Feministing picks for the Chicago International Film Festival

The Chicago International Film Festival, the longest running competitive film festival in North America, kicked off yesterday downtown. The festival is the longest running competitive film festival in North America. Among the ranks of the its Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are Steven Spielberg, Jodie Foster, Clint Eastwood, and Robin Williams. In other words, this is a big frickin’ deal for film nerds and enthusiasts. Tickets to see just 20 of the over 130 films offered will cost you $250 if you aren’t a member of the festival.

But if you haven’t yet reached that level of moviegoer fancy and want to just check out a few movies you’ll be happy to know that the price for individual screenings is a more reasonable $14 (you can also choose to see 10 films for $130). And what’s more, Feministing has saved you the trouble by reading through the descriptions and pulling out our top film and event suggestion for each day of the festival (with the exception of the opening and closing films, because those are for fancy film bluffs and not included with pass access).

Girls Lost (Friday, October 16 1PM – 3PM. If you don’t catch this screening, it’s playing again October 23 and 25th)

Director: Alexandra-Therese Keining • Sweden

 

A taboo-busting teen fable about gender fluidity, Girls Lost conjures one of the screen’s most vividly realized transgender characters. Three girls discover a mysterious flower with the power to change their sex, which causes tomboy Kim to recognize her own urgent need to live as a boy. Brilliant male/female dual performances and a dreamy color palette give this film a propulsive energy.

Carmin Tropical (Saturday, October 17 7:15PM – 9:15PM)

Director: Rigoberto Perezcano

A noir unlike any other, this sun-soaked whodunit is set in Juchitán, a southern Mexican town home to a community of people who consider themselves muxe (mixed gender). After years away, muxe Mabel returns to investigate the death of an old friend, finding that the past can be just as unclear as the future.

Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows (Sunday October 18 7:15PM – 9:15PM)

Director: Rob Hatch-Miller

Attention hip-hop heads!

Velvet-voiced soul singer Syl Johnson struggled for decades before leaving the biz in the 1980s to open a Chicago fried-fish chain. Since then, he’s become one of the most-sampled artists in hip-hop. With a lively soundtrack, this buoyant world premiere documentary celebrates one man who can’t stop the music.

Time Suspended (Monday October 19 7:15PM – 9:15PM)

Director: Patricia Natalia Bruschtein

For the last 40 years, activist Laura Bonaparte has fought to keep alive the memory of her children, who were “disappeared” by Argentina’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. Now Laura’s own memory is beginning to fade.Time Suspended is a tender, heartrending portrait of a woman committed to preserving the truths of her nation’s horrible history, even as they slip from her grasp.

Open Tables (Tuesday, October 20 6:15PM – 8:15PM)

Director: Jack C. Newell

“Food and conversation abound in this comedy from Chicago writer-director-actor Jack C. Newell. Over dinner, friends trade wild stories about relationships, including a woman who falls in love with an amnesiac and an unforgettably sexy trip to Paris. Filmed locally, with improvisational dialogue and a cast plucked from the city’s improv scene, Open Tables is a smorgasbord of fun.”

XConfessions: A Conversation with Erika Lust  (Wednesday, October 21 8:30PM – 10:30PM)

You might remember our interview with Erika Lust earlier this year. Well this indie, feminist erotic film director is taking over the Chicago International Film Festival with an in-person conversation with Chicago filmmaker Maria Finitzo about onscreen pleasure.

“Erika Lust brings a much-needed feminist’s voice to the erotic film industry, shooting her explicit short films with an eye toward expressing female pleasure. The filmmaker’s xConfessions project gathers erotic fantasies and testimonials from her online audience, which she brings to life through her filmmaking. In conversation with Chicago-based filmmaker Maria Finitzo, Lust, in person, will show clips from her films and discuss the taboo nature of onscreen pleasure. Contains explicit content. ”

A Monster With a Thousand Heads (Thursday, October 22 1:30PM – 3:30PM)

Director: Rodrigo Pla

Fed up with trying to secure health care for her husband’s severe medical ailments, Sonia takes matters into her own hands. Tracking down his doctor, she kidnaps him at gunpoint, setting the stage for a nail-biter that evokes the mind-numbing bureaucracy of Brazil and the citizen-on-the-edge stakes of Falling Down. Rodrigo Plá’s latest drama is a timely and tightly paced sociopolitical thriller.

Adama (Friday, October 23, 5:45PM – 7:45PM)

Director: Simon Rouby

In this vibrantly animated odyssey, a young boy ventures outside the forbidden cliff walls of his secluded West African village in 1916 in search of his older brother. He will journey across land and sea and, eventually, find himself struggling to survive in war-torn Europe. Rendered in a striking blend of 2D backdrops and sculpted, laser-scanned characters, Adama is a stirring tale of adventure and courage for the whole family.

Power Players: How women producers & executives are changing the entertainment business (Saturday, October 24 4PM – 5PM)

You have to attend this panel because… feminism, duh.

Panelists: Ilyse McKimmie (moderator, Sundance Institute), Amy Hobby (Tangerine Entertainment), Alicia Sams (producer, Amreeka), Rebecca Green (producer, It Follows)

Though women are under-represented in the entertainment industry, a number of prominent female producers and executives are successfully leveling the scales. This panel will focus on the ways that women are influencing all areas of the business, from indie films to TV to Hollywood.

This event costs $5 for non-Industry Days badge-holders.

Radical Grace (Sunday, October 25 7:30PM – 9:30PM)

Director: Rebecca Parish

Politically outspoken and unapologetically feminist, the “Nuns on the Bus” protest group rebels against a Vatican-ordered censure by embracing social activism as a form of spiritual practice. An indelible exploration of the evolving views changing the face of Catholicism under the leadership of Pope Francis, Chicago-based filmmaker Rebecca Parrish’s uplifting, humanistic documentary is a call for equality that transcends boundaries.

Sworn Virgin (Monday, October 26 7:30PM – 9PM)

Director: Laura Bispuri

In an Albanian mountain village, a young woman takes a culturally mandated vow of chastity and lives as a man to avoid an unwanted marriage. After 14 years, she leaves home for the first time. Tackling questions of tradition and identity, Laura Bispuri employs a mesmerizing lightness of touch, while Alba Rohrwacher delivers an extraordinary measured performance as Hanna/Mark.

All About Them (Tuesday, October 27 11:30AM – 2:30PM)

Director: Jérôme Bonnell

Micha loves Charlotte. Their friend Mélodie also secretly loves Charlotte. And now Mélodie is also falling for Micha. Sneaking behind each other’s backs can only work for so long. So what’s a trio of attractive French 20-somethings to do? This sexy comedy starring the magnetic Anaïs Demoustier asks, winkingly, if there can be such a thing as too much passion.

 

Women He’s Undressed (Wednesday, October 28 5PM – 7PM)

Director: Gillian Armstrong

From award-winning Australian director Gillian Armstrong comes this glitzy portrait of celebrated costume designer Orry-Kelly, who dressed generations of starlets, from Ingrid Bergman to Marilyn Monroe, as a gay man in a world where “gay” didn’t exist. An exuberant, gossipy portrait of Hollywood fashions through the decades, the film also lifts back the curtain on the unspoken sexual politics of showbiz, from Marlene Dietrich to Cary Grant.