The Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College has announced its opening night film and lineup of programming for the 2024 festival. The 14th annual festival, a partnership between Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood, will take place from February 29 through March 3 on the Barnard campus in New York City.
2024 ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL AT BARNARD COLLEGE ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 14TH ANNUAL EVENT
Festival Opens February 29 with New York Premiere of COPA 71
Features a lineup of films, conversations, and programs that will run through March 3
NEW YORK (January 31, 2024) – The Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College today announced its opening night film and lineup of programming for the 2024 festival. The 14th annual festival, a partnership between Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood, will take place from February 29 through March 3 on the Barnard campus in New York City. The annual festival showcases narrative features, documentaries, and short films; in-depth conversations with filmmakers and thought leaders; and a wide variety of events focused on amplifying women’s leadership through storytelling around women’s sports, Indigenous perspectives, reproductive justice, disability representation, and more. The festival’s founding sponsor is Artemis Rising Foundation and its CEO, Regina K. Scully.
AFF will open with the New York premiere of the documentary COPA 71, directed by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine and executive produced by Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Alex Morgan. Using archival footage and interviews with soccer stars including Brandi Chastain, the filmmakers explore the “unsanctioned” 1971 Women’s World Cup, which had 100,000 fans in Mexico City, a huge moment for women’s sports that has been almost completely erased from history.
This curated festival highlights women’s leadership through women-centered stories from around the world, with narrative features including Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance, starring Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone in a powerful performance as her character searches for her missing sister; Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version, a bighearted look at an Iranian American family brought together by illness and shocked by the revelation of a family secret; Sofia Alaoui’s Animalia, the journey of a young woman in Morocco who finds her life turned upside down by a supernatural event; Savanah Leaf’s intimate debut feature Earth Mama; Aurora Gossé’s Dancing Queen, a joyous portrait of an awkward seventh grader who joins a hip-hop dance crew in pursuit of love; Molly McGlynn’s Fitting In, a coming-of-age “traumedy” starring Maddie Ziegler as a teen grappling with an unexpected reproductive condition; Adura Onashile’s Girl, about an immigrant mother and daughter in Glasgow struggling to understand each other; and Sophie Jarvis’s Until Branches Bend, a psychological drama of one cannery worker’s disturbing discovery of an invasive insect, capable of upending her entire community.
Documentary selections include Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, and Chelsea Hernandez’s Breaking the News, about the founding of The 19th* digital news startup by a motivated group of women journalists; Beth Aala’s personal look at the music industry through the eyes of emerging Black and brown female artists in Uncharted; Ruth Leitman’s road film No One Asked You, about The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and the work of the Abortion Access Front; Lina Lyte Plioplyte’s Periodical, an exploration of the marvel and mystery of the menstrual cycle; Margo Guernsey’s The Philadelphia Eleven, about an act of civil disobedience by a group of women who organized their ordination to become Episcopal priests in 1974; and Jude Chehab’s intimate and haunting multigenerational tale Q.
The documentary selection also includes several captivating portraits: Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster’s Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, a revelatory look at the life and legacy of the revolutionary poet; Nicole Newnham’s The Disappearance of Shere Hite, an examination of the life, work, and disappearance of the sex educator and feminist; Jeanie Finlay’s Your Fat Friend, which documents the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon; Lin Alluna’s powerful account of renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter in Twice Colonized; and self-portraits, including Ella Glendining’s deeply personal exploration, Is There Anybody Out There?, about the quest to love oneself despite the pervasiveness of ableism; and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras’ Hummingbirds, a coming-of-age tale set on the Texas-Mexico border.
In the shorts category, AFF is thrilled to feature the International Premiere of In the End We’re All Music,directed by Katharina Schnekenbühl. The festival will also screen the U.S. Premiere of Following Valeria, directed by Nicola Fegg, and the New York Premieres of Beneath the Surface, directed by Cai Thomas; FLOAT! directed by Azza Cohen; MADELAINE, directed by Leonor Zúniga; and Run Amok, directed by Nitzan Mager. Additional shorts include As You Are, directed by Daisy Friedman; Here, Hopefully, directed by Hao Zhou; Hex the Patriarchy, directed by Anne Brashier; How to Carry Water, directed by Sasha Wortzel; ISTINA (Wahrheit) [Truth], directed by Tamara Denić; Makeover Movie, directed by Sue Ding; MnM, directed by Twiggy Pucci Garçon; The Night Doctrine, directed by Mauricio Rodriguez Pons and Almudena Toral; The Script, directed by Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus; SULAM (The Ladder), directed by Noam Argov; Take Me Home, directed by Liz Sargent; and Tracing History, directed by Jalena Keane-Lee.
