THE WALTER READE THEATER

   25 Years of Women Calling the Shots

A Film and TV Exhibition & Symposium

March 19 to 26, 2003

Co-hosted by New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), 25 Years of Women Calling the Shots combines screenings and discussions in an unprecedented retrospective of women's contribution to film, television and video in New York City and beyond. Celebrating NYWIFT's 25th anniversary, this week-long program features groundbreaking work by women in feature, short, narrative, documentary, experimental and music video production. Provocative panels with leading filmmakers, producers and actors examine the future of the industry and reflect on the state of the field today.

Highlights include appearances by filmmakers such as Susan Seidelman, Leslie Harris, Nancy Savoca and Joan Micklin Silver; discussions on the crossover between film and theater, women's coverage of war, women in documentary, and more with Nora Ephron and others; and screenings of classics like I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, PARIS IS BURNING, TRUE LOVE, BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE, and FINDING CHRISTA.

NYWIFT is the largest entertainment industry association for women in the New York area. Dedicated to helping women reach the highest levels of achievement in the entertainment field, NYWIFT produces more than fifty innovative programs each year, and is part of an international network of 40 chapters representing 10,000 women in the industry. For more information please go to www.nywift.org.

Presenting sponsor: Lifetime Television for Women Co-sponsors are: The NY Chapter of the National Television Academy, DocuClub, The Women's Project, League of Professional Theater Women, Center for Communication, Stern Alumni in Entertainment, Media and Technology, International Documentary Association, Film/Video Arts, Independent Feature Project, CineWomen NY, Screen Actors Guild, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, South Asian Journalists Association.

Admission: all screenings and panels are $9.50; $7 for students, $5 for members of the Film Society, NYWIFT, and co-sponsoring organizations. Please note that all screenings and panels will take place at the Walter Reade Theater, except the panel Both Sides of the Street: Working Stage and Screen in NYC on Sat March 22 at 2:30pm, which will be conducted in the Kaplan Penthouse, located adjacent to the Walter Reade Theater on the 10th floor of the Rose Building.

The screenings were selected by a committee of accomplished curators including Karen Cooper, Ellen Geiger, Lynda Hansen, Paula Heredia, Annette Insdorf, Kirsten Lentz, Adrienne Mancia, Marian Masone, Michelle Materre, Barbara Meyer, Marcie Setlow and Susan Wagner.

Thanks to Radha Vatsal, Festival Director; Lea Albert and Mikki del Monico, Festival Coordinators; the NYWIFT program committee; and contributors Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks also to event co-sponsors, The N.Y. Chapter of the National Television Academy and the Center for Communication.

SPECIAL EVENT: THE GIRLS' CLUB: HAVE WOMEN CREATED A NETWORK OF INFLUENCE?
Opening Night Live Presentation
A Film & Television Exhibition and Symposium
Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center
New York Women in Film & Television
Our opening event goes to the heart of New York Women in Film & Television's mission -- helping women attain the highest level of achievement in film, television and new media and promoting industry equity. At this town hall meeting women at the top of their field will discuss gender bias and what progress has been made in transcending the industry's glass ceiling. The panel will address both the obvious inroads that women have made and areas in which inequity still exists, as well as collective strategies for future advancement. Director Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail); producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas (Queens Supreme, Maid in Manhattan); New York Executive Director of the Screen Actors Guild Jae Je Simmons; producer Jane Rosenthal (Analyze That, About a Boy, Meet the Parents); and actress and producer Marlo Thomas (That Girl, Nobody's Child, Our Heroes Ourselves) will participate. Moderator: Mary Alice Williams. Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter. Wed March 19: 7 This event is a benefit for NYWIFT. For tickets call 212 679-0870 ext. 0; www.nywift.org.

PANEL: THE SOAP BUSINESS - GUIDING LIGHT
Begun in 1937 as a fifteen minute radio series, Guiding Light, the longest-running daily program in broadcast history, marked its 65th year on January 25, 2002. Women have played a central role in the on-going success of the series: as producers, actors and writers, as well as viewers. The panel will include clips from 1978, the year NYWIFT was incorporated, and clips from 2003, which will be commented on by actors Maureen Garrett (Holly Lindsey) and Beth Ehlers (Harley Davidson Cooper), Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin, Executive in Charge of Production for Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc., and director Jo Anne Sedwick. Moderated by Phil Dixson, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Daytime Programs for TeleVest.
Thurs March 20: 6:30

JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE IRT
Leslie Harris, 1993; 97m
Chantel Mitchell (Ariyan Johnson), a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT." She dreams of medical school and a family but personal and sexual challenges await her. Director Leslie Harris in person.
Preceded by
ME AND RUBYFRUIT
Sadie Benning, 1989; 4m
In this deeply personal and artistically deft work, the Pixelvision wunderkind offers her take on Rita Mae Brown's novel Rubyfruit Jungle.
Thurs March 20: 8:30

TRUE LOVE
Nancy Savoca, 1989; 101m
A gritty, Bronx-set comedy-drama about wedding plans features colorful characters and more-realistic-than-usual acting and dialogue. Independent film buffs savor its offbeat touches and intimate, honest look at the pressures to marry. With Annabella Sciorra of Queens Supreme and Aida Turturro of The Sopranos. Director Nancy Savoca in person.
Fri March 21: 6

SMITHEREENS
Susan Seidelman, 1982; 89m
A restless and abrasive young woman eschews the affections of a sensitive young portrait artist, preferring to chase punk singers in a misguided desire for fame and fortune in New York's Greenwich Village. Director Susan Seidelman in person. Preceded by
HAIR PIECE
Ayoka Chenzira, 1985; 10m
An animated satire on the question of self- image for African American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind and lets you be free.
Fri March 21: 8:30
PANEL: BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET
Working Stage and Screen in NYC
Today's dazzling synergy between NYC's theatre and film and television communities - which makes our city the most dynamic creative environment in the world - will be discussed by a multi-talented panel including Tony Award-winning actress Swoosie Kurtz, actress Rosie Perez, Margo Lion, megahit producer of Hairspray, Elaine Stritch at Liberty and HBO's Dinner with Friends and prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein of The Heidi Chronicles and Sisters Rosenszweig, who also wrote the screenplay for The Object of My Affection. Moderated by Katherine Oliver, New York City's new Commissioner for Film, Theater and Broadcasting.
Sat March 22: 2:30 (Kaplan Penthouse)
Followed by a reception for ticket holders in the Walter Reade Theater's Frieda and Roy Furman gallery

THE WILLMAR 8
Lee Grant, 1980; 55m
In 1977, in a small Minnesota town, eight unassuming female bank workers who complain to the bank's president when a young male trainee is hired at almost twice their salary find themselves in the forefront of the fight for women's rights in this groundbreaking documentary.
Preceded by
JUGGLING GENDER
Tami Gold, 1992; 27m
A loving portrait of Jennifer Miller, a lesbian performer who lives her life with a full beard. This video explores the construction of sexual and gender identity. Director Tami Gold in person.
Sat March 22: 5

WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?
Christine Choy/Renee Tajima, 1988; 82m
Vincent Chin's murderer is known, and to an extent has accepted responsibility - but that's not the incisive point of this complex and ambitious documentary. The filmmakers chart the collision of two American dreams outside a topless bar one hot Detroit night in 1982, and describe the labyrinthine course that justice, susceptible to competing pressures, took over the next four years. Director Christine Choy in person.
Preceded by
NORTHERN ICE, GOLDEN SUN
Faith Hubley, 2001; 6m
Award-winning animator Faith Hubley explores the Inuits' attachment to the natural world and allows us to watch them hunt and care for their young as well as make art, all in tune with the Arctic's seasonal cycle. This screening of Ms. Hubley's last film, completed after her death, is co-sponsored by Pyramid Films.
Sat March 22: 7
PARIS IS BURNING
Jennie Livingston, 1990; 78m
An intimate exploration of the fiercely competitive, wildly creative and outlandishly extravagant world of drag balls. Director Jennie Livingston in person.
Sat March 22: 9:15

PANEL: WAR STORIES: WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINES
Clips will inform this discussion of the coverage of war by trail-blazing women reporters. Panelists discuss how women have influenced the way we see war. Participants include: Ashleigh Banfield, MSNBC's correspondent who reported live from Afghanistan, England, Israel (Tel Aviv, West Bank), Jordan, Lebanon (Beirut) and Syria in a prime-time series titled‚ A Region In Conflict; Janet Gardner, an award winning PBS producer known especially for her work in Southeast Asia; Martha Teichner, Senior Correspondent of CBS Sunday Morning who reported on the war in Bosnia, the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Romanian Revolution; and pending CNN assignment, Ingrid Formanek senior Baghdad producer. Moderated by Marlene Sanders, the first TV newswoman to report from Vietnam, and the first woman vice-president of news at any network when she was named vice president and director of documentaries for ABC. Introductory remarks by award winning news producer Robert Wiener.
Sun March 23: 1

