Supporting Emerging Female Filmmakers: Coven Film Festival Report

On February 8th, I flew to San Francisco to attend a new film festival called Coven Film Festival on February 9th, which is devoted to showcasing the short films of emerging female filmmakers from the San Francisco Bay area and around the world. Their mission is to amplify all women’s stories – emphasizing indigenous, disabled, and women of color – told by women creators. Founded by Cameo Wood, Connie Jo Sechrist and Melinda Fox, they invited me to participate on the panel, and enjoy the festival.

I roomed with Cidney Hue, a filmmaker based in NYC – she and I already knew each other from work we’d done together online, but it was the first time meeting her in person, and we hit it off, which made a great start to the fest. We joined forces to the mixer on the evening on the 8th and met the other filmmakers and special invitees of the party – we quickly found out we were in excellent company.

The fest took place the next day, on February 9th, from 11 AM to 8:30 PM, with a filmmaker party and awards show afterwards. The fest was hosted in the middle of Japantown, with the Kabuki Hotel as its HQ, and the screenings took place at the meticulous New People Cinema, a beautiful theater with remarkably good audio and screen – run by local women. The schedule existed out of four blocks of short films (of which I caught three) and a panel, starting with the Bluestocking Shorts Program.

Strong Female Leads

I had actually been a judge on the Bluestocking Program, and was delighted to find some shorts that I voted for during their selection process in the program: Celia and One Small Step. Celia (directed by Clare Maceda) is a short that deals with the abuse a young girl endures from her mother after her father passes away, and how she copes with it. You don’t quite know what you’re watching for most of it due to its impressive use of surrealism. One Small Step (directed by Aqsa Altaf), tells the haunting story of a young girl who has to take care of her younger siblings when her mom disappears after she goes to a Black Lives Matter protest.

Other outstanding shorts on the Bluestocking program were Come On In, a comedy horror directed by Jody Lauren Miller – Jen Ponton, the lead and soul of the short, absolutely hit the comedy home. Last was the brilliant and hilarious Rhonna and Donna (directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusić), which tells the story of two conjoined twins, one a goth and the other a whimsical romantic. The latter is cast in the lead role of a Shakespeare stage play and the other really doesn’t want to be there, which leads to the most inspired use of 2 Unlimited’s No Limit that I’ve ever seen. You can watch the full short here.

Supporting Emerging Filmmakers

Next up was the panel; I was joined by six other women (Michelle Kantor, CEO of Cinefemme, Ryan Ann Davis of Smarthouse Creative PR, Dr. Kathleen Tarr, lawyer and professor at Stanford, Melinda Fox, CEO of Tanji, and filmmakers Bola Ogun and Cidney Hue) and the moderator (Courtney Sheehan, film programmer), and for an hour and a half we spoke about how we can support emerging filmmakers. Due to the mix of people with different backgrounds on the panel, we had an interesting and effective discussion about the many ways other (supporting, if you will) branches of the film industry, like film press, PR and app developers can support emerging filmmakers.

The next shorts program I caught was the Body(Guard) Shorts Program, which focused on stories about female bodies, the way we perceive them, how they change and how we protect them. They included the Croatian short Mouth of Truth (directed by Barbara Vekarić), a poignant observation of how teens pressure each other to lose their virginities. Me 3.769, directed by Elaine Del Valle, was a beautifully shot story of a pubescent girl who has to decide whether to tell her aunt about how her uncle sexually harassed her, right after they get their first baby. From Hawaii was Maybe (directed by Kat Cole), a touching story of a Filipino girl growing up on Honolulu who is exploring her sexuality, which causes a rift between her and her religious family. Another one of my favorites was Platupus, directed by Foster Wilson – a funny, BDSM-tinged interrogation scene with an emotional twist.

My personal favorite in the block was CC, by the Spear Sisters, Sam and Kailey. The Spears made the short for the Crazy 8s film event – and considering they only had eight days to create this short film from start to finish, it’s astonishing how they managed to create a Black Mirror-like short film of this calibre.

Female-fronted Genre Films

The final block of films was the Etheria Shorts Program, showcasing genre film (horror, sci-fi, action, fantasy) created by female filmmakers. Among them was the excellent The Agency (by Mac Montero), which despite poor audio was a fantastic watch about how in the future women might buy husbands from an agency. Ryan Ann Davis‘s quick and sweet The Last Vacation was an effective horror using only a slideshow.

The British Lady M by Tammy Riley-Smith was a delightful comedy fantasy about an older woman who wants to be cast as Lady Macbeth in the stage play, but is denied the chance in favor of a vapid young blonde, and takes magical revenge. Consommé (directed by Catherine Fordham) was a satisfying and quick short about a story that might play out as a cliché (a woman wakes up after a terrible attack) but takes a sudden turn that will have you fist-pumping.

My two favorites of the program were Cidney Hue‘s Ovum and Sarah K. Reimers’ Bitten. Ovum is a beautifully crafted and well-written grounded sci-fi in which a woman has to undergo a mind-bending procedure before she makes a life-changing decision. Bitten, also beautifully crafted, was a lot less dark in tone than any of the other films in the program and was probably the most hilarious thing I’d seen all day. It tells the story of a dog who changes form during full moon, and no holds are barred. Also, the dog in the film must be one of the best trained canine actors ever!

The Etheria program, and with that the festival, sadly ended on a low note – Atomic Spot, a French film directed by Stéphanie Cabdevila felt out of place after a day full of empowering shorts. While beautifully shot, and the creature in the film would certainly hold up to the fish man in The Shape of Water, its tone and its violence against the only female character in the film left me disappointed.

And The Winners Are…

During the after party, the winners of the fest were announced, and they received gorgeous awards, small LED-lit trophies that change color (I’ll become a director just to try and win one of those).

Bluestocking – Best of Coven: Rhonna & Donna, by Daina Oniunas-Pusić
Etheria – Best of Coven: Ovum, by Cidney Hue
Best Bay Area Film: Celia, by Clare Maceda
Best Bay Area Director: Kat Cole (for Maybe)
Best Actress – Emerging Talent: Yin Yin Liow (from Please Translate)
Audience Award: Bitten, by Sarah K. Reimers
Best Director: Bola Ogun (for Are We Good Parents?)
Best International Film: Mouth of Truth, by Barbara Vekarić
Best Film: CC, by Kailey & Sam Spear

Coven Film Festival: Aspirational For A First Time Fest

I left the Coven Film Festival inspired and motivated – and feeling like I had made lifelong friends. I am incredibly excited to see what’s in store for this year’s featured filmmakers – their talent was incredible and I’m eager to find out what they do next.

I am in awe of Cameo Wood, Connie Jo Sechrist and Melinda Fox – they managed to create a film festival from scratch in 3.5 months time. The fest flew in and housed 14 of the 19 featured filmmakers for the duration of the festival, as well as special guests like myself, something many more established film festivals don’t even do. They were courteous, generous and hospitable to the guests present and without a doubt, all guests left feeling empowered and appreciated, something that is so rare for female filmmakers in particular.

What’s more, it gave the filmmakers the opportunity to network and connect with the other guests without having to worry about housing or sustenance. If that’s not supporting emerging artists, I don’t know what is, and that’s incredibly admirable. Take note, film festivals – Coven Film Festival has raised the bar.

I am looking forward to the second year of Coven Film Festival, and I sincerely hope they will be able to expand the festival to a few more days, and that the Bay Area will embrace this new fest – they are lucky to have it!