“At MadCat you too can be treated year after year with Ariella Ben-Dov’s exceptional curatorial savvy, dedication, intelligent cultural contributions.” ^ – Frances Nkara, Independent Filmmaker
MadCat is back with 85 films and videos by women directors from South Korea to Israel, Sweden to Portugal, and the Philippines to Australia. All in all there are 16 countries represented and over 40 premieres highlighted at this, the Ninth Annual MadCat Women’s International Film Festival. Mining selections from the more than 1,300 filmmakers is a process that takes many months. We present the cream of the crop and have curated eleven thematically programmed evenings of film.
The 9th Annual MadCat Women’s International Film Festival takes place September 13 – September 27 in San Francisco and October 6 and 13 in Berkeley.
MadCat’s screenings include diverse thematically-curated shorts programs, trailblazing documentaries from the 1970s, and slide presentations by local artists. Embracing silent-era presentation MadCat presents Shhh I and II: Silent Films set to Live Music, which will begin and end the San Francisco portion of the Festival. The Secrets of Family Happiness, Dear Nora, Tartufi and Paper Boats among others musicians lend their wonderful compositions to stunning 16mm works such as Behind This Soft Eclipse by Eve Heller and Bouquets 1-10 by Rose Lowder. Continuing the Festival’s long running commitment to cinema of the past, we present Women Speak Up, documentary films from the 1970s. The filmmakers in this program were trailblazers, allowing women to speak for themselves through verité and first person storytelling. MadCat also presents three unique programs of animated films including Documation I and II, a series of animated documentaries that blow open the genre will be presented at Pacific Film Archive. There are many filmmakers in attendance—we are thrilled to have award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Reeves in person to present The Time We Killed her meditative first feature and Caroline Martel travels from Montreal to screen her found footage opus Phantom of the Operator. Inventive and witty, this labor history uncovers the century-long story of female workers rarely given credit for their essential role in the development of global communications. Premieres of new and intriguing works by Vivian Ostrovsky, Martha Colburn and Cade Bursell will also screen.
For more info, visit the MadCat website.
