NYWIFT Industry Screening + Q&A: ‘Identifying Features’
Join us on Monday, January 25th for a screening/conversation of the film Identifying Features.
Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s.
From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, equally constructed of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay Awards at the Sundance Film Festival.
READ MOREHBO & NYWIFT Present: Industry Screening + Conversation: ‘I Hate Suzie’
Join us on Wednesday, January 13th for a pre-recorded conversation with the creative team of HBO Max original series, I Hate Suzie. Panelists to be announced.
Suzie Pickles, a star on the wane, has her whole life upended when her phone is hacked and a photo of her in an extremely compromising position is released for the whole world to see. This excruciatingly honest show follows the various stages of Suzie’s trauma episode by episode, through Shock, Denial, Fear, Shame, Bargaining, Guilt, Anger, and Acceptance as Suzie and her best friend and manager Naomi try to hold her life, career, and marriage together in the face of being exposed for who she truly is. But who the hell even is that?
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening: A Conversation with Gloria Steinem and “A Life Too Short” director Safyah Zafar Usmani (A Film about Honor Killing in Pakistan)
Join us on Friday, December 18th for a conversation with A Life Too Short Director Safyah Zafar Usmani! Moderated by writer, political activist, and feminist organizer, Gloria Steinem.
This free event is for NYWIFT members only.
The film examines the startling tragedy behind the killing of Pakistani activist and social media star, Qandeel Baloch. A vocal, provocative proponent of women’s rights and freedom of expression, Qandeel challenged the highest ranks of power in her country with her open exclamation of women’s equality and sexuality. Her bravery and outspokenness ended in chilling violence that reverberates around the world.
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening & Q&A: ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ with Director Radha Blank
Join us on Monday, December 14th for a screening and conversation with The Forty-Year-Old Version Director, Writer, and Star Radha Blank. Moderated by NYWIFT Board Member Leslie Fields-Cruz.
Nearing 40 and still struggling as a playwright, frustrated New Yorker Radha turns to a different kind of stage, awakening a rapper alter-ego named RadhaMUSprime. As her revitalized artistic voice blossoms, Radha must learn to juggle her two personas—and two unique New York art scenes. In her debut feature, writer-director Radha Blank plays the deeply personal lead role, a magnetic presence with a unique perspective, creating a film that is a fresh addition to the New York City slice-of-life canon.
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening & Q&A: ‘I’m Your Woman’ with Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz
Join us December 3rd for a screening and conversation with I'm Your Woman’s Director/Writer Julia Hart and Writer Jordan Horowitz, moderated by NYWIFT Board Member Amenya Makuku.
A decidedly female take on crime dramas of the 1970s, I’m Your Woman, starring 2020 NYWIFT Muse Honoree Rachel Brosnahan, is a tale of love, betrayal, motherhood—and what it takes to claim your life as your own.
READ MORENYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 6: “All In: The Fight for Democracy”
Join us for Week 6 of the NYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series in partnership with International Documentary Association (IDA) and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
All In: The Fight for Our Democracy is a riveting examination of voter suppression in the United States of America. The film weaves rich archival storytelling with the personal experiences of experts, activists, and would-be voters deprived of their rights. Watch the film: starting Friday, November 27th throughout the weekend. Then join us on Monday, November 30th at 1:30PM EST for a conversation with Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus. Moderated by Marcia Rock, Director of News and Documentary, NYU Journalism
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening: ‘Black Bear’ Screening + Q&A
Join us for a screening of Black Bear followed by a conversation with producer Julie Christeas.
Black Bear explores the complex nature of relationships, gender dynamics, and the erratic nature of love as it traces the conflict between our lust and our longing for internal harmony.
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening & Q&A: ‘Lost Girls’ with Liz Garbus, Amy Ryan, and Anne Carey
Join us for a screening of Lost Girlst followed by a conversation with director Liz Garbus, producer Anne Carey, and Academy Award nominated actress Amy Ryan.
Lost Girls When 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert mysteriously disappears one night, her mother Mari embarks on a dark journey that finds her face to face with hard truths about her daughter, herself, and police bias.
READ MOREHBO & NYWIFT Present: NYWIFT Talks with ‘Crazy, Not Insane’ Producer Ophelia Harutyunyan
In this week’s NYWIFT Talks, join Producer Ophelia Harutyunyan for a Zoom conversation. We’ll focus on her new HBO Documentary Crazy, Not Insane, which airs on HBO on November 18, 2020.
Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis has dedicated her career to the study of murderers, seeking answers to the question of why we kill. This provocative documentary explores, like a scientific detective story, Dr. Lewis’s lifelong attempts to look beyond the grisly details of homicides into the hearts and minds of the killers themselves.