PANEL
Women Documentarians - Tellin' It Like It Is
In the early 70s, responding to the foremost principle of the feminist movement - that the personal is political - women filmmakers created documentaries that changed the form forever. This panel includes filmmakers who were at the forefront of this revolution as well as filmmakers who have recently expanded the boundaries of the art form and challenged notions of truth and objectivity. Participants include Paula Heredia (George Plimpton and The Paris Review; In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01), Ellen Hovde (Grey Gardens, American Photography: A Century of Images), Iris Morales (Palante Siempre Palante! The Young Lords), Rea Tajiri (Strawberry Fields, History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige). Moderated by award-winning writer, independent producer and film scholar Pearl Bowser, this panel promises to bring broader awareness of the influence that women have had on the development of this genre. Sponsored by Getty Images. Sun March 23: 3

VARIETY
Bette Gordon, 1983; 100m
A young woman who sells tickets at a seedy porno theater in Times Square is drawn into the realms of voyeurism, sexuality and crime on the streets of lower Manhattan. With Sandy McLeod, Luis Guzman and a cameo appearance by Nan Goldin.
Director Bette Gordon in person.
Sun March 23: 5

INDIA CABARET
Mira Nair, 1985; 60m
Focusing on a group of female strippers who work in a nightclub in the suburbs of Bombay, INDIA CABARET explores the "respectable" and "corrupt" stereotypes that typify women in contemporary Indian society. It shows us the ordinary lives the dancers lead during the day, and follows them into the dressing room where they transform themselves into "queens of the night."
Preceded by
COLOR SCHEMES
Shu Lea Chang, 1989; 28m
An upbeat, ironic look at America's multicultural society, COLOR SCHEMES uses the metaphor of "color wash" to tackle conceptions of racial assimilation.
Sun March 23: 7:30

BETWEEN THE LINES
Joan Micklin Silver, 1977; 101m
An underground newspaper in Boston is about to be taken over by a large conglomerate. Times have changed, and the days of anti-war radicals have given way to reporters who are either bored by current events, or trying to cash in on remembering "the days." One of a rare breed of films "dealing with the counterculture years that doesn't rip it off or send it up" (Vincent Canby, The New York Times). With John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum and Jill Eikenberry. Director Joan Micklin Silver in person.
Tues March 25: 6

BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE
Jennifer Fox, 1988; 90m
This extraordinary film shows us three months in the life of a Lebanese family living in a heavily bombed Beirut neighborhood, providing insight into the psychology of war, 20th-century-style. Director Jennifer Fox in person. preceded by
WITNESS TO WAR
Deborah Shaffer, 1985; 30m
This Academy-Award-winning documentary from the maker of The Wobblies and Fire from the Mountain tells the story of Dr. Charlie Clements, a former Vietnam war pilot, who refuses further combat missions and goes on to tend to the wounded behind rebel lines in El Salvador. Director Deborah Shaffer in person. Tues March 25: 8:30

FINDING CHRISTA
Camille Billops & James Hatch, 1991; 55m
The attempt of a young black woman to find the mother who gave her up for adoption at age four. Edited by NYWIFT board member Paula Heredia, FINDING CHRISTA was the co-winner of the documentary prize at Sundance in 1992. Director Camille Billops in person.
Preceded by
HISTORY AND MEMORY: FOR AKIKO AND TAKESHIGE
Rea Tajiri, 1991; 32m
A latticework of news reports, Hollywood movies, and her mother's personal memories of internment during World War II shape Tajiri's haunting testament of the Japanese-American experience. Director Rea Tajiri in person.
and GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM
Su Friedrich, 1983; 14m
Dreams from the filmmaker's journals exorcise the mysterious, ritualistic power of repeating images.
Wed March 26: 6

I SHOT ANDY WARHOL
Mary Harron, 1995; 106m
In 1968 Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol, and New York's downtown cultural scene would never be the same. Starring Lili Taylor as Solanas, the creator and sole member of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men). With Jared Harris and Martha Plimpton.
Preceded by
THE WASH: A CLEANING STORY
Eve Sandler, 1999; 9m
This painterly work closely studies the landscapes of the artist's body and memory for scars and survival of childhood sexual abuse.
Director Eve Sandler in person.
Wed March 26: 8:30