Seattle Press on Line - Women in Cinema Festival

Women in Cinema Festival

Jan 17, 2002 -- While there are only a couple, rather limited, archetypes of women in society, the seventh annual Women in Cinema Festival (WIC) attempts to broaden the definition of the female, as well as focusing on her daily search for everything from the physical--sustenance and safety for herself and her loved ones--to the metaphysical--the meaning and purpose of her existence.

The festival brings to Seattle a closer look at the gender representing over half of the world's population. With 40 films from 18 countries, WIC uses movies by women filmmakers who seek to explore the various facets of a woman's reality.

Season of Men, set in Tunisia, studies women's struggle between modernity and tradition, personified by their dependence on men: there is a one-month period when the men come home from Tunis, where their businesses are, to see their wives and children. For the other 11 months of the year, the families are both lonelier and freer as they find solace and strength in the friendship of women.

In Italian for Beginners, six singles in Copenhagen take an elementary language course, and the film watches their life revelations, precipitated by contact with their fellow human beings.

The German film Blue Light features a young girl who regularly climbs mountains barefoot. She discovers a cave filled with blue crystals, but because the villagers cannot follow her to the cache of wonders, she is dubbed a witch.

In the black comedy Bark, a woman decides to stop speaking and start barking, on the grounds that she is fed up with modern-day alienation and unkindness. In her view, dogs elicit unconditional love. The cast includes Hank Azaria, as her frustrated husband's best friend, Lisa Kudrow as a lonely veterinarian, and Vincent D'Onfrio as a psychiatric resident.

The festival runs from January 24--31. Information is available on the Cinema Seattle Web site at www.seattlefilms.com.

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