Although women comprise more than half of the country’s population, in 2024, they accounted for 16 percent of directors and 27 percent of producers working on the 250 top-grossing films, according to the 2024 “Celluloid Ceiling” report. While an increase from previous years, this percentage still highlights a significant gender disparity in the film industry, with women in only 23 percent of roles studied (directors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers).
Richard Paradise, founder and executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, states, “One of the goals of creating the Women in Film Festival seven years ago was to empower moviegoers through screenings and panels that would turn an authentic spotlight on women in the film industry. The festival, running from Oct. 17 to 19, features a diverse selection of films aimed at bringing visibility to unheralded women’s voices and showcasing their creative art in a still-male-dominated industry.”
The festival kicks off with “Girls Will Be Girls” on Friday, Oct. 17, at 4 pm, a coming-of-age drama written and directed by Indian filmmaker Shuchi Talati. Set in a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old top student Mira (Preeti Panigraphi) discovers desire and romance. Her life is turned upside down by her sexual awakening, as she becomes passionately involved with a new student who has recently arrived from abroad. However, Mira’s transformation is interrupted by her mother, who has quietly endured a lonely life, and never had a chance to come of age herself.
At 7:30 pm is director Linda Yellen’s “One Stupid Thing.” Three high school sophomores, who have been close for years, frolic during winter break in an idyllic beach community on Nantucket. The trio attends a New Year’s Eve party hosted by one of the community’s wealthiest men. High on the warmth of their friendship, they stray off to drink champagne and play a seemingly harmless party trick, with fatal results. In a moment of panic, the three agree to keep their role a secret.
This not only destroys their bond but also each of their lives, as we see during the following winter break. However, a chance encounter with the stepdaughter of the host from that fateful New Year’s Eve party initiates the unraveling of a mystery that reveals many other people’s secrets.
Yellen, who will discuss “One Stupid Thing” after the screening via Zoom, explains the impetus for making the film: “I can certainly identify with the idea of doing one stupid thing. Who hasn’t done many when they were young, like our protagonists? I was also intrigued by the moral issues of behavior. Combine that with an action/suspense story, and I was sold! Of course, when it came to life with these young actors, it was even better.”
Director Luz Orlando Brennan will also participate in a live discussion after the screening of “The Star I Lost” on Oct. 18, at 5 pm. The once-famous and sexy actress Norma Reyes (Mirta Busnelli), now 76, reluctantly agrees to take on the part of a great-grandmother with Alzheimer’s in a mediocre play. At home, Norma’s adult daughter, Celeste (Ana Pauls), finally can’t take living with her narcissistic mother, announcing she is going to get married and move out.
Angry with her mother, Celeste tells her at one point, “I don’t understand how you can’t tell one emotion from another. You’re an actress.” To which she responds, “Onstage, I don’t get confused; in real life I do.” With the stress of the rehearsals and the pain of Celeste’s imminent departure, something dramatically shifts their relationship, providing Celeste with an opportunity to mold Norma into the mother she thinks will be the one of her dreams. Brennan shares about her film, “Norma is a great actress who no longer finds roles for her age — only grandmothers or even great-grandmothers. I wanted to make a film that goes beyond that criticism, challenging the stereotypes, showing how an actress can be all women at once. Through her daughter’s gaze — torn between the mother she dreams of and the one she needs — Norma’s pushed to embody them all: the broken diva, the loving mother, the fading woman, the lover, the housewife.”
At 7:30 pm is Lilian T. Mehrel’s “Honeyjoon,” a tender mother-daughter tale, about a search for reconciliation and connection. June (Ayden Mayeri) and her mother, Lela (Amira Casar), have come to a beautiful oasis in the Azores on the anniversary of the passing of the family patriarch. Persian-Kurdish Lela left Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to live in England. She distracts herself from her grief by following the growing oppression of women in Iran, much to June’s dismay. Young and sensual, June shuns her mother’s depression and instead searches for life-affirming love.
The object of her affection is their hot, philosophical, surfer tour guide, João (José Condessa), who advises June that happiness will return, but to ride it like the waves, which will advance and recede. Mehrel shares, “’Honeyjoon’ was inspired by a real trip to the Azores, real grief, real love. It’s a story about the balance of light and dark, about celebrating pleasure, despite everything. It’s for anyone who lives with loss. For anyone who wants to feel free in their body. For anyone who has tried and failed to flirt.” There will be a Zoom discussion with Mehrel after this surprising, sexy, touchingly funny film.
Sunday, Oct. 19 begins at 4 pm, with Tamara Kotevska’s powerful and visually striking story set in rural Macedonia. The National Geographic documentary “The Tale of Silyan” tells the story of Nikola, a farmer struggling with the harsh effects of new government policies, who is unable to sell his land or crops. When his family leaves to seek a better life abroad, Nikola takes a job as a landfill attendant, where he encounters the injured white stork, Silyan. As he nurses the bird back to health, an unlikely bond forms between Nikola and the animal. The deeply moving film explores climate change, economic migration, resilience, and the quiet strength of connection.
The festival concludes with Sarah Colt and Helen Dobrowski’s “Fly with Me” at 7:30 pm. The documentary relates the story of pioneering young women who became flight attendants during a time when single women couldn’t order drinks, dine alone in restaurants, own a credit card, or get a prescription for birth control. Becoming a “stewardess” provided rare opportunities for travel, glamour, adventure, and independence. Though often criticized as feminist sellouts, these women were at the forefront of the fight for gender equality and workplace transformation. Featuring personal accounts, stories, and extensive archival footage, “Fly with Me” presents the lively, important, yet overlooked history of women who changed the world while flying it.
For more information and tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
