Women's film festival takes in an expansive look at the world

The Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival is quickly running out of superlatives.

At 22 years old, it has become the longest continuously running women’s film festival in the world.

“This is our biggest festival,” says festival Executive Director Linda Broker. “We’re showing more films this year than we’ve ever showed in the past.”

Dedicated from its beginnings to the “drive, spirit and diversity of women,” the festival is also dedicated almost exclusively to documentary films. That it has not only survived, but also flourished, in Colorado Springs (hardly known outside the city limits for its film culture) is a testament to the pluck and dedication of its organizers, volunteers and festivalgoers. One might even call it heroic.

It’s little surprise, then, that the themes of almost all of the feature documentary films screened here reflect the spirit of the festival itself: understated heroism against often-unthinkable adversity.

Perhaps most famously, the festival screened “Born Into Brothels” in 2004, a documentary about an organization that gave cameras to children born to prostitutes in the red light district of Calcutta, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 77th Academy Awards. Films tackling such difficult and emotional subjects are the norm at the festival, Broker says.

“We’ve definitely gotten a reputation for showing films that are emotionally challenging,” she says. “But over the years, we’ve found that those are the films that women typically make. It’s not that we don’t like funny films or light, entertaining films; we just don’t get that many to choose from.”

Above all, says Broker, the festival seeks to bring films that tell great stories, and “a really good filmmaker can take a story that may not be that compelling and turn it into a story that’s really compelling.”

Broker cites “In Place Out of Time,” an unlikely film about a man who sets out on a quixotic journey to document all the hieroglyphics in New Mexico as one of the surprises.

The lineup at this year’s festival has a global range of perspectives. Thirty-one features and short films cover such diverse topics as the life of hippie clown Wavy Gravy in “Saint Misbehavin’,” and the rising problem of aborted female fetuses among pregnant East Indian mothers in “Daughters of Gardeners.” The mother of a manic-depressive boy who committed suicide at 15 made “Boy Interrupted.” And “Neshoba” takes a look at the Mississippi town where three civil rights workers were killed more than 40 years ago, and the fallout of bringing their murderers to justice.

The list goes on and festivalgoers will be forced to make many difficult choices about which films they want to see.

Broker emphasizes that though the films are, as always, made by women, it does not mean that the films are necessarily about women or that men are not welcome.

“I hope that men who come to the festival wouldn’t feel that, ‘Oh, it’s really awkward that I’m watching this film.’ The topics are far ranging. And I would say that most of the films aren’t about topics that are specific to women. They’re all over the map.”

For Broker, the enduring success of the film festival has as much to do with the sense of community it creates as it does with the films themselves.

“I think some people look at the festival as a personal journey,” she says. “So I would attribute a lot of its success to that aspect.

“And I would like to think we’re pretty consistent with what we deliver in terms of quality.”

The 22nd Annual Rocky Mountain Women’s Film
Festival

When: Today, Saturday and Sunday

Where: The Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., as well as Colorado College’s Armstrong Hall and Cornerstone Arts Center, both near the corner of Cascade Avenue and Cache La Poudre St.

Tickets: $35-$60

More info: Complete listing of film times and venues is available at rmwfilmfest .org or by calling 226-0450