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Athena Film Festival Announces Lineup of Narrative, Documentary and Short Films

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Athena Film Festival Announces Lineup of Narrative, Documentary and Short Films FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES LINEUP OF NARRATIVE, DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT FILMS FILMS INCLUDE BEYOND THE LIGHTS, DREAMCATCHER, DUKHTAR, OBVIOUS CHILD, QUE CARAMBRA ES LA VIDA & WE ARE THE BEST! AMONG OTHERS The festival runs from February 5 – 8 New York, NY (January 9, 2015) – The Athena Film Festival announced today its 2015 lineup, featuring an array of narrative, documentary and short films. The festival and its upcoming slate honor extraordinary women in the entertainment industry and spotlight films that showcase women’s leadership in real life and the fictional world. Now in its fifth year, the festival runs from Thursday, February 5 through Sunday, February 8 on the Barnard College campus in Morningside Heights. Regina K. Scully, the Phoebe Snow Foundation, and the Artemis Rising Foundation are the festival’s Founding Sponsors. The festival opens on Thursday night with the New York Premiere of DREAMCATCHER, a documentary directed by Kim Longinotto. 2015 Athena awardee Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of BEYOND THE LIGHTS, will participate in a Q & A on Saturday night following a screening of the film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Among the feature films included in this year’s lineup are: OBVIOUS CHILD, starring Jenny Slate and directed by Gillian Robespierre, WE ARE THE BEST!, starring Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne and directed by Lukas Moodysson, and DUKHTAR, directed by Afia Nathaniel. The documentary category includes: VESSEL, directed by Diana Whitten, SEPIDEH – REACHING FOR THE STARS, directed by Berit Madsen, QUE CARAMBA ES LA VIDA, directed by Doris Dörrie, and OUT IN THE NIGHT, directed by Blair Dorosh- Walther. A wide variety of shorts will be featured including: THE LION’S MOUTH OPENS, directed by Academy Award®-nominee Lucy Walker, MUTED, directed by Rachel Goldberg, STOP TELLING WOMEN TO SMILE, directed by Dean Peterson, and AFRONAUTS, directed by Frances Bodomo. “We are thrilled to celebrate the fifth year of this unique film festival with an inspiring and diverse range of films,” said Kathryn Kolbert, co-founder of the Festival and Constance Hess Williams Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies. “Where better to celebrate the power and leadership of women in film than on the Barnard College campus in New York, which will be transformed this February with screenings, panels and our annual awards ceremony.” “These films were selected for the power of their stories to inspire us to think about women's leadership differently,” said Melissa Silverstein, co-founder and Artistic Director of the Festival and founder of Women and Hollywood. “We are proud to unveil a 2015 line-up that continues to provide a place for audiences to learn, experience and connect.” As previously announced Academy Award®-winning actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster will receive this year’s Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award. Additional awardees include Sheila Nevins, President of HBO Documentary Films, Gina Prince-Bythewood, director, writer and producer behind films such as Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees and Beyond the Lights, and Cathy Schulman, Academy Award® winning producer, President of Mandalay Pictures, and President of Women in Film, known for films including Crash, The Illusionist, Darfur Now and Bernie. The current lineup follows. Additional screenings, panels and special events will be announced in the coming weeks. Please visit http://www.athenafilmfestival.com for regular updates and to purchase tickets or passes. FEATURES Beyond The Lights Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood Run Time: 116 minutes Language: English The pressures of fame have superstar singer Noni on the edge, until she meets Kaz, a young cop who works to help her find the courage to develop her own voice and break free to become the artist she was meant to be. Named one of the top 10 best films of 2014 by New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis. Dukhtar Director: Afia Nathaniel Run Time: 93 minutes Language: Urdu/Pashto Set in Pakistan, Dukhtar (Daughter) is a dramatic story of a mother who kidnaps her ten-year-old daughter to save her from the fate of a child bride. Their daring escape triggers a relentless hunt. As their pursuers close in, mother and daughter meet a cynical truck driver who offers unlikely hope. For Those Who Can Tell No Tales Director: Jasmila Zbanic Run Time: 82 minutes Language: English/Bosnian Instead of visiting Fiji like everybody else, Kym, an Australian tourist, decides to travel to Višegrad, Bosnia, a small town steeped in history, on the border of Serbia. After a night of insomnia in the 'romantic' Hotel Vilina Vlas, Kym discovers what happened there during the war. No longer