Female Indy’s take Chicago Film Fest

Since AMC 21 East is walking distance from Loyola’s Water Tower campus, I managed to squeeze in several good films for this year’s Chicago International Film Festival. And surprise, surprise…ALL of the top films (as well as my personal favorites) were female directed! (Now, why was I so surprised…?)

I got to see top award winners “Mississippi Damned” and the British film “Fish Tank.” “Mississippi Damned” was produced, directed, written and edited by two talented USC women graduates–professional and romantic partners Tina Mabry and Morgan Stiff. Mabry and Stiff produced this film independently.

Mabry wrote the film based on her own life story in Mississippi and the couple have successfully turned her story into a moving and effective film about family, trauma, abuse and perseverance in the racially charged South. Mabry and Stiff were both at the screening, which–particularly in the case of this kind of independent film–always adds to the sense of accomplishment.

“FIsh Tank,” another female directed film, and winner of the Silver Hugo Special Jury award, also displayed some chilling storytelling around questions of family, class and abuse. Short film director Andrea Arnold directed “Fish Tank,” only her second feature, and it has already been recognized at Cannes and now at Sundance. One of the highlights of this film is the nonprofessional actress, Katie Jarvis. Arnold’s casting agent scouted Jarvis at a train station screaming at her boyfriend on another platform. Her performance and the directing of this young talent both deserve acclaim.

“Precious” with an award-winning performance by Gabourey Sidibe and directed by “girl-friendly” filmmaker Lee Daniels–I missed but Alicia saw and is writing about it (I hope).

But finally, my favorite female-directed film (and my favorite film of the fest) was the documentary “Girls on the Wall” directed by Heather Ross about teenage inmates at Warrenville Prison (average age of female prisoner–16). Ross said at the CIFF screening that she had listened in LA to a radio story on NPR about the theatre advocacy group, Storycatchers. Storycatchers, based in Chicago, work with teenage inmates and help them to produce musicals drawn from the drama and creativity of their own experiences. After hearing the radio story, Ross quit her job in LA and moved to Illinois, since she knew that’s where the real story was hiding.

And a powerful story it is. The young prisoners recreate the stories of their families’ lives–the addictions, the abandonments and failures of the parents who could not fill the role or expectations of being parents, but whom were loved by their daughters regardless, it seems, of their faults.

I found myself weeping through much of the film, and then, after listening to one of the former prisoners at the screening, I found myself weeping more.

“Girls on the Wall” is an ITVS PBS co-production, which means it’s basically independently produced, but will get a national PBS screening (in Jan, I think) but not much cash until a distribution deal. Every Women’s Center in the country should buy a copy of this film, as should shelters that serve the lower income public and Women’s Studies programs at universities. It’s powerful stuff, and I hope Ross gets more support to continue outreach with her film and with Storycatchers.

You can find “Girls on the Wall” on Facebook. Their web site–www.fabulousfemalesmovie.com–is not fully loaded yet (but great title!) Correction–Ross just informed me that it is www.girlsonthewallmovie.com.