A PRIVATE WAR, THE FAVOURITE Among Lineup for The Athena Film Festival

The Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College announced today its film slate, including opening night, closing night, and centerpiece films, as well as additional programming for the 2019 festival. The ninth annual festival, co-founded by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood, will take place February 28 to March 3, 2019, at Barnard College in New York City. AFF showcases films, television and content that tell the extraordinary stories of fierce and fearless female leaders from all walks of life. Stories of ambition, courage, and resilience amplify the voices of strong, bold women, curating a public discourse on gender equality, and changing the cultural conventions surrounding leadership.

The festival will open on Thursday, February 28, with the New York premiere of "Fast Color." The film, directed by Julia Hart and written by Hart and Jordan Horowitz, stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a hero forced to run when her SUPERHUMAN abilities are discovered. Years after abandoning her family, the only place she has left to hide is home. Lorraine Toussaint and David Strathairn co-star.

The festival will close on Sunday, March 3, with the New York premiere of the documentary "Knock Down The House," directed by Rachel Lears, and featuring NY Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The film centers on a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner's daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada, and a registered nurse in Missouri, as they build a movement comprised of insurgent Congressional candidates who challenge powerful incumbents. One of their races ultimately becomes the most surprising political upset in recent American history.

The festival's Documentary and Narrative Centerpieces were also announced. The Documentary Centerpiece, "This Is Personal," is directed by Amy Berg, featuring Tamika Mallory and Erika Andiola. While the 2016 election catalyzed the Women's March and a new era of feminist activism, Tamika and Erika have been fighting for their communities for years. Their stories expose the fundamental connection between the personal and the political, and ask, how can intersectionality birth a new social justice movement? The Narrative Centerpiece, "Out Of Blue," written and directed by Carol Morley, will have its U.S. premiere at the festival. Patricia Clarkson stars as Detective Mike Hoolihan, who is called to investigate the shooting of a leading astrophysicist. As Mike tumbles down the rabbit hole of the disturbing case, she finds herself grappling with cosmic SECRETS that may hold the key to unraveling the crime, while throwing into DOUBT her very understanding of reality.

"We are thrilled to announce our phenomenal lineup of films for this year's festival," said Melissa Silverstein, co-founder and artistic director of the festival and founder of Women and Hollywood. "The Athena Film Festival's goal is to showcase the diverse work of women leaders, and this year, we have some incredible films and stories that aim to change the narrative and highlight important topics."

The festival will feature a curated program of narrative, documentary and short films, including: "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," directed by Marielle Heller and starring Melissa McCarthy; "On The Basis Of Sex" (2014 Athena List Winner), directed by Mimi Leder and starring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer; "The Favourite," directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone; "Jinn," written and directed by Nijla Mu'min and starring Zoe Renee; "The Miseducation Of Cameron Post," written and directed by Desiree Akhavan and starring Chloë Grace Moretz; "Rafiki," written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu; "On Her Shoulders," directed Alexandria Bombach and featuring Nadia Murad; "Whispering Truth To Power," directed by Shameela Seedat and featuring Thuli Madonsela; "Worlds Of Ursula K. Le Guin," directed by Arwen Curry and featuring Ursula K. Le Guin. Shorts include: "7 Planets," written and directed by Milda Baginskaite; "Heed The Call," written and directed by Laura G. Chirinos; "Masks," written and directed by Mahaliyah Ayla O; and "A Woman's Place," directed by Jen Zhouwenyue Xu.

Over the last nine years, the Festival has welcomed more than 35,000 people from all over the world to 200+ screenings. In 2018, 46 films were screened, including 17 features, 13 documentaries, and 16 shorts. Distinguished guests such as Billie Jean King, JJ Abrams, Lena Dunham, Amma Asante, Barbara Kopple, and Bridget Everett, among many others were welcomed at the Festival.

Additional programming and 2019 honorees will be announced in the coming weeks.

The 2019 festival co-chairs include J.J. Abrams P'22, Julie Parker Benello '92, Debra Martin Chase, Geralyn Dreyfous, Ava DuVernay, Paul Feig, Greta Gerwig '06, Sherry Lansing, Jon Levin P'13, Katie McGrath P'22, Pat Mitchell, Sheila Nevins '60, David Oyelowo, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Susan Rovner '91, Regina K. Scully and Rachel Weisz.

