Schedule Announced for the CITIZEN JANE FILM FESTIVAL in Columbia, Missouri October 26th – 29th

Showcasing the work of female film directors, the Citizen Jane Film Festival will run in Columbia, Mo., from Thursday, Oct. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017. The Citizen Jane Film Festival’s schedule for 2017 was announced this week and a complete list of those films can be found HERE
http://citizenjanefilmfestival.org/films/

Now in its 10th year, Citizen Jane FF has been voted one of “50 film festivals worth the entry fee” by MovieMaker magazine in 2016 and 2017.  In 2015, MovieMaker magazine named the Citizen Jane FF one of “25 coolest film festivals in the world.”

Citizen Jane will screen 19 features and documentaries and 8 programs of shorts, including animation, in various venues in Columbia.  The fest also will offer free workshops and networking sessions.

American and international filmmakers will serve as seminar panelists and conduct Q&A sessions following their screenings.  This year’s participants include feature film directors from Australia, the Bahamas, Denmark, and the U.S. cities of Seattle, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Englewood, Colo.

WINTER’S BONE, which was filmed in Missouri and marked the breakout performance of Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, screened at Citizen Jane FF.  Other past films included work from filmmakers who’ve gone on to notable careers:  Golden Globe winner and multiple Emmy nominee Lena Dunham (TV series GIRLS), two-time Emmy nominee Christine Vachon (CAROL, BOYS DON’T CRY), five-time film festival award winner Yvonne Welbon (LIVING WITH PRIDE: RUTH C. ELLIS), and multiple film festival award winner and nominee Leah Meyerhoff (I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS).

The non-competitive festival is sponsored and coordinated by Stephens College, an historically women’s college with a strong film program.  Why hold a women’s film festival?  This information about lack of female film directors appeared in the trade paper Variety in January 2017:

Despite all the editorials and the speeches and the handwringing, things aren’t getting better for women in Hollywood. They’re getting worse. Women comprised just 7 percent of all directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases in 2016, a decline of 2 percentage points from the level achieved in 2015 and in 1998, according to a new report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. The results come after two years of debate about the lack of opportunities for women and minorities to rise up through the studio system. It’s a conversation that has drawn the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, and other stars, all of whom have publicly decried the lack of pay equity for women and the dearth of female filmmakers.

Women Make Movies, FestAgent, and Hollywomen Diversity Directory all list the Citizen Jane FF as an important filmmaking resource for female directors.

For further information, please contact Festival director Barbie Banks, cell 314-223-6088, office 573-441-5263, barbie@citizenjanefilm.org