ballerina focuses on a ballerina’s journey in mastering the art of ballet over time. The ballerina experiences much joy and freedom initially Over time this joy is destroyed as the ballerina descends into excruciating pain, ultimately becoming trapped by her red dancing shoes.
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY:
Punk has grown up and is now called DIY (= Do It Yourself): A globally interconnected scene, built on autonomy and solidarity, has declared war on capitalism and the status quo: “We want more than we find in this society and at the same need a lot less than it offers.” Whether they are squatters in Barcelona, antifascists in Moscow, queer inhabitants of Berlin’s self-governed trailer parks, Dutch unionists, or aging activists of England’s CRASS collective – they can all be brought down to one common denominator: their protest and music as their means and tool to express it. “Maybe music can’t change the world, but it can be a soundtrack!” Consequently, two filmmakers set off on a journey through sub cultural Europe. *WINNER Female Eye BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM 2009.
Q & A with directors and to follow screening.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
The film takes place on a sultry night in Tel Aviv night, the kind that has become a tiring routine. Shira, a woman in her early thirties, is forced to face her inner turmoil and resolve her long lasting conflicts. While waiting for her husband to return from a business trip abroad, she has to deal with taking a pregnancy test that will force her to make a choice between two men.
FEATURE PRESENTATION
It is late winter. A young violinist has been murdered in her apartment by an unknown assailant. Devastated by the violent death of her only child, Anna, Françoise leaves Montréal and takes solitary refuge in Kamouraska, in the house she inherited from her maternal ancestors. There, she attempts to reconstruct her interior life by getting back in touch with the river, with nature, and with the house and the objects that remind her of her daughter. But Françoise’s grief is profound: she no longer wishes to live. In the forest, a man discovers her letting herself die of cold and saves her. They recognize each other from adolescence. Édouard is now a painter who returned to live in his childhood home a while ago. Gradually, the loving feelings of their youth spontaneously resurface. The presence of this man and the gentle spirits of her deceased grandmother, mother and daughter help Françoise rediscover the desire to live.
Q & A with directors and to follow screening.
Tickets are: PWYC (Pay what you can).  All proceeds will be donated to The Cayle Chernin Memorial Fund.
Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Cayle Chernin
The film and television industry lost a beloved talent, one who graced the screen of the Female Eye Film Festival since its inaugural event in 2001. Actress Cayle Cherninfought a noble battle against ovarian cancer, which tragically took her life on February 18th, 2011.
Cayle Chernin worked with so many great Toronto based women directors.
We are pleased to present a selection of award winning short films, along with a peek at the original Goin’ Down the Road (1969) directed by Donald Shebib and a sneak peek at the much anticipated sequel, Goin’ Down the Road Again (2011).
Film Program:
Not A Fish Story, directed by Anita Doron
The Princess of Selkirk Street,directed by Jill Riley
Car Lady and Bike Girl, directed by Maria Theodorakis
Tea With Mother, Co-Produced by and Starring Cayle
Goin’ Down the Road, directed by Don Shebib

This event will be hosted by Canadian actress Jaÿne Eastwood, a close friend to Cayle and her co-star in Goin’ Down the Road (1969).  Eastwood was one of the original cast members of the Toronto branch of The Second City, was a semi-regular on SCTV and has enjoyed a notable and celebrated career in film and television. Currently, Eastwood can be seen on CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie and she recently reprised her original role as Betty in the sequel to Goin’ down the Road, Goin’ Down the Road Again.
Moderated Q & A with the directors to follow.

*Please join us for the Closing Gala and Reception at 6PM.

Location: Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, 80 Front Street East
Paramnesia is an experimental moving image. Deciphering the meaning of paramnesia in terms of psychiatry: the definition is a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused. I reflect and depict the poignant derivation of a pregnant female figure with her garment, furniture, and natural force based on my experience and indistinguishable recollections.
Five year old Lauren is trying to get her sister’s attention by showing off her gymnastics. But all Natalie is interested in is her boyfriend, Noggin. What’s more, Lauren’s plan to grow a baby like her pregnant sister isn’t going to plan. Natalie’s boyfriend and his mate come round to see Natalie and Lauren and her friend Amy show off their gymnastic skills. They are unappreciated. Lauren and Amy overhear the older kid’s conversations, and conclude that the local pedophile might be able to help them out with a baby. So they go and track him down and show him their gymnastics. And Lauren finally gets her sister’s attention.
The Female Eye is delighted to close its 9th annual celebration with a distinctive, female perspective on the psychology of nuclear arms circa: the cold war.
Black Ocean; written, produced and directed by accomplished award winning filmmaker, Marion Hänsel, will Close the FeFF, March 20th, 2011 at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, followed by the annual Awards Ceremony at The Novotel Toronto Centre. A glimpse into the lives of young French naval soldiers aboard a vessel conducting nuclear tests in the pacific in 1972, Black Ocean is a character driven coming of age story lead by a stellar cast including Romain David, Nicolas Gob and Adrien Jolivet.
An official TIFF selection, Black Ocean looks squarely at the human impact of the threat of war, peace efforts and nuclear arms. Hansel commented on bringing a female perspective to a cold-war film: “Do we women have a different eye, another look at the world, a different sensibility? I don’t know. I do know being a woman director seems so normal and natural to me and makes my life happy and fulfilled.”
*A long admirer of Hänsel, the Female Eye Film Festival will present a retrospective of her work at the 10th Annual festival in 2012.


Location: Novotel Toronto Centre – Cafe Nicole, 45 The Esplanade


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