FILM: High Falls Film Festival announces 2013 schedule

The
High Falls Film Festival today announced the line-up of films for its 2013
edition, which will run April 18-21 at various local theaters. Although it will
be the 11th installment of the festival overall, it is the first since 2011 and
will feature a return to the festival’s original name and a renewed focus on
celebrating women in film.

This
is clearly a rebuilding year for the festival, which has a new executive
director in Mary Howard and new director of programming in Kate Dobbertin Bernola. The festival
will include 32 programs featuring 50-plus films over the course of four days
(plus an additional event on April 14) and — at least at this time — a
deliberate lack of big-name celebrity guests.

There
will be no recipient of the Susan B. Anthony “Failure is Impossible” Award this
year, in part because Howard says that the festival wants to take to time to “cultivate”
the honor. Festival Board Chair Malcolm Spaull also
stated at the press conference that the festival doesn’t want to bring in a
celebrity “just for celebrity’s sake.” They want to find a recipient who is
truly integral to women in film.

The
festival took off 2012 to regroup and redefine itself.
In 2009 the festival switched names to the 360 | 365 Film Festival and had brief
partnerships with both the George Eastman House and the Rochester International
Film Festival.

Dobbertin Bernola explained at Tuesday’s
press conference at Little Theatre that the theme of the 2013 festival would be
celebrating women in film, which is
not the same as films directed solely at women. She said that when choosing
movies for the festival she tried to keep an eye on appealing to a wide
audience, while still keeping women filmmakers in the forefront.

The
schedule released this morning still has several holes on it with films to be
announced. Among the more interesting selections released by the festival are:

–“The Girls in the Band,” a documentary
about gender discrimination in the national jazz scene

–“Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel,” a documentary about the highly influential fashion writer and editor

–“How We Got Away With It,” a drama that
was shot largely in the region

-The
“Go Public” Project, featuring short
films shot in support of public education

In
addition, WXXI will partner with the festival on Sunday, April 14, for “Film For All.” The classic “His Girl Friday” will be broadcast on
WXXI that afternoon, and there will simultaneously be a free screening of the
1940 Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell screwball comedy at the Central Library’s Kate
Gleason Auditorium. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion
featuring High Falls Film Festival staff.

The
festival will also offer visiting filmmakers, Q&A sessions, and educational
panels on filmmaking. Parties are scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
nights at the Inn on Broadway, Strathallan, and
Eastman House’s Potter Peristyle, respectively.
Fashion Week Rochester will present a fashion show in conjunction with a screening
of the Vreeland documentary.

Tickets
for films and events go on sale Friday, March 15, at the festival website.
There will also be mobile box offices set up at around town at various dates
and times, but details were not disclosed.