The Economapocalypse is hitting local arts organizations hard, as
state and local funding sources dry up and penny-hoarding audiences opt
for Netflix and Pop Secret over dinner and a show. So, are budget woes
responsible for this year’s shorter, leaner Portland Women’s Film Fest
(POW)? Actually, no.
“We moved the festival to March to be in Women’s History Month, so
we lost some planning time, which is why we chose to do a curated
festival this year,” POW Fest Executive Director Tara Johnson-Medinger
explains. “It’s a quality-over-quantity approach. Next year we’ll be
back with a call for entries and submissions from across the
world.”
This year’s three-day festival is missing the diverse shorts
programs and all-day activity roster of last year, but a curated
festival isn’t necessarily a bad thing: Included in the festival’s
lineup are three Oscar-nominated documentaries, two of which are short
films with local connections. The Final Inch, by Portlander
Irene Taylor Brodsky, tracks efforts to eradicate polio, while Megan
Mylan, the director of Smile Pinki, is originally from Oregon.
(Also playing is the Oscar-nominated feature The Betrayal, about
a Laotian family that immigrates to America.)
Coming Up Easy, by local filmmaker Rebecca Rodriguez, is a
feature-length film about domestic violence and sexual abuse that
reinforces why POW needs to exist in the first place. The movie
resonates with an impact that outstrips its quality, simply because the
subject matter is generally relegated to trashy paperbacks and
made-for-TV movies about gymnasts. (That is to say, it’s
sensationalized and made sordid.) Coming Up Easy is by no means
perfect, but it is, for the most part, even-keeled and realistic, and
this forthright approach lends the film an unexpected power.
The fest will also feature Ida Lupino’s 1953 film The
Bigamist, a nod to POW’s ongoing support of women
filmmakers—Lupino was the second woman to be admitted into the
Directors Guild. ALISON HALLETT
Festival passes are $25, and individual show prices vary. For
more info, see powfest.com and Movie
Times on pg. 41.