12th Annual International Women's Film Festival

Program Details

February 28
DAM STREET/HONG YAN, 2005, China, Director Li Yu, Color Feature, in Mandarin with English Subtitles. In the early–1980s, Xiao Yun—a sixteen year–old girl living in small riverside town in China—discovers she is pregnant. The local community is stunned, her family loses face and she and her boyfriend are expelled from school. In the aftermath, her boyfriend leaves her, and she gives birth and is then forced to put her child up for adoption.

Ten years later, her relationship with her family strained and ostracized by residents of the town, Xiao Yun is reduced to working as a singer in a local song and dance troupe. And her only real companion is Xiao Yong, a fiercely affectionate boy who protects her from the critical eyes of the community until a marriage proposal discovers the limits of their friendship, and the depth of her unresolved past.

 12th Annual International Women's Film Festival

Program Details 

March 20, 2008, 7pm--special rescheduled screening!

 AMU (USA/INDIA, 2005, 35 mm, Feature)

Amu is the story of Kaju, a twenty-one-year-old Indian American woman who returns to India to visit her family. The film takes a dark turn as Kaju stumbles against secrets and lies from her past. A horrifying genocide that took place twenty years ago turns out to hold the key to her mysterious origins.

How were Kaju’s family involved in the killings? What happened and why? Who were the culprits? Who benefited? Will Kaju have the courage to pursue the truth no matter the cost? Will it destroy her relationship with her mother? Will it affect her burgeoning romance? Will it change everything she knows about herself and about India? 

12th Annual International Women's Fim Festival

Program Details 

February 14, 2008 

DUNIA, KISS ME NOT ON THE EYES (Egypt/Lebanon, 2005,  105 min., 35 mm feature, Dir. Jocelyne Saab)

The graceful curve of a woman's neck. The seductive jangle of bent gold bracelets sliding onto an arm. Welcome to the world of Dunia, a student of poetry and belly dancing, whose artistic expression is inhibited because she cannot experience desire. The story unfolds in Egypt, the moment "The Thousand and one Night" are prohibited for accusations of pornography.   Mentored by the ardent public intellectual Dr. Beshir (played by Egyptian superstar singer Mohammad Mounir), Dunia begins an all-consuming search for ecstasy in poetry, dance, and music–taking us into the world of women in a society that both fetishizes and oppresses female sexuality. The film's dramatic highpoint is centered on Female Genital Mutilation; ultimately, Dunia must confront the traditions that have destroyed her capacity for pleasure before she can experience it. 

12th Annual International Women's Film Festival

Program Details 

February 7, 2008 

CLOSE TO HOME (ISRAEL, 2005, 90 min. Feature, Color, In Hebrew with English subtitles, Directed by Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar)

Click on the image to watch the trailer

  "Vital and rewarding... combines the emotional impact of great drama with the precision, detail and context of great journalism." --Reel.com

Smadar and Mirit are two young women with conflicting personalities brought together by compulsory military service. While Mirit is quiet and Smadar brash, both are forced to reconcile the typical carefree feelings of youth with the stark reality of their situation. Given the task of patrolling Jerusalem and stopping random Palestinians to ask for identification and information, Smadar and Mirit's partnership as well as their youthful innocence are put to the test in this award-winning and thoughtful film based on the filmmakers' own experiences.

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