Film Synopsis
When her only child is leaving for college, film-funder turned filmmaker Lyda Kuth wonders how her daughter will fare in today’s world of love and romance, and how the change will affect her own 20-year marriage. In LOVE AND OTHER ANXIETIES, she turns the camera on young people in her daughter’s generation, author and scholar Stephanie Coontz (Marriage, A History), and her own “average” love story, asking questions like, What is the real meaning of love, marriage, long-term commitment? Can we ever know if we’ve found The One?

“Extraordinarily touching” and bears witness to “the ache we all have to keep love fresh.”
Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2012/04/21/independent-film-festival-boston-celebrates-years-years-independents/x6tU9EEhb0oPrWfEJj3OMO/story.html

“Unique to [Kuth's] specific life history but with resonance for boomer moms throughout the country.”
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, NewEnglandFilm.com
http://newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2012/04/kuth

Full Frame Film Festival will honor the 40th anniversary of New Day Films, a groundbreaking distribution company democratically operated by over 100 filmmakers.  The festival will exhibit New Day Film’s very first titles, directed by the founding members, which were recently archived at the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University.  The four films will screen as one program: Liane Brandon’s “Anything You Want to Be” and “Betty Tells Her Story,” Jim Klein and Julia Reichert’s “Growing Up Female,” and Amalie R. Rothschild’s “It Happens to Us.” A separate panel conversation around New Day Film’s history and legacy will also take place at the festival.

Join us Tuesday, April 3rd for introductions, news and networking at The Friendly Toast at 1 Kendall Sq. in Cambridge, from 6:30-8:30. Open to all current, former, and prospective members. WIFVNE is actively seeking new members and volunteers to join the organization, and help us continue to thrive and serve our community. Friendly Toast Networking Night is generally held on the first Tuesday of each month, the next one is scheduled for May 1st.

If you can’t make it to the meetings, but want to get involved, drop us a line! info@womeninfilmvideo.org 617-871-9667

We’re proud to co-present the film along with The Independent, a print and online source of information for indie, grassroots and activist media-makers.

Miranda Kent as heroine scientist Samantha.

LOSING CONTROL is a quirky romantic comedy about a female scientist who wants proof that her boyfriend is “the one”.

The film was written and directed by Valerie Weiss, who started her film career in New England while earning her PhD in Biophysics from Harvard Medical School.

After defending her thesis Valerie left Boston and moved to Los Angeles, where she attended the American Film Institute’s prestigious and highly competitive Directing Workshop for Women.

She wrote the screenplay for LOSING CONTROL, her first feature, and returned to Boston to shoot it.

Writer/Director Valerie Weiss on the set of "Losing Control".

We’re excited that Valerie is in town for the film’s Boston-area screenings, and following the 7pm show on 4/7 she’ll hold a Q&A session in the theater.

She can speak from experience about the entire filmmaking process from script to screen, including raising her own production financing and securing theatrical distribution.  Don’t miss this opportunity to ask a fellow woman in film your burning questions about pretty much any aspect of the business.

After the Q&A, as an exclusive perk for our members and subscribers of The Independent, Valerie will mingle with us over coffee or cocktails in a more intimate setting nearby (location TBD).

To learn more about Valerie, read our Questions Answered interview with her or check out the website for LOSING CONTROL.

We hope to see you Saturday 4/7!

WAM!Boston Film Festival 2012

Saturday, March 24
Brattle Theatre
40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA

WAM!Boston presents a unique lineup of films made by and about women from up-and-coming filmmakers, many from the Boston area. Q&A with the filmmakers or film subjects will follow each screening.  Get your tickets in advance here. Tickets may also available at the door if supplies last. Or buy an all-festival pass for just $20!

1:00 pm: The Fruit of Our Labor

Afghan women share stories of their fight for social change. Going far beyond western media coverage of Afghanistan, these self-produced short docs provide a fresh perspective on Afghan women’s issues. We’ll screen three shorts from the series, touching on issues of girls’ education, women with disabilities, addiction, family, marriage and more. Q&A to follow. $5.  (more info…)

2:30pm: Animated and Experimental Shorts

Fiction and non-fiction shorts. Relationships, mortality, and mental health are explored in creative ways ranging from stop-motion to SecondLife.
Q&A to follow. $5.  (more info…)

4:45pm: Marks & Milestones

Ranging from humorous to poignant, these short films explore the milestones of women’s lives, and the ways that outward appearance can be deeply tied to identity. Q&A to follow. $5.  (more info…)

7:00pm: A Moment in Her Story
Stories from the Boston Women’s Movement

Starting in 1968, the Second Wave of feminism rippled across the U.S., demanding expanded possibilities for women of all races and classes. In the Boston area, students, professionals, community activists and working class mothers, from Dorchester to Cambridge came together to demand change. Featuring interviews with Rita Arditti, Liane Brandon, Nancy Hawley, and other local activists, this documentary provides testimony of the movement’s transforming energy, creativity, and determination. Fine cut screening.
Q&A to follow. (2012, dir.: Catherine Russo, 90 min) $8.

