PRESS RELEASE: Baltimore Women's Film Festival (10/23-25/09) Announces Schedule

Contact: Baltimore Women's Film Festival Press
Email: getinvolved@bwfilmfestival.com
Phone: 410-982-6648

THE BALTIMORE WOMEN'S FILM FESTIVAL LAUNCHES SCHEDULE FOR OCTOBER EVENT AT LANDMARK'S HARBOR EAST CINEMA

(Baltimore, Maryland) Sept 10, 2009—Today, The Baltimore Women’s Film Festival (The BWFF) announced the schedule for its third annual event, which takes place Friday-Sunday, October 23rd-25th at Landmark's Harbor East Cinema. The 2009 line-up includes a variety of shorts, documentaries, animation, music videos, and feature-length films. BWFF 2009 will be an interactive event, as a variety of filmmakers will be in attendance to discuss their work. Filmmakers in attendance include Baltimore and DC locals, as well as those from across the continent and the globe. The Baltimore Women’s Film Festival is dedicated to and focused on seeking out the very finest independent cinema created by and for women.

BWFF 2009 will showcases features, documentaries, animations, music videos, and short films in which women play significant roles in the direction, production, and completion. For full schedule of films, please visit baltimorewomens.bside.com/2009/schedule. The BWFF 2009 is pleased to announce that for the third year in a row the festival will donate 50% of all ticket sale proceeds to the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center, which provides innovative, integrated, high-quality and cost-effective care for breast cancer patients.

BALTIMORE WOMEN'S FILM FESTIVAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

- "Not Dead Yet" directed by Sam Hull. In the film, three female actresses, frustrated by the lack of roles for women over 40, decide to create their own film, starring themselves. The film's writer and producer Susan Hess Logeais stated, “We may be over 40, but we’re not dead yet. We’re not invisible; we’re vibrant and alive. We may be changing, but we embrace that change as opposed to mourning it and withdrawing.” (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER IN ATTENDANCE)

-“Pip and Zastrow: An American Friendship” directed by Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce, This documentary is the story of two men, Simms and former Annapolis mayor “Pip” Moyer who cross racial boundaries during segregation in Maryland in the 1940s. (DIRECTORS//PRODUCERS IN ATTENDANCE)

- "Two Fireflies" directed by Adam Meyer and produced by Dani Englander. Two Fireflies is a love story shot in the Washington DC area about an older man and a young woman determined not to pick up any commitments or baggage and end up forming a friendship which helps both individuals move themselves back on to the stage of life. (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER IN ATTENDANCE)

- "Autism: Made in the USA" In this film, award winning producer and director Gary Null is on a quest to reveal the true causes and promising solutions for the recent dramatic increase in autism in our children. (GARY NULL IN ATTENDANCE)

- "Voices from the Inside: Israelis Speak” directed by Lucy Martens, In this documentary, 16 Jewish Israeli voices of conscience, each representing a different facet of the peace movement inside Israel. (PRODUCER IN ATTENDANCE)

-Plan B, Single Women Choosing Motherhood directed by Beth Cramer, This documentary film explores the new social picture single motherhood presents and the reasons this trend is snowballing among women in their thirties to mid forties. (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER IN ATTENDANCE)

-Straightlaced--How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up directed by Academy-award winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff. Straightlaced includes the perspectives of teens who self-identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning and represent all points of the gender spectrum. (DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE)

This year, the Baltimore Women's Film Festival will be participating in Free Fall Baltimore Sunday October 25th from 12pm-2pm. Free tickets to these events are available through advance registration at www.bwfilmfestival.com. Free Fall Baltimore is made possible by a grant from Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.

The Free Fall Baltimore events include “She Should Have Gone to the Moon,” directed by Ulrike Kubatta. This feature documentary is about Jerri Truhill, who was trained in 1961, as part of NASA's top-secret Mercury 13 program, to become one of the First Lady Astronauts.

BWFF SHORT FILM SEQUENCES AND LOCAL FILMS
The festival will feature several collections of short films in the following showcases “Films Set in Baltimore,” “Documentary Shorts,” “Short Films about Love,” “Films about Magical Realism and Dreams,” “Animated Shorts,” and “Dramatic Shorts.”

The festival will be screening a wide array of films by Maryland locals including “The Mystery Date” by Arlette Thomas-Fletcher, “Swim Lessons: The Nick Irons Story,” directed by Alex Houston and produced by Kendra Gahagan, “Life After Lisa,” directed by Palmer Enfield and produced by Elena Moscatt, “Out of the Darkness”, directed and produced by local filmmaker Nikki V. Roberts, and many other film selections created by Maryland and DC area filmmakers. The festival will also present films from Baltimore organizations Wide Angle Youth Media and The Megaphone Project.

OVERVIEW
The 2009 Baltimore Women's Film Festival will be taking place at Landmark's Harbor East Cinema located at 645 S. President Street. Tickets to all regular screening sessions are $10. Half of all ticket sale proceeds will benefit the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center. To learn more about The Baltimore Women's Film Festival or to purchase tickets online, visit www.bwfilmfestival.com or email getinvolved@bwfilmfestival.com.

Sponsors of The Baltimore Women's Film Festival event include Harbor East and Landmark Theatres. To read about or donate directly to the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center, please visit www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org.