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St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival

Highlights

Filmmaker Irene Duma (This Hour Has Seven Decades), who has directed many BookShort films, loved St. John’s so much she moved there. Irene and Director Rachel Peters (Nagasaki Circus) who we met at last year’s St. John’s festival, are available for interviews in person OCTOBER 11 to OCTOBER 18.  The date of the screening is October 17. Rachel is also teaching animation workshop for St. John’s youth, which will be screened at the Closing Gala October 18.  St. John’s Director Justin Simms is represented with his short Night Work: A Sawchuk Poem, based on the work of Corner Brook author Randall Maggs.

St Johns Film FestMoving Stories Films Presentation

Friday October 17
5:00-7:00pm, followed by a reception
Masonic Temple, 6 Cathedral Street, St. John’s NL

Moving Stories is a juried competition showcasing eclectic shorts made by filmmakers from around the world. The films span genres from comedy to drama, in formats from biography to animation.  With Special Guest Filmmaker IRENE DUMA, currently residing in Newfoundland.

There are many immediate touch points between St. John’s and Toronto-based Moving Stories Films: 

  • Irene Duma, director of the mockumentary This Hour Has Seven Decades, based on the memoir by Patrick Watson that opens the screening program will be the special on-stage guest. “I had an absolutely wonderful time at the Atlantic premiere of This Hour,” says Duma, originally from Toronto. “I fell in love with Newfoundland, and now I’m living in St. John’s!”    

 

  • Also in the program is the film When The Telescope Came by Director Kate Jessop from Manchester, England.  Kate attended St. John’s in 2007, and pitched her work to Keenan when they both attended St. John’s Women’s Film Fest last year.  “I have met many directors through the excellent programming choices the St. John’s curatorial board have made over the years,” states founder / producer Judith Keenan.  “They are an important source for introducing the work of artists that we go on to commission, employ and whose work we screen on an ongoing basis.” 

 

  • BookShorts Exec Producer Judith Keenan has worked with Newfound Films’ Producer Anna Petras on several productions over the past few years, and with director Justin Simms on the 2008 production Night Work: A Sawchuk Poem, included in this year’s Moving Stories Films program.  She will be attending the screening.

 

  • Rachel Peters is another talented “find” from St. John’s ‘07 - her work animating the Festival’s opening intro, her pitch at the Face to Face session, and a charming stage show that includes fire-eating (yup, eating actual fire) put her on our radar and lead to a fruitful collaboration on Nagasaki Circus. Not only is it in the MSF program, we helped to secure funding through Bravo!FACT, where the film will be broadcast after its festival circuit. Rachel Peters is in St. John’s October 11-18.

 Download the St. John’s Press Release Sept 22/08

St. John’s International Women’s FIlm Festival October 14 - 18, 2008
http://www.womensfilmfestival.com/