9:30pm: No Look Pass

The coming-of-age American Dream story of Emily “Etay” Tay, a first generation Burmese immigrant from Chinatown, Los Angeles, who breaks all of the rules of tradition. After living a double life at Harvard University, she strives to play professional basketball while coming out as a lesbian. Emily’s dreams are no slam dunk — family, race, and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell conspire against her, firing her passions on and off the court. This riveting documentary is a Boston-area premiere! Q&A to follow. (2011, dir.: Melissa Johnson, 87 min) $8.  (more info…)

What Do You Know?

Elementary school children discuss what they know about gays and lesbians in this fun, honest, and thought-provoking short. (2011, dir.: Ellen Brodsky, 13 min)  (more info…)

Celebrate International Women’s day with WIFV/NE, at these events!

Monday, March 5th
5:30 – 8:30pm
MCLE Auditorium
10 Winter Place, Boston

The Women’s Forum at the United Nations Association of Greater Boston, will be screening War Redefined, the final film in the Women, War and Peace series, and featuring a panel discussion after the film with award-winning film producer Abigail Disney, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Dr. Amani El Jack, and Sahana Dharmapuri. The event is scheduled to run from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm.  There will be a reception prior to the film from 5:30-6:30, and then the film screening and panel discussion will go from around 6:45-8:30 pm.  The film and panel discussion will both be framed around the role and impact of women in war and peace.  This is a timely topic, with 3 women peace-builders winning the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the Obama Administration’s December announcement of the US National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, and Secretary Clinton’s recent comments on the lack of women at high-level security talks.

Thursday, March 8 at 7:00 pm
Newton Free Library
330 Homer St., Newton

Join award-winning filmmaker Liane Brandon for a screening of two of her classic short films, Anything You Want To Be and Betty Tells Her Story. Recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tribeca Film Festival, these films were among the earliest and most popular in the modern Women’s Movement.  Both helped spread the word about women’s quest for equality across the country in the 1970s and are enjoying renewed interest by today’s audiences.  Ms. Brandon will introduce and discuss the films, answer questions about them, filmmaking in general and the early Women’s Movement.

Anything You Want To Be, a groundbreaking film about a teenager’s humorous collision with sex-role stereotypes, was one of the first to explore the external pressures and the more subtle, internal pressures a girl faces in finding her identity. Made in 1971, and screened in schools, libraries and art museums in the U.S. and abroad, it was one of the most widely used consciousness-raising films of the modern Women’s Movement. The film has just been restored and re-released.

Betty Tells Her Story is a poignant tale of beauty, identity and a dress, and is considered a classic of documentary filmmaking. Betty’s saga of her search for “the perfect dress” explores our culture’s emphasis on female “beauty” and the ways in which clothing and appearance affect a woman’s identity. Betty Tells Her Story was nominated for inclusion in the National Film Registry, was featured at the Library of Congress and is being shown at film festivals across the country. Made in 1972, it was one of the first to explore women’s image and identity in our culture – and it has become one of the most enduring.

University of Massachusetts/Amherst Professor Emeritus Liane Brandon was one of the first independent women filmmakers to emerge from the early Women’s Movement in this area. She is a co-founder of New Day Films. Her classic films have been featured on Home Box Office, The Learning Channel, U.S.A. Cable and Cinemax, and have won numerous national and international awards. Brandon is a recipient of the Boston Society of Film Critics Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University. Currently she works as a still photographer with credits including PBS’s Murder at Harvard, Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman In America and Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.

For more information call the Newton Free Library at 617-796-1360. All programs are free and open to the public, parking is free. The Newton Free Library is handicap accessible.

Women in Film & Video/New England (WIFV/NE) is now accepting entries for our  Tenth Annual Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by Su-City Pictures, Inktip, Final Draft, and Lesley University.

The WIFV/NE Screenwriting Competition aims to promote the work of women screenwriters and support the creation of worthy film roles for women. Entries must be authored or co-authored by a woman and/or feature a woman or women in prominent roles. The Grand Prize Winner will receive a detailed script analysis and consultation from award-winning screenwriter, Susan Kouguell, founder of Su-City Pictures.  All three finalists will receive a screenwriting software package from Final Draft, and a 6-month online script placement service by Inktip.com

Former WIFVNE President Cheryl Eagan-Donovan will serve as this year’s competition judge.  Cheryl was the WIFVNE Screenwriting Competition Chair for several years, and currently teaches screenwriting at Boston’s University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts. She has written, directed and produced two feature length documentaries, has written several narrative scripts, including adaptations, and has published articles about screenwriting and film in magazines and journals.  Her debut film, All Kindsa Girls, screened at film festivals and art house theaters in London, Toronto and throughout the U.S., is featured in Paul Sherman’s book Big Screen Boston, and was short-listed for the PBS series POV.  She recently received a grant from the Shakespeare Fellowship Foundation to support the production of her new film, Nothing is Truer than Truth, based on the book Shakespeare By Another Name.  Cheryl serves on the Board of Directors of Next Door Theater in Winchester, MA and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University.

