The 8th Women's Film Festival in Seoul (WFFIS) opens this Thursday April 6th and will run to the 14th, 2006. The non-competitive international festival will screen films dealing with various aspects of daily life, politics, social and environmental issues, as seen through women's eyes.
This year's line-up includes a special focus on African Cinema called 'My Africas' which will introduce the works of African women filmmakers from countries such as Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Zimbabwe and others. The program will also highlight documentaries by Safi Faye, dubbed a 'godmother of African women's cinema'.
The New Currents section will showcase recent feature films from around the world by such internationally renowned directors as Kim Longinotto, Doris Dorrie, Barbara Hammer , Chantal Akerman , and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad.
The festival will also present a section called 'Feminist Documentary Pioneers: Thousand Voices' which is devoted to American and European feminist newsreels and documentaries from the 1960-70's, whose voices had a profound impact on the social climate of the time.
The Feminist Film and Video Activism section will continue this year with more recent works from female activists working for social and environmental change around the world. Meanwhile, the Asian Short Film and Video Competition will feature some of the best works from female directors in 14 Asian countries. This year a record 230 shorts were submitted to WFFIS and from them 20 were selected for the program.
This year there will also be a special focus on writer-director Marleen Gorris and will feature screenings of many of her critically acclaimed feminist films including her masterpiece A Question of Silence and one of her most popular films, Antonia's Line.
The opening film will be Sisters in Law, a UK/Cameroon co-production directed by Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi. It is a comedy-drama about two tough-minded women working in the state's legal system who inspire local women in their Muslim village to speak out against abuse. The film will screen after the opening ceremony at 6:00 April 6th at the Artreon cinema in Sinchon, west-central Seoul. The festival website can be found at: Open the link
Mr. Nigel DSa, who teaches English at Hanyang University in Seoul, serves as assistant editor and staff writer for The Seoul Times. Mr. DSa has been contributing many articles to a number of publications. Mr. DSa specializes in film and other cultural affairs.
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