Editor

Dates: September 13 ­ September 27, 2005 in San Francisco October 6 and 13 in Berkeley SF Venues: Artists Television Access, El Rio and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Berkeley Venue: Pacific Film Archive

At MadCat you too can be treated year after year with Ariella Ben-Dov¹s exceptional curatorial savvy, dedication, intelligent cultural contributions.²
­ Frances Nkara, Independent Filmmaker

MadCat is back with 89 films and videos by women directors from South Korea to Israel, Sweden to Portugal, and the Philippines to Australia. All in all there are 16 countries represented and over 50 premieres highlighted at this, the Ninth Annual MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival. Mining selections from the more than 1,300 filmmakers is a process that takes many months. We present the cream of the crop and have curated eleven thematically programmed evenings of film.

MadCat¹s screenings include diverse thematically-curated shorts programs, trailblazing documentaries from the 1970s, and slide presentations by local artists. Embracing silent-era presentation MadCat presents Shhh I and II: Silent Films set to Live Music, which will begin and end the San Francisco portion of the Festival. The Secrets of Family Happiness, Dear Nora, Tartufi and Paper Boats among others musicians lend their wonderful compositions to stunning 16mm works such as Behind This Soft Eclipse by Eve Heller and Bouquets 1-10 by Rose Lowder. Continuing the Festival¹s long running commitment to cinema of the past, we present Women Speak Up, documentary films from the 1970s. The filmmakers in this program were trailblazers, allowing women to speak for themselves through verité and first person storytelling. MadCat also presents three unique programs of animated films including Documation I and II, a series of animated documentaries that blow open the genre will be presented at Pacific Film Archive. There are many filmmakers in attendance‹we are thrilled to have award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Reeves in person to present The Time We Killed her meditative first feature and Caroline Martel travels from Montreal to screen her found footage opus Phantom of the Operator. Inventive and witty, this labor history uncovers the century-long story of female workers rarely given credit for their essential role in the development of global communications. Premieres of new and intriguing works by Vivian Ostrovsky, Martha Colburn and Cade Bursell will also screen.

Highlights 2005

Shhh I Silent Films Set to Live Music
Sept 13 * El Rio * 8:30 pm * Free BBQ at 6:30 pm
Contemporary silent films by Rose Lowder, Kerry Laitala, among others. With live musical accompaniment by Paper Boats, Kate Klaire, and Tartufi. CD¹s and previews available upon request.

Amok-imation
Sept 14 * El Rio * 8:30 pm * Free BBQ at 6:30 pm
Wry, dark and painfully humorous, these animated works from Sweden, Mexico and the Philippines are not your typical Saturday morning cartoons.

Media Remix
Sept 16 * ATA * 7:30 pm
Filmmakers reinterpret media and create humorous, touching, politically relevant works. Premieres by local makers, plus Paris-based Vivian Ostrovsky¹s Ice/Sea, an ode to sun and beach starring suicidal skiers, soaking wet tigers, plunging mermaids and many more!

City Nights
Sept 20 * El Rio * 8:30 pm * Free BBQ at 6:30 pm
Portraits of unseen San Francisco. Take a peek at pot dispensaries, sidewalk poets, strip clubs and forgotten graveyards. With films by Trina Lopez, Katherin McInnis, Erica Filanc and Ashley Tindall.

Women Speak Up
Sept 21 * El Rio * 8:30 pm * Free BBQ at 6:30 pm
¹70s docs that capture the intimate world of women at a time when they were wriggling out of traditional female roles. Featuring Joyce Chopra¹s Girls at 12, which chronicles the sleepovers and dance parties of three girls growing up in an industrial suburb.

Unpacking Histories
Sept 23 * ATA * 7:30 pm
A prostitute reveals her daily routine, Russian nomads in Armenia keep cool during a drought, and Indian women recall the effects of a flood in the 1960s. Featuring premieres of works by Cade Bursell, Leslie Thornton and Christine Khalafian.

The Phantom of the Operator
Sept 25 * Yerba Buena * 7 pm
A found-footage opus chronicling the feminist history of the once-ubiquitous telephone operator, rarely given credit for her essential role in the development of global communications. Director Caroline Martel in person.

The Time We Killed
Sept 25 * Yerba Buena * 8:30 pm
Weaving experimental and documentary elements, this film portrays the inner life of a writer unable to leave her apartment on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq. Fipresci calls it ³a beautiful, impressionistic and deeply personal cinematic poem.² Director Jennifer Reeves in person.

Shhh II Silent Films Set to Live Music
Sept 27 * 8:30 pm * Free BBQ at 6:30 pm
Contemporary silent films by Eve Heller, Mary Beth Reed, among others. With live musical accompaniment by The Secrets of Family Happiness, Julianna and Seth of The Quails, and Dear Nora.

Docu-mation I: Drawn and Reported
Oct 6 * PFA * 7:30 pm
This program features surprising hybrids that reveal that ³animated documentary² isn¹t a contradiction in terms. Territory covered includes the history of witch-hunts, early treatments for hysteria, and art by women with mental disabilities.

Docu-mation II: History, Redrawn
Oct 13 * PFA * 7:30 pm
A chalk animation exposé of corporate corruption; a pencil-rendered, death-defying journey during World War II; a claymation peek at child migrant workers; and a charcoal-drawn saga of slavery and freedom; and others.