For the 37th year, moviegoers and storytelling aficionados will gather in theaters at Colorado College for the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. The local entertainment gem is the oldest women’s film festival in the Western Hemisphere, and there are only a few European festivals that are older in the entire world. As always, the festival focuses on looking “through the lens” at the stories of women and others often unheard or unseen to cultivate connection and an empathetic community.
This year’s festival takes place Oct. 18-20, and the lineup features 42 films, including documentaries, narratives and shorts. But there is always much more than just the movies at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Here are eight of those things we love about the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.
1. The Community
There’s a difference between watching a movie and experiencing a film festival. You can stream just about anything at home these days, but a film festival can deliver a collective experience in both expected and unexpected ways. In the case of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, it can draw you in to a greater sense of community.
“It is a phenomenal opportunity to be in the same room with folks who have differing perspectives and differing responses to the films and to have beautiful discussion and dialogue afterward,” says Nicole Nicoletta, executive director of Rocky Mountain Women’s Film. “It’s a magical experience to watch a film with a group of people and see how everyone responds to that — and even if you don’t talk about it, just feeling the energy in the room. Add the opportunity to listen to a Q&A with the filmmakers or the film subject and it is a really powerful experience.”
(You can read more about this element of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival in Community and Collaboration Make Rocky Mountain Womens Film Festival Special.)
2. The Opening Gala
What better way to kick off a festival than with a party? The Opening Gala is an evening of live music, signature cocktails and sweet bites before the opening film screening. This year’s opening feature is The Day Iceland Stood Still, a film about the morning in 1975 when 90% of Icelandic women walked off the job and out of the house, bringing the nation to a standstill. The historic event was the beginning of Iceland’s path to becoming the world’s superpower of gender equality.
“The Day Iceland Stood Still is just a real feel-good film,” says Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Art Director Linda Broker. “That one is inspirational.”
3. The Filmmakers at the Festival
One of the most unique opportunities of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival is to meet the filmmakers and story subjects. It’s your chance to engage with the story behind the story you’ve just seen play out on the screen. For example, you’ll get to know Beth Lane in the course of watching UnBroken, the film she wrote, directed and produced about her mother and six siblings’ escape from Nazi Germany. Then you can meet and dialogue with her in the following filmmaker session.
This year’s collection includes 10 filmmakers plus some film subjects who will participate in post-screening Q&As and lunchtime Filmmaker Forums. Some are first-timers at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Others are returnees, like the award-winning filmmaker Andrea Kalin.
“I’m beyond excited to reunite with my Rocky Mountain Women family, where I’ve had the joy of screening four films throughout my career,” Kalin says in her filmmaker’s notes. “This is a truly special group of cinephile loyalists who share a deep love for film, filmmakers and the vibrant community that cinema creates.”
4. The Inspirational Films
Inspiration comes in many forms, and the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival 2024 lineup holds many uplifting titles. Maya and the Wave tells the story of the world-record holding big wave surfer Maya Gabeira.
Motorcyle Mary introduces the first American woman to race motorcycles. Another motorcycle related film, To Myself With Love: The Bessie Stringfield Story, portrays the journey of the first Black woman to ride a motorcycle across the United States — a feat she accomplished in 1930 at the age of 19 during the Jim Crow era.
And We Can Be Heroes follows a group of teens at a live action role-playing camp who find strength to heal past trauma and emerge empowered in life.
“One of the films I find really inspirational and unique is Fire Tower about people who live in very remote locations and spend their days in watchtowers looking for wildland fires,” Broker says. “It’s really the people that are fascinating, not their job, which is looking through binoculars for smoke. So the fact that this filmmaker was able to make this really compelling film about folks who do this work is a real testimony to storytelling.”
5. The Thought-Provoking Films
Documentary films also have the power to explore serious, complex and sometimes heavy topics. “We try really hard not to program films that are just too rough to bear,” Broker says while acknowledging that a film’s emotional impact is highly subjective.
“I think Sugarcane is one of our strongest films this year,” Broker says. “It is outstanding, but it is definitely challenging content.” The film depicts a powerful investigation of abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school that ignites a reckoning on the Sugarcane Reservation.
Broker also highlights Inheritance as a heavy-hitter. That film looks at generational poverty and addiction as it follows a young boy and his extended family for more than 11 years. “One of the things I love about documentary film is the opportunity to be exposed to an issue or circumstance that you otherwise might never know about,” she says. “Inheritance is very observational. And while it doesn’t necessarily offer a solution, my takeaway was feeling a lot more empathy for people who find themselves in this situation. It’s so complicated.”
The poignant Where Olives Trees Weep portrays life in the West Bank from a Palestinian point of view, and it has become all the more timely since its production. “We hope our audience recognizes that this is the filmmaker’s story,” Broker says. “As an organization, we’re not taking a position one way or the other and recognize that this film represents one perspective in a broader conversation. We are committed to showcasing diverse voices and stories, with the goal of encouraging dialogue and understanding, even when the content may be difficult. We felt that this was a well done film. There’s value to hearing everyone’s side of the story, and we recognize that there are different stories especially in that part of the world.”
6. The Balance of Film Pairings
When it comes to programming, films at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival are scheduled in blocks with many options for viewers to curate their own experience. Broker says the team intentionally avoids scheduling any heavy films at the end of the daytime sessions. And the lineups make for good pairings of provocative and inspirational films.
“If you go see Sugarcane, stay in Mohrman Theatre and watch the block of short films that immediately follows,” Broker says. “It will boost you right back up.”
For another curated pairing, Broker recommends Preconceived, Bearing Witness and Public Defender. “Preconceived is a really compelling and informative film about crisis pregnancy centers, and part of the story takes place in Colorado. It’s definitely thought-provoking,” Broker says. “Immediately following is a block of two films: Bearing Witness and Public Defender. Those are excellent films about people out there doing the right thing.
7. Added Accessibility
This year’s Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival will be more accessible than ever, with 25 of the films offering open captions for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Sign language interpreters also will be available for filmmaker Q&A’s and the filmmaker’s forum, but they must be requested ahead of time.
8. The Virtual Encore
If you can’t make it to the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival in person or want to catch up on films you missed, make sure to get tickets to the Virtual Encore. Thirty films will be available for streaming Oct. 24-27. You can buy access to individual films, blocks of films or all the streamable films. The encore can also help when it comes to choosing which films to watch at the live festival. Some are only available live, so pay attention to those if they are on your priority list. You can learn more about Virtual Encore access here.
Find all the details for Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival 2024 at rmwfilm.org.
Free Tickets to the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival 2024!
We’re giving away two single-day passes to this year’s film fest. Enter here by Oct. 16 to win.
