STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Family of Woman Film Festival has moved to a new date—the week following Labor Day.
The festival will take place from Sept. 8 through 13 at Ketchum’s Community Library, which recently invested in state-of-the-art audio visual equipment for its expanded lecture hall.
It will move to Boise State University on Sept. 16 and 17 as part of the Andrus Center for Public Policy’s annual Women and Leadership Conference.
All the screenings will be free, thanks to generous donors and the fact that there will be no extra cost of theater rental and projectionists.
“Presentations in Boise have been free since the beginning and now they will be free in Sun Valley, as well,” Goldwyn said. “We will maintain a reserved section at the library for our donors, however. We have always considered The Family of Women Film Festival a community event and now it will be even more inclusive.”
In addition to the screenings, the Festival will present POV (Point of View) breakfasts featuring speakers from around the world who can speak to such subjects as refugees in Syria and ebola in Africa. There also will be a reception with filmmakers and speakers for donors. And the festival plans to provide educational outreaches to schools.
The entire program will be put online. And Goldwyn hopes the costs saved from not having to print tickets and glossy programs will allow the Festival to direct more than half of gross proceeds to UNFPA, the United Nation’s Population Fund.
Goldwyn decided to move the festival from February, where it had been for a dozen years, after heavy snows for three straight years played havoc with plane schedules and even kept some locals from attending after snow plows barricaded them in their homes.
“After the third year of heavy snow during the Festival, I made the decision that I simply couldn’t face another year of filmgoers not being able to get to the theatre, of events having to be cancelled because the plows couldn’t keep up with the snowfall and of speakers and filmmakers either having to be bussed or not being able to get here at all,” said Goldwyn. “A lot of effort goes into pulling everything together, and it’s very disappointing to see things unravel due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.”
Ironically, she noted, this winter has boasted below-average snow.
“But a lot of the summer crowd will still be in town following Labor Day, although summer’s craziness will be over. And the weather will still be beautiful. Plus, I imagine the cost of airplane flights will be down.”
Representatives of Boise State University, one of the major sponsors of the festival, and the Andrus Center for Public Policy’s annual Women and Leadership Conference both agreed that having the festival in September was a perfect fit, she added.
In November 2019 Goldwyn curated a program of films to be shown at a major United Nations conference in Nairobi marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. It attracted more than 8,300 delegates from more than 170 countries and territories.
Among the films she screened was National Geographic’s documentary “The Cave,” about doctors working underground to escape the bombs above; “Afghan Cycles,” about young Afghan women cyclists, and “the Eagle Huntress,” a beautifully filmed documentary shown in Sun Valley that follows a 13-year-old girl training to be the first female in her family to become an eagle hunter.
Other films included “Standing On Their Shoulders,” which focuses on female resistance movements in South Africa, and “Sneak Peek” about the craft of storytelling designed to inspire people to press for justice, human rights and health equity.
Goldwyn said she hasn’t committed to any films for the Festival in September.
“Unfortunately, a lot of issues that go on in the world don’t change—women, for instance, are suffering in war time and that’s an ongoing situation. But I don’t want to commit to anything just yet in case something absolutely sensational comes up in the meantime.”