Film Festival Announcement!

We’re thrilled to announce that Headhunt Revisited: With Brush, Canvas and Camera has been selected for the CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival, which will be held at Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, WA April 12-15, 2018. CASCADIA was founded in 2015 to promote Bellingham, Whatcom County and the Pacific Northwest as a destination for filmmakers and film enthusiasts, to present an annual film festival showcasing exceptional films by women directors, and to provide educational opportunities relating to the viewing, making and distribution of films. CASCADIA’s annual film festival is dedicated to exclusively showcasing the work of women directors.

A 2017 study conducted by the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Communications and Journalism School showed that of the 1000 top grossing films from 2007 to 2016, only 4% were directed by women, and that “there was no meaningful change in the prevalence of female directors across the top films from 2007 to 2016.” “The impact of film empowers women, supports local and global ideas and creates opportunities for community members, as well as filmmakers, to participate in the collaboration that is film,” explains CASCADIA’s Executive Director Cheryl Crooks. “CASCADIA is part of a larger movement to allow women’s voices to be heard.”

We’re proud to be one of the films selected to showcase the voices of women, and this year, we’re sharing the festival with Cheryl Boone Isaacs, immediate Past President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS or the Academy). Boone Isaacs will be the Special Honored Guest Speaker at 6:45 p.m. on Friday, April 13, 2018 in the Whatcom Museum’s Rotunda Room in the Old City Hall, 121 Prospect Street, Bellingham, WA. Her address will be free and open to the public with a ticketed Happy Hour Reception to precede at 5:30 p.m. Boone Isaacs is the Academy’s first African-American and third female president of the 90-year organization, having served since being elected in July 2013. She is a film marketing and public relations executive and has represented the public relations branch of the Academy best known for the Academy Awards (The Oscars). As she told ABC News upon announcing in May 2017 that she’d be stepping down as Academy President, the global film community is “one that is becoming more inclusive and diverse with each passing day” and that the 2017 Oscars were “proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith. The power of art is that it transcends all these things.”

          A Tribute to Stephen Parr

“What made Stephen tick was collecting. He was so skilled at obtaining that kind of stuff because he was relentless. He would literally haunt people until he got what he wanted.” –Robert Chehoski, Stephen’s friend and colleague

Photos, like the ones above from scrapbooks, can be difficult to find. Now imagine trying to locate film footage. Stephen Parr and Oddball Films of San Francisco founded and ran a very important archive of historic footage. I was saddened to hear of his passing last October when I called recently to tell him about the successes we have been having with Headhunt Revisited.
I met him at his archives along with the team in their Mission District facilities when we were on the search and selecting some very rare historic footage for the film. Stephen was passionate about all types of film collections and it was an honor to be allowed to stroll through the racks of canisters. He was quiet but gracious and very happy that a film was being made about a forgotten female artist – who had so much connection to Monterey and San Francisco. A total of 81 seconds was licensed through Oddball Films, which in terms of available content, was significant. RIP, Stephen and may you be conversing with Caroline and Margaret about their amazing journey.

                                  You can read and hear an interview about Stephen by following the link HERE

We hope that wherever you live in the Pacific Northwest, you will be able to join us at the CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival.  It’s also tulip time in Skagit Valley so nothing could make a more enjoyable weekend than to travel to this beautiful area of Washington State!  More announcements about screening times to come.