Coloring in the Margins
Pop-up series Alt Girl Cinema highlights diversity
By Jessi Cape, Fri., Jan. 22, 2016
The alternative film series Alt Girl Cinema offers its third showcase this weekend: "Women of Color: Experimental Shorts." A reinvention of the Women's Community Center's Second Saturday screenings, which ran for two years, the series features films by women, about women, for everyone.
"We like weird, messed-up stories that we don't usually see on the big screen, [that] speak to us as women in today's society with all its contrasting ideas of womanhood," explained Danea Johnson, who, with Andrea Zarate, are the series programmers and local filmmakers, via email. Their third musketeer is former WCC intern Larissa Stephens, an illustrator. Alt Girl Cinema showcases subjects and voices typically underrepresented in mainstream media, often in nontraditional formats. Every month will see a new space in the community outside the Center – La Peña on Saturday, and upcoming events at BookWoman and Resistencia Bookstore.
"We started listing films that we loved and wanted others to see that showed young women characters in a different light. Joven y Alocada, our premiere film for Alt Girl Cinema back in November, is a religious-themed film with lots of graphic sex. We're like, 'Women like sex too, so let's show a movie about that.' Other films showcase sinister women, controversial women, and the film styles themselves are also very creative and unconventional," explained Zarate. The four films recently chosen keep with their motif: "Hattie McDaniel: Or a Credit to the Motion Picture Industry," "Me Broni Ba (My White Baby)," "Kusama's Self-Obliteration," and "Savior Complex."
"In many films, women's characters are static or pigeonholed into one type of character, because of their age, beauty, ethnicity, etc. They fall into so many tropes in films if they're not just the wallpaper – the battered woman, the unwieldy lover who gives in by the end, the tragic queer character. Then there's the racist ones like the white savior, spicy Latina, the strong black woman, and the exotic Asian woman. There are films out there that provide much better storylines, show women that make mistakes, enjoy life, seek justice, are nihilists, and what have you," said Zarate. The stars aligned over the trio's mission when, during last year's Cine Las Americas Film Festival, they met Marcela Morán, who was screening her latest work, "Jornaleras," in the Hecho en Tejas program, in which Johnson and Zarate were also presenting a film. Moran will be in attendance Saturday.
"I am a border woman, raised on the U.S./Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico," explained Morán on how her background influences her film work. "Jornaleras" is an experimental documentary short that explores the post-crossing journeys of three working, immigrant women in New York: Rocio from Mexico, Carmen from Nicaragua, and Sandra from Honduras.
"It's an important work for Texas as a majority/minority state that has seen more and more women and children cross the border over the last decade," Johnson said. "Marcela's documentary is perfect for the experimental showcase, because it urges viewers to face the harsh topic of gender violence against migrant women, through the editing especially. It's black and white, with the shots being intimate and paced quickly."
Highlighting the work of non-white, non-male filmmakers is essential to bringing diversity in film to bigger distribution, and it starts with small audiences. "There's a reason #oscarssowhite and #oscarsstillsowhite exists. Mainstream film representation is so messed up and is erasing and hurting women of color," explained Zarate. That came into sharp focus this week when both Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith said they will not be attending the Oscars this year, due to lack of diversity in the nominees. Johnson added, "Creating a space outside of the corporate mainstream and supporting local filmmakers – whether or not they are headed for more exposure – feels really healthy and empowering. There is a richness of storytelling out there, but is often hard to find or is overlooked. We hope to bring some visibility and just share films we love with Austin."
Alt Girl Cinema screens "Women of Color: Experimental Shorts" Sat., Jan. 23, 7:30pm, at La Peña (227 Congress). Suggested donation is $3-5; arrive early for snacks and socializing.
