Women Texas Film Festival’s Justina Walford sees a benefit in film festivals going virtual that is very real
This week (August 13-16), Women Texas Film Festival (WTxFF) is celebrating year five completely online. It’s not an easy transition going from red carpets and parties with a feminist kissing booth in 2019 to quarantine couch theater in 2020, but pandemics do that to the wildest of us.
In previous years, we developed a distinctive reputation about our approach to the events. We had big red carpets. We enhanced our filmmaker Q&A’s with guest panelists who were experts in the film’s subject matter, like doctors adding to the discussion on mental illness touched on in a narrative film or a political expert leading a discussion with a documentary filmmaker about the current political climate. And we had the parties. Our very first fest celebrated Rosemary Myers’ GIRL ASLEEP with a “Disco and Donuts” party tied into some of that film’s themes. In 2018, we created an homage to the distinctive apartment setting and TV dinners of Amanda Kramer’s PARIS WINDOW. Last year, we created a sensation here in Dallas with a “make out party” built around Emily Esperanza’s film of the same name complete with a feminist kissing booth featuring lessons on consent. In fact, it was following last year’s fest we felt we had finally reached that point where our film festival had hit its stride and solidified an identity based on the curatorial voice through the programming, our approach to our panel discussions and those themed parties.
And you know what? Losing a lot of that doesn’t phase us at all. Here’s why: We, like many other independent film festivals are all about content. Also, we, like many other festivals focused on the female filmmaker are all about promoting female voices. And we can do that in a megaplex. But we can do it even better in your living room.
And here is what I believe is most important to say. Our festival has a voice. We curate the films to create a voice that is much like a choir: many voices creating a blend of melodies that sound like one. It’s what every Artistic Director strives for. And if I were to compare our curation to a choir, WTxFF would be one that loves to single out one voice and let her sing every note she can.
Going virtual this year starkly reminds me of five key words in our mission statement “showcasing the range of female voices.” We celebrate women who dare project voices that are as unique as they are universal. The goal of our festival is to give these women an enthusiastic platform to show their work, discuss it, and celebrate their audacity to put those thoughts, ideas, and visions on screen.
I love when women create the endearing tear-jerker or quirky rom-com. And I program that. I particularly give rise to a less mainstream protagonist when I do, like Olivia Peace’s TAHARA where our protagonist is a teenager at her Hebrew school’s funeral service for a classmate as she is coming to terms with kissing her best friend and being invited to a kissing threesome or Lisa Donato’s GOSSAMER FOLDS, about a trans black woman in a small town befriending a small boy recently uprooted from the big city to live next door. What I love about these films is that there are women of all ages watching these who have always settled for a protagonist kind of like them. And that is the great challenge for most of us women as we grew up with male protagonists, white female protagonsts, cis-hetero protagonists forcing us to fit our color, our identity, our queerness into those mainstream places. Nothing makes me feel better than hearing someone say, “Finally, I see me on that screen.”
And while I love those films, I can’t stop there because I’m still holding a grudge about that one time I was on a panel and when the topic came up regarding women directing horror or action films, someone asked “But women don’t want to make those kind of films, right?” I am a personal fan of genre films. Karyn Kusama’s THE INVITATION and Ana Lily Amirpour’s THE BAD BATCH to Julia Ducournau’s RAW are the films and cinematic visions that truly get me energized. So I look for those whenever I can. And oh yes, women gleefully make “those kind of films.” But it’s not a quest for a horror film as much as a film showing women “going there.” And in the independent world, I have found amazing gems. Last year, I programmed HOLY TRINITY, Molly Hewitt’s Waters-esque film about a dominatrix who can speak to the dead after huffing the contents of an aerosol can. This year, we go much more serious with Ksenia Ratushnaya’s mind blowing film, OUTLAW, which is equal parts decadent and heartbreaking.
On the documentary side, I want films that will confront on the issues, not pull punches, and feel no hesitation to get political. This year, those films will include Sharon Yaish and Yael Shachar’s A WHORE LIKE ME, and Janette A. López’s NEVER GOING BACK, and as we have done in the past, we will bring in experts, politicians, and professionals to join the filmmakers and their subjects to dig into the subjects and issues alongside those screenings. And here is where we have so much more freedom. Our panels are online so we can invite filmmakers and their subjects who may not have been able to fly out. Our moderators are from all over the country. And we will even be pre-recording Q&A’s we would otherwise have to miss out on.
This is our choir. Women who dare find their voice and sing every note. We are the grateful stage and accompaniment. Your couch and computer is this year’s venue and we are excited to have you with us.
*Films are geoblocked to Texas, panels and Q&A’s will be global.
