[artinfo] MadCat Film Festival is coming

[Ariella Ben-Dov]

The 8th Annual MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
 
Dates:  September 14 ­ October 3
Venues: Artists Television Access, El Rio, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
and The Parkway Theater in Oakland!
FOR FULL PROGRAM LISTING
http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org/festival_info.html

The MadCat Film Festival screens the best cutting-edge experimental and
independent films from around the world. Featuring shorts, documentaries,
narratives and animated works selected from more than 900 submissions. This
year¹s lineup includes 12 programs of timely, insightful, humorous and
deeply moving experimental and independent films by some of the finest
up-and-coming and established women filmmakers.

Filmmakers include: Christina Battle, Yael Braha, Valie Export, Sharon
Greytak, Gretchen Hildebran, Joell Hallowell, Marie Losier, Katherin
McInnis, Julia Meltzer, Yoko Ono, Dana Plays, Angela Reginato, Carolee
Schneemann and Jacalyn White.

PREMIERES GALORE!
MadCat will screen 93 films. 24 filmmakers will be in attendance to
participate question and answer sessions. There are 15 world premieres, 13
US premieres, 11 West Coast premieres and 9 other assorted premieres! A
total of 48 premieres! Over half the films in the fest are premiering at
MadCat.

THE VELVET VAMPIRE Sept 14 * El Rio * 8:30pm Movies * 6:30pm Free BBQ
A glamorous seductress meets a handsome young man and his vapid, but pretty
wife at an art showing. Lesbian love, sex and violence pervade this kitschy
70¹s classic. This is the first vampire movie directed by a woman!

THE EXPERIMENTALISTS Sept 15 * El Rio * 8:30pm movies * 6:30pm Free BBQ
Directors manipulate the medium and share visual delights in this series of
contemporary avant-garde films. Local filmmakers Joell Hallowell and Jacalyn
White present the West Coast premiere of their humorous and devastating
found footage extravaganza, Neptune¹s Release. Also in attendance with
spectacular cinematic treats: Elizabeth Block, Angela Reginato and Chelsea
Walton.

THE ABILITIES WE HAVE Sept 17 * ATA * 7pm movies
A selection of films by and about people with disabilities, featuring Sharon
Greytak¹s groundbreaking documentary, Weirded Out and Blown Away. Greytak¹s
film challenges victim/superhero stereotypes of the disabled through frank
interviews with five physically challenged professionals, including the
filmmaker herself. Also included is the revealing Shining Into by local
videomaker, Thanh Diep. This intimate piece reveals Diep¹s own struggles as
an adult with cerebral palsy.
 
HOW TO FIX THE WORLD Sept 17 * ATA * 9pm
This program takes viewers on a trip from environmental utopia to drastic
contamination to a dreamlike allegory about life and hope for the future. An
animated pile of stones represents the earth¹s response to the build up of
thousands of years of human activity in Amy Harrison¹s Monument. How To Fix
The World by Jacqueline Goss illustrates the cultural conflicts between
speaking and writing, drawing and photography, and Soviet Socialism and
Islam. Also screening the world premiere of EE Miller & Bernadine Mellis¹
Farm-in-the-City.
Co-presented by FecalFace.com

HOME SWEET HOME Sept 21 * El Rio * 8:30pm movies * 6:30pm Free BBQ
Riveting documentaries from India, Australia, Germany, the UK and the US
that chronicle the lives of communities and individuals as they navigate
their search for new homes. Featuring the world premiere of Gretchen
Hildebran¹s The Smallest Space.

GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO Sept 22 * El Rio * 8:30pm movies * 6:30pm Free BBQ
Side-splitting educational films spanning the 1950s to the 1980s about
growing up, sexuality and finding independence.  Co-presented by Hi lo Film
Festival and Cinefemme.
 