“In curating this year’s programming, we kept coming back to the idea of narrative change. Each of these films, in their own unique ways, frame stories in a way that, we believe, can move audiences, change perspectives, and spark lively and important conversations,” said Athena Film Festival Artistic Director Melissa Silverstein. “Our impressive lineup — from filmmakers all over the world — reflects the unique moment in which we’re living. After a tumultuous year for the film industry, our mission to elevate and amplify the voices and stories of powerful women remains as timely as ever.”
“It’s impossible to feel anything other than optimistic about the world and our shared future when you work with Barnard students, as I do every day — and it’s a thrill to see others experience that same feeling and sense of incredible abundance after spending time on Barnard’s campus at the Athena Film Festival,” said Umbreen Bhatti, the Constance Hess Williams ’66 Director of the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College. “The Festival continues to be the creative embodiment of the Athena Center’s mission, as a space where we can challenge tired and limiting narratives about women’s leadership and co-create a world that values collaboration, inclusion, and ourstories.”
The lineup and full descriptions can be found below and on the AFF website. A selection of shorts will also be available to be screened through the festival’s virtual platform.
Cinema Daily US coverages of Athena Film Festival.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Animalia
France, Morocco, Qatar
Director, Writer: Sofia Alaoui
Producers: Margaux Lorier, Toufik Ayadi, Christophe Barral
Itto, a young woman from a modest rural background, is slowly adapting to the Moroccan privileged codes of her husband’s family. But when supernatural events put the country in a state of emergency, Itto finds herself separated from her husband and new family. Alone, pregnant, and looking for her way back, she finds emancipation.
Dancing Queen
Norway
Director: Aurora Gossé
Writer: Silje Holtet
Producer: Thomas Robsahm
Twelve-year-old Mina’s world is flipped upside down when the famous hip-hop dancer Edwin, aka E.D. Win, starts at her school, and she becomes obsessed with him. When Edwin arranges an audition for a new dance crew, Mina seizes the opportunity and signs on. But Mina is blinded by love, and there is one essential thing she has forgotten: She can’t dance!
Earth Mama
USA, United Kingdom
Director, Writer: Savanah Leaf
Producers: Sam Bisbee, Shirley O’Connor, Medb Riordan, Cody Ryder
A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family in this singular debut feature from filmmaker Savanah Leaf.
Fancy Dance
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Erica Tremblay
Writer: Miciana Alise
Producers: Deidre Backs, Heather Rae, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Tommy Oliver
Following her sister’s disappearance, a Native American hustler kidnaps her niece from the child’s white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in hopes of keeping what is left of their family intact.
Fitting In
CanadaDirector, Writer: Molly McGlynn
Producer: Jennifer Weiss
A coming-of-age “traumedy” that follows 16-year-old Lindy (Maddie Ziegler), who is unexpectedly diagnosed with a reproductive condition, MRKH syndrome. The diagnosis upends her plans to have sex, her presumptions about womanhood and sexuality, her relationship with her mother (Emily Hampshire), and most importantly, herself.
Girl
United Kingdom Director, Writer: Adura Onashile
Producers: Rosie Crerar, Ciara Barry
Eleven-year-old Ama and her mother, Grace, take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create. But Ama’s thirst for life, and her need to grow and develop, challenges the rules of their insular world and gradually forces Grace to reckon with a past she struggles to forget.
The Persian Version
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Maryam Keshavarz
Producers: Peter Block, Luca Borghese, Anne Carey, Ben Howe, Cory Neal
Coming from two countries at odds with each other, Iranian American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, Leila navigates her relationships at arm’s length in an effort to keep her “real” life separate from her family life. However, when her secret is unceremoniously revealed, so are the distinct parallels between her life and that of her mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor).