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening: ‘Radium Girls’ + Q&A with Co-Directors Lydia Dean Pilcher, Ginny Mohler, and producer Emily McEvoy
Join us for a screening of Radium Girls followed by a conversation with Co-Directors Lydia Dean Pilcher, Ginny Mohler, and producer Emily McEvoy
Based on true events, teenage sisters Bessie and Jo paint glow-in-the- dark watch dials at the American Radium Factory in 1920s New Jersey. When girls at the factory mysteriously begin to fall ill, Bessie uncovers a corporate scandal and fights back in a radical coming-of-age story.
READ MORE(Screening Extended) NYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 5: Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks for Me
Join us for a screening of Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks for Me followed by a conversation with Director Abby Ginzburg. Moderated by Cynthia Kane.
Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks for Me tells the complex story of Representative Barbara Lee, a steadfast voice for human rights, peace and equality in the U.S. Congress for over two decades. An all-star cast share insights about what makes Barbara Lee unique as a public servant and as a truth-telling African American woman.
READ MORENYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 4: Without A Whisper
Join us for a screening of Without a Whisper - Konnon:Kwe followed by a conversation with Katsitsionni Fox, Mohawk Clan Mother Louise McDonald Herne, and Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner. Moderated by Carey Graeber.
Without A Whisper - Konnon:Kwe, uncovers the hidden history of the profound influence Indigenous women had on the beginnings of the women’s rights movement in the United States.
Free to attend. RSVP required.
READ MORENYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 3: ‘And She Could Be Next’
Join us for a screening of Part 2 of And She Could Be Next followed by a conversation with directors Grace Lee, Marjan Safinia, and producer, Jyoti Sarda.
And She Could Be Next tells the story of a defiant movement of women of color, transforming politics from the ground up. The two-part series follows candidates and organizers across the country, asking whether democracy itself can be preserved—and made stronger—by those most marginalized. “Episode Two: Claiming Power” takes us to the weeks leading up to election day and focuses on how organizers combat voter suppression in their own communities.
READ MORENYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 2: RBG
Join us for a screening of RBG followed by a conversation with editor Carla Gutierrez. Moderated by Marcia Rock, Director of News and Documentary, NYU Journalism.
At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But the unique personal journey of her rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG explores Ginsburg's life and career.
READ MOREIFP x NYWIFT Present: Mrs. America Panel
Join us on Tuesday, October 27 at 7pm EST for a conversation with the creative team behind Mrs. America Episode 3, “Shirley,” now streaming on FX on Hulu.
Dahvi Waller (Creator, EP, Showrunner, Writer), Micah Schraft (Co-EP/Writer), Tanya Barfield (Emmy-nominated producer and writer of Episode 3, “Shirley”) and 2020 Emmy Award-winner Uzo Aduba (“Shirley Chisholm”) will discuss capturing a pivotal moment in history on screen, their creative process working as a team, making a unique episode that fits into the series as a whole and the relationship between the creative team and the episode’s lead actress.
READ MORENYWIFT Women Who Dared Documentary Series, Week 1: Chisholm ’72
Join us for a screening of Chisolm '72: Unbought & Unbossed followed by a conversation with filmmaker Shola Lynch. Moderated by NYWIFT Special Projects Associate Easmanie Michel.
Recalling a watershed event in US politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first to seek nomination for the highest office in the land.
READ MORENYWIFT Industry Screening: ‘Once Upon A River’ Screening + Q&A with Director Haroula Rose
Join us for a virtual screening of Once Upon A River and a Q&A with Director Haroula Rose, Star Kenadi DelaCerna, and DP Charlotte Hornsby, moderated by NYWIFT Board Member Amenya Makuku.
Based on the best-selling novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Once Upon A River is the story of Native American teenager Margo Crane (DelaCerna) in 1970s rural Michigan who after enduring a series of traumas and tragedies, sets out on an odyssey on the Stark River in search of her estranged mother. On the water, Margo encounters friends, foes, wonders, and dangers; navigating life on her own, she comes to understand her potential, all while healing the wounds of her past.
READ MOREIFC Films & NYWIFT Present: “A Call to Spy” Virtual Screening + Q&A with Lydia Dean Pilcher & Sarah Megan Thomas
Join us for a virtual screening of A Call to Spy and a Q&A with Director Lydia Dean Pilcher and Actress Sarah Megan Thomas. Moderated by Co-Founder and Head of Programming at In Creative Company Mara Webster.
At the dawn of World War II, a desperate Winston Churchill orders his new spy agency to train women for covert operations. Together, these female agents help undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake.
A Call to Spy received the 2019 NYWIFT Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant.