Alexander Valley Film Festival running virtual from Sept. 23-27
This year’s Alexander Valley Film Festival will be different — like many annual events, it’s going virtual. But, just as much as the festival is changing for the year, it’s also leaning into some of the Alexander Valley Film Society’s core principles, many of which center around inclusion and equity.
The theme of this year’s film festival, which runs from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27 is “justice,” and in addition to showing films that embody the theme, festival goers will have the opportunity to watch panels that cover a variety of themes. Namely, panel discussions will revolve around transgender representation in film, queer cinema, equity in health care as well as Q&A sessions about select films being shown at the festival.
“The thing that really crystallized for us as COVID descended and the restrictions for COVID became more apparent and then we moved into this heightened moment of social unrest. The social justice leanings of the film society really started to come to the forefront,” Alexander Valley Film Society Executive Director Kathryn Hecht said. “The seeds of social justice had been planted in our work from the beginning and social justice is one of our values, so when the upheavals came we started to really lean into conversations exploring some of these issues and how they were affecting people. Using film as a platform, we found that we were able to make and hold a space for this kind of community processing.”
The evolution of this year’s theme came organically, Hecht said, noting that the film society’s board has created a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee that has committed to researching and meeting with consultants about procuring training for the staff and board of the film society.
“We are compelled to have these conversations, uncomfortable though they may be,” she said. “Who else to have them other than artists and patrons of the arts?”
The festival will have 12 feature films and 10 short films, with 18 student-made films. One of her personal highlights is “Represent,” Hecht said. The documentary, directed by Hillary Bachelder, follows three first-time women candidates as they fight to reshape local politics in the midwest.
“I’m excited about it because it’s a film made by a woman, about women. It’s not just about politics, it is about ideology in a broader sense — about the role that women have in our society, what we are capable of, how we see ourselves — and three very different women exploring very different constituencies but facing a lot of the same issues. All three women, plus the director are going to be joining us for a Q&A on Sunday (Sept. 27),” she explained.
Other films being shown as part of this year’s festival run the gamut.
“Fruit Fly” is a musical comedy that follows a Filipina performer who moves into an artist commune. “Totally F***ed Up” is about six queer teenagers trying to navigate life. “Critical Thinking” is based on a true story about the first inner city chess team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship. The list of films goes on.
“We’re really pleased with what we’ve put together for this year, but it’s the tip of the iceberg,” Hecht said.
This year’s festival is slightly longer than previous ones, with the opening film being shown on a Wednesday instead of the usual Thursday. Additionally, the festival was bumped up a month to September in an effort to avoid fire season. Next year, the festival will be moving again to its permanent home where it will span the last weekend of April/first weekend of May (the 2021 Alexander Valley Film Festival will be April 28-May 2).
“The fact that we’re actually pulling the festival together for this year is nothing short of a miracle and it’s a direct reflection of all of the virtual programming we’ve been doing since March,” Hecht said.
Since the start of the shelter-in-place orders, the AVFS has been hosting weekly virtual conversations and movie viewing sessions with folks near and far. In an effort to keep people connected through film, monthslong schedules have been full of community film conversations and partnerships with local restaurants. The latter of which will be incorporated into this year’s festival (for details about the festival’s partnerships with Barndiva, Young & Yonder and Trading Post, click here.)
“I think what we’ve found with virtual programming is a little bit of ‘Why weren’t we doing this before?’ It’s not ideal in the sense that movies are really meant to be a shared experience — best viewed in a darkened theater, state-of-the-art sound, big screen, with strangers and loved ones — but in terms of being able to reach more people, reach people who might be homebound, ideally with assistive technologies that people can use to watch movies these days I think this is essential for our culture and society going forward. For the Alexander Valley Film Society, I view this as being part of our programming indefinitely,” Hecht said.
Adding to the accessibility of this year’s festival, the films being offered will be available for the duration of the festival, so people who purchase tickets can watch the film on their own time and make the festival work for them.
To get tickets for this year’s Alexander Valley Film Festival, click here.
