2011 San Francisco Women’s International Film Festival Announces Feature Film Selections

March 28, 2011 - PRLog -- The 2011 San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival runs April 6- April 10, 2011 in San Francisco.  This years film festival will take place at the Roxie Theatre.  A complete list of films and screening times is available at:  http://sfiwff.slated.com/2011/schedule/week.

The opening night film is a documentary from Uganda and is just one example of a diverse array of films that was submitted and chosen by the Women’s Film Institute to screen during this year’s festival.  Over 800 films were submitted from local filmmakers, United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  The goal of the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival is to support, promote and celebrate films directed and co-directed by women and girls as art and education.

The topics of the films selected to screen vary in nature.  They represent the lives of women all over the globe and were directed and /or co-directed by women.  Films being screened, explore the lives of  various women and their lives as immigrants, soldiers,  those who have endured natural disasters, and overcome cultural and professional barriers that enable them to be role models and educators.  The 7th annual San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival has been steadily growing and is well respected amongst industry leaders, and women who choose to pursue careers in film and media.

Supported by the Women’s Film Institute, the Festival has introduced San Francisco residents to some of the best films directed and co-directed by women from all over the world. The Festival was founded in 2004 to celebrate the achievements of women working behind the camera in film, from the earliest days of cinema up to the present, and to raise awareness about the need for more opportunities for women filmmakers.  For more information visit: http://www.womensfilminstitute.com.

Feature films selected for the 2011 San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival are:

U.S. NARRATIVE FEATURES – San Francisco Women Filmmakers

Opal (Director: Dina Ciraulo) - Opal is a narrative feature film about self-taught naturalist and cult icon Opal Whiteley. Raised in a logging camp at the turn of the century, Opal catapults to fame with the publication of her childhood diaries, then to infamy when readers suspect a hoax.


U.S. DOCUMENTARY FEATURES – San Francisco Women Filmmakers

TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives (Director: Nancy Kelly) - TRUST is an uplifting movie about immigrant teens empowering themselves that will knock you down, but it will also pick you up. TRUST follows eighteen-year-old Marlin, a struggling Honduran immigrant to the United States who has lived through some of the harshest cruelties imaginable.

Crepe Covered Sidewalks (Director: Renee' Wilson) - Crepe Covered Sidewalks is a heart-warming documentary of actress Renee Wilson's (Ray) return home to the devastation and desolation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the effects the aftermath has on her and her family.  

Atomic Mom (Director: M.T. Silvia) - Atomic Mom is a documentary about two women, both mothers, who have very different experiences of the atom bomb. After decades of silence, a daughter's quest for truth leads to the exchange of an olive branch between an American Scientist and a Hiroshima Survivor.


U.S. NARRATIVE FEATURES

Three Veils (Director: Rolla Selbak) - The lives of three young Middle Eastern women intertwine as they struggle to defy tradition and create their own realities.


INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES

Imani /Uganda (Director: Caroline Kamya) - Imani vibrantly captures three vignettes of life in modern day Uganda: A child soldier returning to the parents who could not protect him, a woman fighting to get her wrongly accused sister out of jail, and a youth dance troop leader struggling to simply get through a hometown performance.

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About Women’s Film Institute:

Women’s Film Institute supports, promotes and celebrates films directed and co-directed by women. Through its filmmaking training program for young women (Generation HERstory), the annual San Francisco International Film Festival, Women’s Film Institute Shorts Tour, and a variety of film screenings and educational programs, the Institute is making a difference for women in film and media.

Women’s Film Institute is a fiscally sponsored project of Independent Arts & Media, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to independent voices. Independent Arts & Media supports individuals, projects and organizations that build community through media, journalism, the arts and culture. www.womensfilminstitute.com