Susan Kouguell, award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, is the author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays!, a comprehensive guide to crafting winning characters with film analyses and screenwriting exercises, and The Savvy Screenwriter: How to Sell Your Screenplay (and Yourself) Without Selling Out!  Recent publications include her monthly screenwriting column in NewEnglandFilm.com, a chapter in Now Write! Screenwriting: Exercises by Today’s Best Screenwriters, Teachers and Consultants and MovieMaker Magazine’s Complete Guide to Making Movies 2010. Kouguell teaches screenwriting and film at Tufts University, and presents international seminars.  As chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a motion picture consulting company founded in 1990, Kouguell works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, executives and studios worldwide.  Recipient of many grants and fellowships, including the MacDowell Colony, Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Edward Albee Foundation, Kouguell’s short films are in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection and archives, and were included in the Whitney Museum’s Biennial.  Kouguell worked with director Louis Malle on his film And the Pursuit of Happiness, was a story analyst and story editor for many studios, wrote voice-over narrations for Miramax and over a dozen feature assignments for independent companies.

 
DEADLINES AND FEES:
Earlybird Deadline: March, 15 2012. Standard Fee: $35, WAB: $30, WIFVNE Mem: $20
Regular Deadline: May 1, 2012. Standard Fee: $45, WAB: $40, WIFVNE Mem: $30
Late Deadline: May 8, 2012.  Standard Fee: $55, WAB: $50, WIFVNE Mem: $40
Extended Deadline: May 15, 2012.  Standard Fee: $65, WAB: $60, WIFVNE Mem: $50

Winners will be announced in August 2012

GENERAL RULES:
Length between 80-120 pages
Scripts must be authored or co-authored by a woman AND/OR must feature a woman (or women) in a prominent role

Scripts must be submitted online via Withoutabox.com:

• Do NOT include author’s name in submitted script.
• Do NOT include author’s name in the pdf script file name.
• Screenplay titles ONLY.
• Screenplay title MUST be included in submitted pdf script.
• Sorry, no scripts can be returned.

For legal reasons, WIFV/NE can accept only original screenplays by copyright holder(s).

In 2009, the winning WIFV/NE screenplay was optioned shortly after being listed on Inktip. Headquartered in Los Angeles, InkTip is a screenplay facilitation company servicing the entertainment industry by providing screenplays and writers to producers and literary representatives in its network. InkTip confirms more than 150 script options and sales per year.

Final Draft is the number-one selling word processor specifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodics and stage plays. It combines powerful word processing with professional script formatting in one self-contained, easy-to-use package.
                              

WIFVNE is proud to co-sponsor this DocYard screening of Our School, a film by producer and director Mona Nicoara. Shot over four years in rural
Transylvania, Our School follows three Roma children who are among the pioneer participants in an initiative to integrate the ethnically segregated Romanian schools. This award‐winning work will screen February 6 at 8pm at the historic Brattle Theatre followed by an exclusive, in‐person Q&A with Nicoara.

The film’s poignant and intimate portrait of rural village life and its
rhythms not only introduces viewers to the stark reality of the children’s situation but also inspires a deep admiration for their indomitable spirit, punctuated by shocking instances of prejudice and ignorance. Their story touches on issues such as institutionalized racism, public education, and the intractability of poverty, culminating in an outrageous finale that cements the Roma children’s struggle in the annals of egregious human rights violations. Our School is an absorbing, infuriating, and ultimately bittersweet story of tradition and progress.

The DocYard’s 2012 Winter season screens at the Brattle Theatre every other Monday from January 23 to April 16. The series continues to offer an incredible array of nonfiction and documentary works, with stories about fights against bureaucracy, racism and personal demons. All screenings begin at 8pm, followed by a Q&A moderated by Boston‐based filmmaker Chico Colvard, and an after‐party at the Crimson Lounge in Harvard Square.

Individual tickets for each film are $10 and can be purchased online at www.brattletheatre.org or prior to show time at the Brattle Theatre box office. For more information on the DocYard and its 2012 Winter Season, visit www.thedocyard.com.

Join us Tuesday, February 7th for introductions, news and networking at The Friendly Toast at 1 Kendall Sq. in Cambridge, from 6:30-8:30. Open to all current, former, and prospective members. WIFVNE is actively seeking new members and volunteers to join the organization, and help us continue to thrive and serve our community. Networking Night is generally held on the first Tuesday of each month, the next one is scheduled for March 6th.

If you can’t make it to the meetings, but want to get involved, drop us a line! info@womeninfilmvideo.org 617-871-9667