Until Branches Bend
Canada, Switzerland
Director, Writer: Sophie Jarvis
Producers: Sara Blake, Magali Gillon-Krizaj, Tyler Hagan, Olga Lamontanara, Michela Pini
In the seemingly peaceful Okanagan region of British Columbia, a distraught cannery worker discovers an invasive insect that could threaten the livelihood of her entire town.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Breaking the News
USA
Directors, Producers: Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, Chelsea Hernandez
Writer: Jamie Boyle
Producer: Diane Quon
Frustrated by the dearth of women and people of color in the media, Emily Ramshaw wanted to do something radical about the white men dominating newsrooms. So, in 2020, she and a motivated group of women journalists banded together to buck the status quo and launch The 19th* News, a digital news startup based in Austin, Texas. The film documents the honest discussions at The 19th* around race and gender equity, revealing that change doesn’t come easy, and showcases how one newsroom confronts these challenges both as a workplace and in their journalism.
COPA 71 Opening Film – New York Premiere
United Kingdom
Directors: Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
Producers: Victoria Gregory, Anna Godas, Jannat Gargi
Told by the pioneering women who participated in it and built from an archive unseen for 50 years, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women’s Soccer World Cup, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of sporting history — until now.
The Disappearance of Shere Hite
USA
Director, Producer: Nicole Newnham
Producers: Molly O’Brien, R.J. Cutler, Elise Pearlstein, Kimberley Ferdinando, Trevor Smith
Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
USA
Directors, Writers, Producers: Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster
Producers: Tommy Oliver, Taraji P. Henson
“The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans”: Legendary poet Nikki Giovanni’s revelation is a launching pad to an inspiring exploration of her life and legacy. Through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings of her poetry, and impressions of space, Giovanni urges us to imagine a future where Black women lead, and equity is a reality.
Hummingbirds
USA
Directors: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía Contreras
Co-Directors, Producers: Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodríguez-Falcó
Producers: Leslie Benavides, Rivkah Beth Medow
Co-Producers: Isidore Bethel, Dawn Valadez
In this late-night summer self-portrait, Silvia and Beba make magic of everyday moments coming of age on the Texas-Mexico border.
Is There Anybody Out There?
United Kingdom
Director: Ella Glendining
Producer: Janine Marmot
Born with a congenital condition so rare that there is very little information available about it, filmmaker Ella Glendining sets out to discover if there is anyone else in the world who shares the same disability. Along the way, she challenges ableist assumptions, lives life on her own terms, and navigates an unexpected pregnancy.
No One Asked You
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Ruth Leitman
Producers: Rachel Rozycki, Andrea Raby
Comedian and disruptor-extraordinaire Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show) and her team, Abortion Access Front, crisscross the U.S. to support abortion clinic staff and bust stigma. Pop culture icons and next-gen comics fuel this six-year road film activating small-town folks to rebuild vandalized clinics, exposing wrongdoer politicians, domestic terrorists, and media neglect as the race to the bottom ensues. A bold call to action with a message: When the patriarchy burns down, joy will prevail.
Periodical
USA
Director: Lina Lyte Plioplyte
Producer: Pegah Farahmand
Periodical tells an extraordinary tale of the human body by exploring the marvel and mystery of the menstrual cycle, from first period to last.
The Philadelphia Eleven
USA
Director, Producer: Margo Guernsey
Producer: Nikki Bramley
In an act of civil disobedience, a group of women and their supporters organize their ordination to become Episcopal priests in 1974. The Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia welcomes them, but changing traditions that date back 2,000 years is no small task. The women are harassed, some lose friends, and others are banned from stepping on church property. In this feature-length documentary film, we meet the women who succeed in building a movement that transforms an age-old institution and challenges the very essence of patriarchy within Christendom.
Q [ ق ]
Lebanon, USA
Director, Producer: Jude ChehabProducer: Fahd Ahmed
Where do we draw the line between love and devotion? An intimate and haunting portrayal of a quest for love and acceptance at any cost, Q depicts the insidious influence of a secretive matriarchal religious order in Lebanon on three generations of women in the Chehab family. Filmmaker Jude Chehab potently documents the unspoken ties and consequences of loyalty that have bonded her mother, grandmother, and herself to the mysterious organization.
