Women in the Director's Chair Festival set for Oct. 11-13

An award-winning collection of 25 new short, experimental and documentary
films and videos made by women of diverse ethnic, sexual and national
identities will be shown at the UI on Oct. 11 and 12, and at Parkland
College on Oct. 13.

The screenings of the films in the "Women in the Director's Chair Festival
Tour" are sponsored by the UI Women's Studies Program, several UI
organizations and Parkland College's Office of Women's Programs and
Services. The tour features three different programs on three different
nights; all are free and open to the public.

Women in the Director's Chair is a Chicago-based organization that
showcases contemporary work representing a diversity of women's experiences
and approaches to the making of films and videos. The programs feature the
best of the hundreds of entries in the 14th Annual Women in the Director's
Chair International Film and Video Festival held last March in Chicago.

This year's tour includes works by African-American, Asian-American, Latina
and lesbian artists. Works to be shown are from Great Britain, Mexico and
the United States.

The first program, "Rites of Passage," is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 11 in the main lounge of Allen Hall. It includes eight works that
focus on women at crucial points in their lives. The films and their
directors: "Acting Our Age," by Gurinder Chadha; "Los Muertitos" ("The
Little Dead Ones"), by Isabel Herguera; "Stick Figures," by Diane Bonder;
"Drift to Dust," by Kristine Diekman; "The Female Macs," by the Community
Television Network; "The Watermelon," by Vivian Yu; "Cruel," by Desi Del
Valle; and "The Reunion," by Sandra J. Guardado. The total program running
time is 110 minutes.

The second program, "Family Values," is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 12 in 66 Library. This program includes nine works that explore the
varieties of family dynamics and experiences in the 1990s. The films and
their directors: "Is This Me?" by Mary Kocol; "Daughters of Dykes," by
Amilca Palmer; "Remnants," by Reiko Tahara; "This World is Not Our Home,"
by Kim Johnson; "More Than a Paycheck," by Lexi Leban; "Frankie and Jocie,"
by Jocelyn Taylor; "Sisters 'n Brothers," by Veena Cabreros-Sud; "Miss
Ruby's House," by Lisa Collins; and "Missing Relations," by Yvonne Welbon.
The total program running time is 107 minutes.

The third program, "A Map of Resistance," is scheduled to be screened at
7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in C118 Parkland College. The program reconsiders
commonly held theories applied to everyday realities in the lives of many
women. The eight films and their directors: "Poisson D'Amour" ("Fish of
Love"), by Paula Gauthier; "Aletheia," by Tran T. Kim-Trang; "Stereotypes,"
by Freddie Deloney and Katrina Vega; "Crisis in Woodlawn: The Grace House
Project," by Elisabeth Subrin and Marcia Dean; "Cuz It's Boy," by Catherine
Saalfield; "Ajax for Life," by Diane Nerwen; "Mas Alla de las Apariencias"
("More Than It Appears"), by the Community Television Network; and "Ondas
de Cambio" ("Waves of Change"), by Julia Barco. The total program running
time is 119 minutes.

Dalida Maria Benfield, professor of art at the UI and former program
director of Women in the Director's Chair, will present the screenings and
be available to take questions and discuss women's media and alternative
film and video productions.

This is the fifth consecutive year the festival has included the UI campus
and community in its tour of Midwest cities, and the first year that the
campus and community will offer the full run of programs. Other stops on
the 1995 tour include Carbondale, Evanston and Macomb; Iowa City, Iowa;
Minneapolis; and Toledo, Ohio.