THE ART OF PERFORMANCE Sept 23 * Yerba Buena * 7pm movies
Both humorous and chilling, these performance art pieces were created some
of the most fearless and innovative women artists of our time. Filmmakers
include: Yoko Ono, Valie Export, Carolee Schneemann and Amy Taubin.
Co-presented by SF Cinematheque

ART ON ARTISTS Sept 23 * Yerba Buena * 9pm movies
These portraits reveal the political ideologies and personal quirks of
various emerging and established artists and filmmakers. Featuring the world
premiere of Marie Losier¹s Electrocute Your Stars about the films and life
of underground filmmaker George Kuchar ­ who will be at the screening! Also
screening Carve by Gretchen Hildebran about artists Carolyn Cooley and Sara
Thustra and their exploration of body cutting as a personal and political
practice. Also including: Lil Picard by Silvianna Goldsmith and French Fries
by Ellen Lake. 

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER Sept 24 * ATA * 7pm movies
Using animation, documentary and experimental filmmaking, this series
reveals how these artists question their governments and challenge their
actions. From corrupt links between corporate America and the US government
to the staging of unnecessary military actions abroad, The Truth of the
Matter is a chilling yet humorous, look at our world. The Invisible Hand is
a hand-drawn history of corporate corruption from Enron and Halliburton to
Marthagate. 

PATRIOT ACTS Sept 24 * ATA * 9pm movies
>From Vietnam to El Salvador to the atrocious Clarence Thomas hearing,
Patriot Acts uncovers some of the US¹s most embarrassing moments. Including
Carolee Schneemann¹s seminal Viet-Flakes ­arguably the first film to
question the US war in Vietnam. Using stop motion to animate one man¹s
nightmare of hotdogs, Joyce Wieland takes a humorous approach to criticizing
blind Patriotism.  Caroline Avery¹s Mr. Speaker starring, Newt Gingrich.
Co-presented by Whispered Media

Films of GERMAINE DULAC Sept 28 * El Rio * 8:30pm movies * 6:30pm Free BBQ
Live original music by Secrets of Family Happiness and Paper Boats
MadCat celebrates the sublime French avant-garde maven Germaine Dulac with a
screening of her avant-garde masterpieces Seashell and the Clergyman and The
Smiling Madame Beudet.

A TURNING POINT Oct 3 * Parkway Theater * 6pm movies
Characters in Taiwan, Korea, the US and Australia search for meaning to
their lives. Featuring the world premieres of Krescent Carasso¹s Lucy and
Homecoming by Sarolta Jane Cump. Co-presented by BAVC
 
Venues
El Rio, 3158 Mission Street @ Precita, SF
September 14, 15, 21, 22, 28
6:30 pm Free BBQ.  Movies 8:30pm. 415 282-3325. Rain or Shine. 21 and over.
admission:  $7-20 sliding scale.  Tickets available in advance or at the
door. Cash only.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street @ Third, SF
Thursday, September 23. Movies 7:30pm. 415 978-2700
admission: $7-20 sliding scale.  Tickets available in advance or at the
door. Cash or Credit Card.

Artists Television Access, 992 Valencia Street @ 21st, SF
Fridays, September 17, 24. Movies 7 and 9pm. 415 824-3890
admission:  $7-20 sliding scale.  Tickets available at the door. Cash only.
 
Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd Oakland, CA. Sunday, October 3. Movies 6pm.
admission: $6. Cash only.

Mad Mission:  The MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival seeks to
exhibit provocative and visionary works that are original in their use of
the medium. The festival¹s goal is to emphasize innovative works by women
that challenge the use of sound and image and explore notions of visual
storytelling. 


MadCat has established a strong reputation for programming series of acute
and insightful films audiences would be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
MadCat sets itself apart from other women¹s festivals by curating its
programs thematically as opposed to looking for films solely about women¹s
issues. Thus, with each year comes a completely new set of films and topics.
MadCat allows viewers to look into the vast array of topics women film and
video makers are wrestling with and expand traditional notions of ³women¹s
issues.² 
MadCat Women's International Film Festival
639 Steiner Street
San Francisco, CA 94117 USA

Phone: 415 436-9523
Fax: 415 934-0642
info at madcatfilmfestival.org
http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org