an ordinary tourist, her life will never again be the same. Maïna Director: Michel Poulette Run Time: 100 minutes Language: Innu Six hundred years ago, in the aftermath of a bloody confrontation between her Innu tribe and the Inuit, the “Men from the Land of Ice”, Maïna fulfills a death-bed promise to her friend Matsii, following the trail of her enemies to retrieve Matsii’s 11-year-old son, Nipki, who has been captured by the Inuit. Maïna is taken captive herself and forced to travel to the Land of Ice. This beautiful film daringly introduces us to the fascinating civilizations that lived on the American continent. Obvious Child Director: Gillian Robespierre Run Time: 84 minutes Language: English On stage, aspiring comedian Donna Stern is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job, and finds herself pregnant, she surprisingly discovers that the most terrifying thing isn’t facing adulthood on her own, but allowing herself to accept the support and love of others. We Are the Best! Director: Lukas Moodysson Run Time: 102 minutes Language: Swedish We are the Best! revolves around three girls in 1980’s Stockholm who decide to form a punk band—despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead. Based on a graphic novel, the feature is a paean to DIY culture and the power of rebellion. DOCUMENTARIES #CHICAGOGIRL – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator Director: Joe Piscatella Run Time: 74 minutes Language: English/Arabic Armed only with a laptop, a smartphone, and her determination, 19-year-old Ala’a Basatneh is contributing to the Syrian revolution from her Chicago bedroom. Six thousand miles away from Damascus, she orchestrates an impressive array of social media to coordinate and protect the Syrian protestors from President Bashar al-Assad's rule of terror. And while she is out of the regime’s reach, there’s no telling when the other shoe will drop. Althea Director: Rex Miller Run Time: 83 minutes Language: English Althea Gibson was the first African-American to play and win at Wimbledon and Forest Hills, a decade before the great Arthur Ashe, only to be shunned by the highly segregated world of tennis. The film details her roots as a sharecropper's daughter, her family's migration north to Harlem, her mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins, and others, and her rising fame that thrusts her unwillingly into the glare of the early Civil Rights movement. Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity Director: Catherine Gund Run Time: 82 minutes Language: English Elizabeth Streb and the STREB Extreme Action Company form a motley troupe of flyers and crashers. Propelled by Streb’s edict that “anything too safe is not action,” these daredevils challenge the assumptions of art, aging, injury, gender, and human possibility. Born to Fly offers a breathtaking tale about the necessity of art, inspiring audiences hungry for a more tactile and fierce experience. Dreamcatcher – Opening Night Film & New York Premiere Director: Kim Longinotto Run Time: 98 minutes Language: English Dreamcatcher is a portrait of Brenda Myers-Powell, a former Chicago prostitute, who helps women and teenage girls break the cycle of sexual abuse and exploitation. The film lays bare the hidden violence that devastates the lives of young women, their families, and the communities where they live. It is Brenda’s compassion and unflinching intervention that turns these desperate lives around. In The Game – Full-Length Work-in-Progress Director: Maria Finitzo Run Time: 77 minutes Language: English/Spanish In the Game follows the ups and downs of an Hispanic girls soccer team to reveal the impact that race, class, and gender has on life’s opportunities. Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger Director: Sam Feder Run Time: 72 minutes Language: English Trans-dyke. Reluctant polyamorist. Sadomasochist. Recovering Scientologist. Pioneering gender outlaw. Performance artist and writer, Kate Bornstein, deconstructs gender—and her own identity. Sam Feder’s playful and meditative portrait, captures rollicking public performances and painful personal revelations as it bears witness to Bornstein as a trailblazing artist-theorist-activist who inhabits a space between male and female with wit, style and astonishing candor. Out in the Night Director: Blair Dorosh-Walther Run Time: 75 minutes Language: English Out in the Night tells the story of a group of African-American lesbian teenagers from Newark, N.J. who are out, one hot August night in 2006, in a gay friendly neighborhood of New York City. When an older man sexually and violently confronts the group, two of the teens defend themselves and stabs the man. The women are rounded up and charged with gang assault, assault, and attempted murder. They are called a “Gang of Killer Lesbians” by the media and in activist circles become known as The New Jersey 4. Que Caramba Es La Vida Director: Doris Dörrie Run Time: 86 minutes Language: Spanish More than just music, Mariachi is an essential part of Mexican culture that views the world from a macho perspective.
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