by Daniel Pecoraro, Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again, a month full of women’s history and a weekend full of women’s pasts, presents, and futures at the Athena Film Festival. I look forward to celebrating fifteen years of the festival at Barnard College beginning March 6 until 9, and I hope to see folks there. Tickets and passes are available for the festival here.

Below are some of the films I’m most looking forward to watching and covering for MovieJawn:

We Were Dangerous
Directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu
Written by Maddie Dai and Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu
Screens Friday, March 7 at 7:00pm, tickets here

The Friday night block is one of the most jam-packed of the whole festival. You couldn’t go wrong with the Japanese documentary Black Box Diaries (dir. Shiori Ito) or the Irish feature doc on former Irish president and current chair of The Elders Mary Robinson (Mrs. Robinson, dir. Aoife Kelleher). But instead I am choosing this Kiwi narrative on Māori residential schools and three teenage students rebelling against a devout and authoritarian Matron. As New Zealand, Canada, and (to a much lesser extent) the US grapple with their respective indigenous schooling systems, this should hopefully be a well-told story about an under-discussed issue.

Who in the Hell is Regina Jones?
Directed by Billy Miossi and Soraya Sélène
Written by Regina Jones (also stars)
Screens Saturday, March 8 at 12:00pm, tickets here

Paint Me a Road Out of Here
Directed by Catherine Gund
Screens Saturday, March 8 at 3pm, tickets here

My day job has been all African American Studies almost all the time of late, so I’m looking forward to these two films examining two viewpoints of the Black Arts Movement, direct or adjacent, and its descendants. First, a look at Regina Jones’s creation of the newspaper SOUL Illustrated and what came after the dissolution of the pioneering music publication, and Regina’s marriage to her husband Ken. And right after that, Faith Ringgold (one of my favorite artists — Tar Beach is my default pick for “picture books kiddos in my life should read”) and her painting in Rikers Island’s women’s prison becoming a flashpoint for the #CloseRikers movement. Who in the Hell is Regina Jones? and Paint Me a Road Out of Here should be an excellent afternoon double-feature to begin day 3 of the fest.

Spacewoman
Written and Directed by Hannah Berryman
Screens as the Alfred P. Sloan STEM Showcase Sunday, March 9 at 3:00pm, Tickets here

Before my mom became my mom, before her various jobs in sales, marketing, and education, she really wanted to become an astronaut. Various factors — not the least of which, NASA not really recruiting Latinas at SUNY campuses in the 1970s — prevented this dream, but she did instill in me both a love for space exploration and a feminist mindset. Spacewoman, the story of Eileen Collins (the first woman to pilot and command the space shuttle, or any NASA spacecraft) is of a piece with that inherited twinned interest. Looking at Collins’ career should be fascinating, and (given the penchant of late for purging stories of women breaking through in the federal workforce) incredibly timely. 

Athena Film Festival kicks off March 6 until 9, tickets and passes are available here. Find all the latest fest dispatches from MovieJawn here.

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