Twice Colonized
Canada, Denmark, Greenland
Director, Co-Writer: Lin Alluna
Writer: Aaju Peter
Producer: Emile Hertling Péronard
Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. But while launching an effort to establish an Indigenous forum at the European Union, Aaju finds herself facing a difficult, personal journey to mend her own wounds after the unexpected passing of her son.
Uncharted
USA
Director, Producer: Beth Aala
Uncharted follows emerging female artists who attend a once-in-a-lifetime songwriting camp helmed by Alicia Keys and her organization She Is The Music. A personal look at the music industry through the lens of Black and brown creatives, Uncharted is an intimate portrait of these rising stars and the pressures and challenges they face in a business that offers little access for success.
Your Fat Friend
USA, United Kingdom
Director, Producer: Jeanie Finlay
Made over six years, Your Fat Friend charts the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger “Your Fat Friend” to New York Times best-selling author and beloved podcaster. Her aim: a paradigm shift in the way we see fat people in the world and the fat on our own bodies.
SHORTS
As You Are
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Daisy Friedman
Producers: Justine Sweetman, Eve Robitshek, Aspen Nelson
When an interabled queer couple spends the night together for the first time, they must confront their complex relationships with desire, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and what it means truly to love another person.
Beneath the Surface
New York Premiere
USA
Director: Cai Thomas
Producer: Lauren Grace Cargo
Trina Reynolds-Tyler, a data scientist and journalist at the Invisible Institute, investigates gender-based violence found in complaints made against the Chicago Police Department.
FLOAT!
New York Premiere
USA
Director: Azza Cohen
Producers: Kathleen Borschow, Melissa Fajardo
With intimacy and humor, filmmaker Azza Cohen captures her magnetic bubbe learning to swim at 82, inspiring audiences to defy societal expectations of aging (and call your grandma!).
Following Valeria
US Premiere
Germany
Director, Writer: Nicola Fegg
Producer: Julia Niethammer
In Ukraine, a young woman becomes an accidental ambassador of war with her humorous TikTok channel, soon struggling between the image of a refugee and social media celebrity.
Here, Hopefully
USA
Director: Hao Zhou
Producers: Tyler Hill, Sanjna Singh, Sue Ding, Chloë Walters-Wallace, Sapana Sakya
An aspiring nurse from China strives to build a new life in Iowa.
Hex the Patriarchy
USA
Director, Producer: Anne Brashier
Writer, Producer: Heather Muriel Nguyễn
Producer: Xan Churchwell
Sick of being bullied by their classmates, two queer high schoolers, Bex and Wren, strike back like anyone else would: with witchcraft.
How to Carry Water
USA
Director, Writer: Sasha Wortzel
Producers: Colleen Cassingham, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous
This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel — a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s vast network of freshwater springs.
In the End We’re All Music
US Premiere
Germany
Director: Katharina Schnekenbühl
Writer: Nathalie Zeidler
Producers: Felix Sommer, Thomas Slatter
A swimming pool. Three women. A choir. Lilo wants to swim without water wings, Kira is determined to be the fastest swimmer, and Frida has set her sights on a daunting leap from the 10-meter tower.
ISTINA (Wahrheit) [Truth]
Serbia, Germany
Director: Tamara Denić
Writer: David M. Lorenz
Producer: Christian Siée
A photojournalist is threatened by right-wing extremist groups in Belgrade and flees to Germany with her daughter, only to experience increasingly strong hostility and threats in her new home.
MADELAINE
New York Premiere
Nicaragua
Director: Leonor Zúniga
Producer: Roberto Guillén
Madelaine Caracas, a 20-year-old Nicaraguan painter, has to pack up again and move to a new, temporary home. After a year without painting, she prepares for her first art exhibition, where she will confront for the first time the violence that pushed her into exile.
Makeover Movie
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Sue Ding
A pop culture essay film on the makeover movies we grew up loving — and all the ways they taught us that we needed to fix ourselves.
MnM
USA
Director: Twiggy Pucci Garçon
Producers: Colleen Cassingham, Jess Devaney
MnM is an exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging runway divas in the drag ballroom community. Celebrating their joy, siblinghood, and unapologetic personas, the film explores the power and beauty of being nonbinary in a community that prizes gender “realness.”