Tickets and passes are on sale now. Please visit http://www.athenafilmfestival.com for regular updates and more information.

FULL INFORMATION ON ANNOUNCED FILMS AND PROGRAMS:

FEATURES

A Private War

Director: Matthew Heineman

Writers: Marie Brenner and Arash Amel

One of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time, Marie Colvin is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontlines of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless.

Ask for Jane

Director: Rachel Carey

Writers: Rachel Carey and Cait Cortelyou '09

The true story of determined women in the 1960s who quietly provided the phone number of reliable abortion doctors to women in need. Operating like a spy network, using blindfolds, code names, and secret locations, the Jane Collective helped over 11,000 women receive safe, illegal abortions until they were legalized in 1973.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Director: Marielle Heller

Writers: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty

Based on a true story, Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling celebrity biographer who makes her living profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead. Unable to get a new publishing gig, Lee turns to artistic deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack.

Don't Talk To Irene

Director and writer: Pat Mills

When an overweight and unpopular teenager is suspended from school, she must endure two weeks of community service at a nearby retirement home. She secretly signs up the residents for a dance-themed reality show to prove that you don't have to be perfect to be perfectly awesome.

Fast Color - OPENING NIGHT FILM & NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director: Julia Hart

Writers: Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz

This fantasy, superhero re-mix stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a hero forced to run when her SUPERHUMAN abilities are discovered. Years after abandoning her family, the only place she has left to hide is home. Lorraine Toussaint and David Strathairn co-star.

Jinn

Director and writer: Nijla Mu'min

In writer-director Nijla Mu'min's debut feature, an African-American teenager's world is turned upside down when her mother, a popular TV meteorologist, abruptly converts to Islam, prompting both mother and daughter to reevaluate their identities.

On The Basis of Sex

Director: Mimi Leder

Writer: Daniel Stiepleman

The compelling story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's early years, as she crafts a national legal strategy to win equal rights for women and fights to succeed in a profession notably hostile to women. The screenplay was a 2014 Athena List winner.

Out Of Blue - NARRATIVE CENTERPIECE AND U.S. PREMIERE

Director and Writer: Carol Morley
Detective Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is called to investigate the shooting of a leading astrophysicist. As Mike tumbles down the rabbit hole of the disturbing case, she finds herself grappling with cosmic SECRETS that may hold the key to unraveling the crime, while throwing into DOUBT her very understanding of reality.

Rafiki

Director and writer: Wanuri Kahiu

In their community "good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls are forced to choose between happiness and safety.

Saint Judy - NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director: Sean Hanish

Writer: Dmitry Portnoy

Based on a remarkable true story, when an Afghan woman flees her home after being persecuted by the Taliban, immigration attorney Judy Wood (Michelle Monaghan) takes her case. In the process, she changes U.S. asylum law and saves the lives of countless people.

Support The Girls

Director and writer: Andrew Bujalski

The general manager at a highway-side ''sports bar with curves" who has incurable optimism and faith in her girls, her customers, and herself, is tested over the course of a long, strange day.

The Favourite

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writers: Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara

Set in early 18th-century England, this award winning comedy-drama stars Olivia Colman as Queen Anne and Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as cousins whose quarreling take center stage as each jockeys to be the court favourite of a frail and mercurial Queen Anne.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Director: Desiree Akhavan

Writers: Desiree Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele

In this drama directed by Desiree Akhavan, Chloë Grace Moretz plays a teenager sent away to a remote "treatment center" after being caught in the backseat with the prom queen. As she is subjected to questionable gay conversion therapies, she finds both challenges from and solace in fellow residents.

Working Woman

Director: Michal Aviad

Writers: Michal Aviad, Sharon Azulay Eyal, Michal Vinik

Orna's life at work becomes unbearable when her boss, a major Israeli developer, makes inappropriate advances. Caught between the need to support her family and the increasingly disturbing behavior of her boss, Orna fights for her job and her sense of self-worth.

DOCUMENTARIES

93Queen

Director: Paula Eiselt

Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, a tenacious group of Hasidic women challenge stereotypes and power structures in their tight-knit community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. This film was a 2015 Athena Work in Progress film.

