PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Women in Film Festival kicks off this weekend with 11 films and several directors answering questions about their films over two days.
This is the third annual Women in Film Festival, which was started by the Port Townsend Film Festival when staffers simply couldn’t fit all the films they liked into the annual festival in September, according to Port Townsend Film Festival director Janette Force.
Only 150 passes are available to this small festival, and all films are screened Saturday and Sunday at the Rose and Rosebud theaters at 235 Taylor St. in Port Townsend. Passes are available at www.ptfilmfest.com.
Passes for all films
Passes, which are $75, allow patrons entrance to all 11 films, many of which include short films and presentations by the filmmakers.
Pass holders will also be invited to this year’s big event: the Saturday screening of “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” at 7 p.m. at the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden.
The film’s co-director, Rita Coburn Whack, will be interviewed prior to the screening and will answer questions after the film is shown, according to Force.
Directors in the crowd
There will also be a mixer with the directors in attendance before the film.
Also attending the festival will be Ina Pinkney, Chicago’s “breakfast queen” and the subject of the documentary “Breakfast at Ina’s,” which will be screened at the Rose Theatre on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Rosebud Theatre lineup includes a film about Emily Dickinson called “A Quiet Passion,” a film about a Nepalese family hoping to fund their daughter’s education called “Drawing the Tiger” and a short film about a Jewish neighborhood in Tunis titled “El Hara.”
The Rose Theatre will show “Agnes Martin, Before the Grind,” a short film titled “Portraits of Creativity: Sheila Berger” by Gael Towey and “Big Sonia,” a film about a Holocaust survivor. Berger and Towey will answer questions after the showing of their short film.
On Sunday, the Rosebud will show “Equal Means Equal” by Kamala Lopez. Lopez recently was a presenter at the United Nations as part of International Women’s Day. Lopez’s film explores the push for gender equality in the United States, and she will be present for questions after Sunday’s screening.
That day, the Rosebud will show “In Between,” a story about three women in Tel Aviv, Israel, while the Rose will screen “Breakfast at Ina’s” and “Magnificent Burden.”
Film synopses and a full schedule are available on the Port Townsend Film Festival website.
