10th Annual BDC's Women's Film Series
BDC's Women's Film Festival
October 18-20, 2024
The BDC’s annual Women's Film Series (WFS) returns for its 10th year! To celebrate a decade of showcasing women filmmakers from around the world at the BDC, curators Beth Dembitzer, Tânia Cypriano, Daniela Amezquita, and Sarah Alvira, have selected a lineup of films that explore community, belonging, and the fight to preserve and celebrate identity. Join us for post-screening conversations with the women filmmakers and producers of these films, as they discuss the stories behind their filmmaking careers. All events are free but donations are always appreciated.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
SCHEDULE:
Friday, October 18, 6:30PM
Jesszilla
BDC, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
Eventbrite / Website
Jesszilla is the poignant, inspiring story of the bonds between a young Latina New Jersey girl, determined to become a boxer, and her devoted father, committed to giving her every chance to realize her dreams.
Director: Emily Sheskin is a director and editor who has worked on award-winning documentaries, TV specials and advertising campaigns. Her work has been featured in numerous publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic and others. She holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of New York Women in Film & Television, and IFP.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, October 19, 3PM
Keynote Talk I Subrata De
BDC, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
Eventbrite / Website
Join us for a keynote talk with Subrata De, an acclaimed media executive and journalist, who for decades has been at the forefront of groundbreaking news storytelling. Her career includes having served as the Executive Producer at VICE, where she led the HBO series; as the VP of Multi-Platform News Gathering at ABC News; and as Executive Producer for Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a leader in the industry.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, October 19, 6PM
Bye, Bye Tiberias
BDC, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
Eventbrite / Website
The lives and relationships of four generations of women in a spirited, tight-knit Palestinian family are explored through the eyes of actress Hiam Abbas, who has lived most of her adult life in Paris. She returns with her daughter Lina Soualem, who directed this film. With intimacy and complexity, mother and daughter revisit the family's story, dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when they were displaced from their home in Tiberias. This second feature from Lina Soualem beautifully portrays the complexity of Arab women’s lives. The film was Palestine’s entry for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and has won several international awards.
Director: Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress. After completing her studies in History and Political Science at the Sorbonne, she worked as a programmer for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires. Soualem's debut feature documentary, Their Algeria, premiered at the Visions du Réel International Film Festival in 2020 and has won numerous international awards. Lina Soualem has also acted in three feature films, directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbas and Rayhana.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, October 20, 3PM
Razing Liberty Square
BDC, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
Eventbrite / Website
As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. The historically black neighborhood of Liberty City had been ignored by developers and policy-makers for generations. Located 12 feet above sea level, Liberty City has now become more attractive with each rising tide. At the heart of Liberty City is the Liberty Square housing projects, the first segregated public housing project in the South. This new documentary from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Katja Esson begins at the very moment when Liberty Square is being razed to the ground to make way for the “New Liberty Square”, a $300 million mixed-income development.
Director/Producer: Katja Esson is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker based in Miami. She is known for her character-driven documentaries tackling issues of race, class and gender. Her documentary short Ferry Tales garnered awards at international film festivals, was nominated for an Oscar and premiered on HBO in 2004. Other notable films include: Hole in the Sky—The Scars of 9/11; Skydancer; and Poetry of Resilience (Cinema for Peace Award Nomination). She was awarded the Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at Kansas University, in addition to other awards and recognition.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, October 20, 6PM
Almost American
BDC, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
Eventbrite / Website
Director Nina Álvarez, a long-time broadcast and documentary producer/director and professor at the Columbia Journalism School, follows a family originally from El Salvador, decades-long residents of the US, who must fight deportation when the Department of Homeland Security revokes the Temporary Protected Status of six countries. Since the youngest children were born in the US and are American citizens, deportation will not only remove the parents and older sister from their long-established, stable lives, but threatens to break up the family.
Director: Nina Álvarez is a documentarian and journalist with over 20 years of experience. She directed and wrote an episode for Latino Americans, which received a Peabody and the Imagen Award. Nina’s credits include Very Young Girls, The Battle for America’s Schools, the Oscar-nominated Which Way Home, and the Emmy-nominated Aftershock Pakistan.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Location: Bronx Documentary Center, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451