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Director: Pamela B. Green

In 1896, Alice Guy-Blaché was the first female film director at age 23. She went on to write, direct, produce, or edit more than 1000 films and became one of the early film industry's biggest stars. Then she vanished from history.

Dykes, Camera, Action!

Director: Caroline Berler

Stonewall, the feminist movement, and the experimental cinema of the 1970s, set the stage for lesbian filmmakers to transform how society views queerness. In this moving and often hilarious film, lesbian filmmakers share their stories and discuss how they express their queer identity through film.

Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order

Director: Ruth Leitman

Led by The Daily Show's co-creator Lizz Winstead, the Lady Parts Justice League barnstorms the country to support abortion providers and defend women's reproductive rights. Using comedy as the ultimate weapon to mobilize voters for the 2018 elections, they use a boots-on-the-ground strategy to protect bodily autonomy for all.

Life Without Basketball

Directors: Tim O'Donnell, Jon Mercer

After the International Basketball Federation forbids head coverings, MAKING IT impossible for Muslim women to maintain their religious convictions while on the court, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir fights to change the rules. With her victory, she becomes the first Division I basketball player to play wearing the hijab and inspires the young Muslim women she coaches.

Knock Down The House - CLOSING NIGHT FILM & NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director: Rachel Lears

A young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner's daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. One of their races will become the most surprising political upset in recent American history.

Netizens

Director: Cynthia Lowen

The proliferation of cyber harassment spreads from the web to the most intimate corners of women's lives. As the internet becomes the next frontier of civil rights, three women who are targets of harassment confront digital abuse and strive for equality and justice online. The film was a 2017 Athena Work in Progress film.

Nothing Without Us: The Women Who Will End AIDS

Director: Harriet Hirshorn

A compelling portrait of the inspiring and remarkable women at the forefront of the global AIDS movement who work tirelessly to end the 30-year old pandemic and help women around the world at risk of HIV and AIDS.

On Her Shoulders

Director: Alexandria Bombach

With deep compassion and an elegance that matches her calm and steely demeanor, 23 year-old Nadia Murad survives the 2014 genocide of the Yazidis in Northern Iraq and escapes ISIS to become a RELENTLESS beacon of hope for her people.

The Feminist

Director: Hampus Linder

This personal and compelling portrait follows Gudrun Schyman, spokesperson of Sweden's Feminist Initiative political party as she moves between small towns, refugee camps, and the corridors of power. In the process, she inspires women across the globe and becomes one of Sweden's most influential politicians.

The Great Mother

Directors: Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker

When two U.S. born children share that their mother is being deported, immigration activist Nora Sandigo steps up to become their legal guardian, saving them from the fate of "immigration orphans'' trapped in the foster care system. Six years later, Nora's charges have grown to nearly 1,000 children.

This is Personal - DOCUMENTARY CENTERPIECE

Director: Amy Berg

While the 2016 election catalyzed the Women's March and a new era of feminist activism, Tamika Mallory and Erika Andiola have been fighting for their communities for years.Their stories expose the fundamental connection between the personal and the political, and asks: how can intersectionality birth a new social justice movement?

Warrior Women

Directors: Elizabeth A. Castle and Christina D. King

Madonna Thunder Hawk, unapologetic organizer of the American Indian Movement, has cultivated a ragtag gang of activist children-including her daughter Marcy-into the We Will Remember survival group. Through their story, the film highlights the struggle for native rights and how activists pass their LEGACIES from generation to generation.

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Director: Rob Garver

This nuanced portrait of Pauline Kael, among the most famous and divisive film critics of all time, uses never-before-seen archival film, wide-ranging interviews and her own writings voiced by Sarah Jessica Parker, to capture her complexity while revisiting late-twentieth-century cinema through her lens.

Whispering Truth to Power

Director: Shameela Seedat

After her appointment as South Africa's Public Protector in 2009, Thuli Madonsela immediately faces violent protests, court interdicts, political and personal attacks, and death threats, as this remarkably steadfast woman seeks justice in a country still coming to terms with its apartheid past.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Director: Arwen Curry

Explore the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin. She holds her ground on the margins of "respectable" literature until the sheer excellence of her work forces the mainstream to embrace her Science fiction and fantastic writings.

