Citizen Jane, a New Film Festival

The weekend of October 17-19, a college town in Missouri welcomed a new film festival, Citizen Jane--a clever title for a festival devoted to women in film. 

Moviegoers shake their hips and shimmy with strangers in a packed theater in Columbia, Missouri. The audience is imitating the courtship dance of the totally positive, an unspecified species in Allison Halter's short film "Early Spring Courtship Dance of the Totally Positive." Halter, who was present at the film's screening, asked viewers to rise and dance along with the film's subjects. Everyone in the theater happily obliged.

The screening was anything but a typical movie-going experience--a perfect installation for the Citizen Jane film festival. The three days of festivities starting on Oct. 17th were all aimed at promoting and celebrating women in film. 

During Friday evening's opening ceremonies, festival co-founder Kerri Yost said, "The reality is the film industry isn't a great place for women right now."

And the numbers don't lie.  According to the Celluloid Ceiling report, women directed a mere 6% of the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2007.  Of those films, 21% employed not one female director, producer, writer, cinematographer, or editor.  In the 81 years of the Academy Awards only three women have received a nomination for best director.  All three went home empty handed. The most recent findings by the Women in the Director's Chair organization reports that the total number of women film festivals internationally is only 39.  Now with Citizen Jane, one more can be added to the list. 

"People are always asking us, 'what's your festival like,'" said Yost.  "I'd say we're a little rebellious. Women make films despite that, despite the obstacles and we're trying to educate women to get past those obstacles and hopefully it won't be so hard."

Although this was the first annual Citizen Jane, the festival has fairly deep roots. It began at Stephens College as a lecture series advocating for the recognition of women in the film industry.  The college has been welcoming female filmmakers, producers and writers to showcase their work to the Stephens College community since 2004.

"We'd regularly bring in a women from the film industry to come present her film, but we decided we were going to bring them all in at once and create a festival," said Yost who, along with her festival co-founder Polina Malikin, also co-chair the Mass Media and Digital Filmmaking Department of Stephens College. As the second-oldest women's institution in the nation, the college's support for such a festival is fitting.

What may initially seem less fitting perhaps is the location. Mid-Missouri is not a likely host for such a progressive film festival, but residents can attest that Columbia is just the place for an operation like Citizen Jane.

Home to Ragtag Cinema, an operation that can boast such titles as independent movie theater, bar, art house and café, Columbia has had a progressive film following since before the venue opened its doors in May 2000.

The city is also home to True/False, the annual documentary film festival that is gaining international recognition and popularity. The festival attracts nonfiction filmmakers from all over the world and nearly 18,000 festival attendees, according to last year's numbers.

Columbia is also home to three universities, earning it the nickname Collegetown, USA. A significant portion of the support for festivals like Citizen Jane comes from the city's student population.  According to volunteer coordinator Sarah Whorton, the festival was completely volunteer-run and a majority of the help came from the students of Stephens College, Columbia College and the University of Missouri.

"We also have a lot of organizations that wanted to get involved like the Feminist Student Union," said Whorton.  Support came from outside the college community as well. "We have community members that are really excited about supporting a festival that supports women, that was kind of the common bond between all the volunteers," said Whorton.

Supporting women was not only the common bond between volunteers, but also the 30 filmmakers present at the festival. While most of the films were not feminist in topic, they all supported women behind the camera and the positive portrayal of women in front of the camera.

The weekend showcased nine feature films, starting with Tia Lessin's "Trouble the Water." The film follows two New Orleans' residents before and after Hurricane Katrina.  During a question and answer session, Lessin was quick to point out that the film is about America and not as much about a hurricane. She previously worked as producer on Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the Academy Award-winning "Bowling for Columbine."  Other feature films of the weekend included recent Emmy-winner Alumdena Carracedo's "Made in L.A" and the festival's closing feature film "Examined Life" by director Astra Taylor.

Citizen Jane also hosted three short film programs, a number of panels and workshops for aspiring filmmakers and a performance art series in which several films were shown with a live soundtrack.

In a fitting conclusion to the weekend, the festival closed with a series of short films showcasing the work of established directors, a community member and a Stephens College student.  Ending it all was the trilogy "Wet Dreams and False Images" by director Jesse Epstein.  Her films addressed issues of body image and the pursuit of physical perfection, leaving audiences with something to consider until next year's festival.