By RaeAnne Marsh
(April 2008)

Five days of film fill the line-up for the San Francisco Women's Film Festival, with not a chick flick in sight.

Represented genres cover a wide spectrum: documentaries, sci-fi, gay and lesbian cinema, children's and animation. And if there is any underlying theme, it's activism.

"I try to push the boundaries," says festival founder Scarlett Shepard. "Women do not make just one kind of film." Not that she doesn't enjoy watching a chick flick once in a while, she shares, but "that's not the kind of film I would make."

The impetus to found a film festival dedicated to women's film came from Shepard's studies in San Francisco State University's cinema program. "It was in direct response to the lack of women film directors in the curriculum," she relates. "Not seeing voices or narratives that reflected me left me shaky in a lot of ways. I wondered, ‘Where do I fit in?'; "Will my stories have a broader appeal?'; and ‘Will I have a harder time getting funded?'"

So 2004 found her organizing a film festival while still trying to complete research papers for her film classes. Self-described as having "always been an activist," Shepard garnered support from the faculty and other students, who helped spread word-of-mouth promotion. Organizations such as Women Make Movies picked up the message and passed it further along. "It was a real grass-roots effort." For Shepard, the prize was "seeing all these great films, and seeing the community really appreciating them. And all the networking."

2008's fourth annual San Francisco Women's Film Festival continues Shepard's initial purpose of providing a forum for women filmmakers and raising awareness of their talent. It is both an educational tool and a vehicle for distribution, she says. This past year saw the launch of a professional development track for young women aged 14 to 19, and their "going green" PSAs will be showcased in the upcoming festival.

As forums like hers emerge around the world, Shepard says it's "a step in the right direction." Her plans for the future of SFWFF include development of a women's film institute to include such aspects of filmmaking as writing screenplays and making documentaries, among others.

Festival screenings at the 2008 SFWFF include the documentaries Sold in America, a work in progress about sex slavery in contemporary America from director Chelo Alvarez (a survivor of the trade, Maria Suarez, will be in attendance at the screening), and Exposing Homelessness, director Kerri Gawryn's mirror on an experience widely stereotyped and misconcepted.

Shepard admits the festival is also a forum for activism. It's not just about watching films, she says; "I want film to be more transformative."

San Francisco Women's Film Festival

Also see MPM's exclusive 2008 SFWFF from-the-filmmaker articles:
• From Alexis Krasilovsky - My "Women Behind the Camera: A love-of-vocation film about filmmaking"
"Not only was I making a documentary, but I was serving as a facilitator across boundaries for women - and filmmakers - to connect globally."
• From Emiko Omori - Within "Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm" (a documentary)
Filmmaker Emiko Omori celebrates the difference between porn and art.