SHORTS

7 Planets - NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director and writer: Milda Baginskaite

A young girl dreams to escape planet Earth.

A Woman's Place

Director: Jen Zhouwenyue Xu

Three female chefs grapple with barriers in the male-dominated food service industry.

Cinematographer

Director: Demi Waldron

Six women cinematographers share the complexities of working in an industry that rarely hires women.

Come & Take It

Directors: Ellen Spiro, PJ Raval

America's most irreverent anti-gun activists create the Great Texas Dildo Revolt. #CocksNotGlocks.

Cross My Heart

Director: Sontenish Myers

While visiting her family in Jamaica, an American teenager becomes her cousin's confidant, changing the way she sees the people she loves.

Game

Director and writer: Jeannie Donohoe

The new teenager in town shows up at the boys basketball tryouts and instantly makes an impression. Will talent and drive be enough to make the team?

Giving Birth in America: California

Director: Clancy McCarty

A Mexican farmworker, pregnant with her third child, seeks prenatal care from a clinic in the "Strawberry Capital" of California.

Happy Today

Director: Giulio Tonincelli

In Northern Uganda, a midwife accompanies new mothers through the physical pain and intense emotion of giving birth.

Heed the Call - NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director and writer: Laura G. Chirinos

In the midst of World War II, a young woman must decide if she is willing to defy both social expectations and her family by joining the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

I'm Just Here

Director: Lara Aslanian

Writer: Mari Savinar

A suicide helpline operator fields an unforgettable call from a young, queer woman.

Juck

Directors: Ulrika Bandeira, Julia Gumpert, and Olivia Kastebring

Feminist activists use dance to challenge popular notions of modern femininity.

Lotte That Silhouette Girl

Directors: Carla Patullo, Elizabeth Beecherl

With music, magic and a stirring narration by Lotte herself, Lotte that Silhouette Girl tells the tale of one of animations' foremost pioneers, German Film Director, Lotte Reiniger.

Masks

Director and writer: Mahaliyah Ayla O

A closeted medical student's secret is threatened when out on a date with her girlfriend.

Newport Gun Girls - NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director: Lauren Orme

Writer: Nigel Crowle

The story of a forgotten group of Welsh women who worked at an ordnance factory during World War II.

Nour - NEW YORK PREMIERE

Director and writer: Danielle Naassana

A young girl feels self-conscious about wearing a hijab at her new school.

One Small Step

Directors: Bobby Pontillas, Andrew Chesworth

Writer: Andrew Chesworth

In this animated short, an ambitious girl aspires to be an astronaut, guided by her supportive father.

Rise and Shine

Director: Ben Dai

Writer: Andrew Robinson

Waking up after years in a deep sleep, the last surviving scientist in Antarctica must use her ingenuity and Science to survive.

Sister Hearts

Director: Mohammad Gorjestani

After thirteen years in prison (six in solitary), an ex-offender opens Sister Hearts, the largest thrift store in New Orleans, and offers a path forward for women like her.

Waahi - US PREMIERE

Director: Aftab Abbasi

A Pakistani wheat farmer shatters stereotypes with her courage and resilience.

While I Yet Live

Director: Maris Curran

Acclaimed quilters from Gee's Bend, Alabama, talk about love, religion, and the fight for civil rights, as they continue the tradition that brought them together.

VIRTUAL REALITY

She Flies By Her Own Wings

Project Creator: Jesse (Jesus) Ayala

Driven by the military tenet of "Leave No One Behind," Shannon Scott, a proud transgender veteran, seeks justice for those vets who championed equality before her.

Sun Ladies

Project Creator: Celine Tricart

Meet Xate Singali, captain of the Sun Ladies, a female-only fighting unit that risks everything to protect the Yazidi community from violent attacks by ISIS.

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Directed by: Michele Stephenson

The story of acclaimed poet, Nikki Giovanni and the revolutionary historical periods through which she lived-reveals the enduring influence of one of America's greatest artists and social commentators.

Surge

Project creators: Hannah Rosenzweig, Wendy Sachs and Tanya Selvaratnam

Tired of being ignored, angered by government policies, and anxious about the future, thousands of women were inspired to run for office in what became an historic midterm election.

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