Women's film festival coming to UT
1/23/2004The type of movies that local film buffs often leave town to see will be right here this weekend.
The San Francisco-based MadCat Women's International Film Festival Tour stops at the University of Toledo tonight and tomorrow as part of the theater and film department's 2003-2004 series, A Global Celebration of the Arts.
"I think one of the great things about bringing a festival like this to Toledo is that there's not a lot of independent films shown in this city. People constantly are going to Ann Arbor to see them," said Sue Ott Rowlands, professor and chairman of the theater and film department.
"This gives us a chance to see work that's being done not just in the independent genre, but by women and internationally," she added, noting that the festival will include films and videos directed by women from such countries as Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Germany as well as the United States.
"Part of the mission of the university and the department of theater and film is that we want to bring the public audiences on campus to see these more unique projects," she said.
Tonight's program, called "Gotta Get It," covers nine short films and videos ranging from 55 seconds to 19 minutes in length. They'll be shown back to back in a package presentation. "They're ordered in a way that sets them off interestingly against each other," Ott Rowlands said.
A mix of documentary, animated, and experimental works, they share the themes of "passions and obsessions," she said. One is about a woman who is obsessed with her shoes; another is about control.
Tomorrow night's program - "Cut Snip Ooze: Contemporary Animated Films by Women" - is made up of six films about unsolved crimes and medical mysteries. They range from just over 2 minutes to 38 minutes in length.
"Probably one of the neat things about this program is that audiences will get to see a variety of animation techniques," Ott Rowlands said.
The MadCat Women's International Film Festival Tour will be presented at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow night in the University of Toledo's Center for Performing Arts. Admission is $5. Information: 419-530-2202.