The 12th annual Women in the Director’s Chair International Film and Video Festival this week testifies to the growth of talent in the field in the past year, say its organizers.
This year’s festival will show 81 videos and films by women, up from last year’s 59, said Gretchen Elsner-Sommer, program director of the group, a local not-for-profit organization that showcases the works of independent women filmmakers.
This year’s festival received 550 entries, 200 more than in 1992, creating an exhaustive but exciting review process for the festival’s planning committee, said Elsner-Sommer.
Women are realizing that they can create films and videos that reflect their viewpoints, Elsner-Sommer said.
“It’s not something they have no control over, like turning on the TV and seeing television shows that don’t reflect their lives or stories,” she said.
“With cable-access TV and with independent festivals and people becoming more comfortable using home cameras,” she said, “there’s more to media than mainstream television. People are using media to tell different stories-that’s what our festival is all about.”
The festival, which will highlight work by Hispanic film and video makers, opens at 7 p.m. Sunday with “Homegirls,” a two-hour video screening at Chicago Filmmakers, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. The event resumes Thursday through March 21 with screenings at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson Boulevard. Each film and video will be shown on a movie screen.
A video entry, “Potential Pictures,” explores a woman’s anguish over deciding to have an abortion; 25 minutes; directed by Dalida Maria Benfield, of the Pilsen neighborhood, an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Next Sunday “Locked In, Locked Out,” a panel discussion and video showing, will consider issues such as injustice, AIDS and parental responsibility faced by women in prison. The program will begin at 2:15 p.m. at Chicago Filmakers. In 1990, Women in the Director’s Chair started The Prison Project, bringing films and lectures to women in Illinois prisons.
Festival passes are $30 for six shows; individual screenings are $6 for the public. For information and tickets, call 312-281-4988.