The Night Doctrine
USA
Directors, Writers, Producers: Mauricio Rodriguez Pons, Almudena Toral
Writer, Producer: Lynzy Billing
An Afghan journalist embarks on a journey to find out who murdered her family 30 years ago, only to uncover hundreds of civilians killed in a secretive American-backed program.
Run Amok
New York Premiere
USA
Director, Writer: Nitzan Mager
Producer: Lela Meadow-Conner
A teenage girl decides to stage a musical reenactment of a tragedy that took place at her high school 10 years earlier.
The Script
USADirectors: Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus
Writer: Noah Schamus
Producers: Colleen Cassingham, Jess Devaney
Blending personal interviews with dramatized genre recreations, The Script explores the complicated relationship between trans and nonbinary communities and medical providers regarding gender-affirming care.
SULAM (The Ladder)
USA
Director, Writer, Producer: Noam Argov
Producers: Bethiael Alemayoh, Sappir Argov
When an immigrant teen must help her mom before a school exam, the tensions of belonging in a new country bubble to the surface.
Take Me Home
USA
Director, Writer: Liz Sargent
Producer: Minos Papas
Anna is an adult with a cognitive disability living with her mother in Midland, Florida. When her mother is unresponsive, she calls her sister for help, but without the language to be believed, Anna is brushed aside.
Tracing History
USA
Director, Writer: Jalena Keane-Lee
Producer: Reaa Puri
A Chinese American filmmaker invites her mother on a journey of self-discovery and reclamation as they tour the railroad sites built by their ancestors six generations ago.
This year’s sponsors include the festival’s founding sponsor, Artemis Rising Foundation and its CEO Regina K. Scully, as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Hanky Panky, Netflix, AMC Networks, The Dobkin Family Foundation, Evenstar, Illumine Service Foundation, Christine A. Schantz, Secret Sauce Media, Walt Disney Studios, ANSIRH Abortion Onscreen, Abigail E. Disney, Jess Jacobs, Sheila Nevins, We Testify, Adrienne Shelly Foundation, The Katie McGrath & JJ Abrams Family Foundation, Lifetime, Reavis Page Jump LLP, and Whitewater Films. The Accessibility Sponsor is The Loreen Arbus Foundation and the Transportation Sponsor is Attitude New York.
The Athena Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of theOffice of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Passes and tickets are now on sale. Additional programming and 2024 honorees will be announced in the coming weeks. Visit the Athena Film Festival’s website for regular updates and more information.
###
ABOUT THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVALFounded in 2011, the Athena Film Festival champions diverse, nuanced, and complex stories of women leaders through its annual showcase of narrative films, documentaries, and short films, alongside powerful and thought-provoking conversations, and its numerous year-round creative development programs. To date, more than 540 films have been screened at the festival — 90% directed by women or nonbinary individuals — and Athena’s creative development programs have supported more than 700 filmmakers.
ABOUT THE ATHENA CENTER AT BARNARD COLLEGEThe Athena Center for Leadership is a hub for changemakers at Barnard College. We prepare Barnard students to lead change in this extraordinary moment and throughout their lives.
ABOUT WOMEN AND HOLLYWOODWomen and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity and inclusion across the entertainment industry. Over the past 16 years, it has grown to be one of the most respected initiatives focused on women’s issues and popular culture, and its founder, Melissa Silverstein, has become a well-respected leader on the subject.
ABOUT BARNARD COLLEGEBarnard provides a singular educational experience, as a world-renowned college focused on excellence across the arts and sciences, with all the academic resources of Columbia University and the City of New York as an extended classroom. Founded in 1889, Barnard was one of the few colleges in the nation where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging education available to men. Today, Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the country and remains devoted to empowering extraordinary women to become even more exceptional.
ABOUT ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATIONArtemis Rising Foundation is dedicated to supporting media projects that transform our culture and challenge the status quo. Led by our founder and CEO, Regina K. Scully, the foundation champions powerful stories about some of the most challenging social justice issues of our time — including gender bias, healing, trauma, mental health, addiction, and women’s empowerment.