Female filmmakers will be the focus of an event this weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Richardson. 

Women and the Movies They Make partners Dallas VideoFest along with Women in Film Dallas and WiFD’s Flicks by Chicks Film Festival. It was curated by Shilyh Warren, an assistant professor of film and aesthetic studies at University of Texas at Dallas.

“We also want to celebrate the wide-ranging work women have been making since the movies began: documentaries, short fictions, and experimental films.”
Shilyh Warren

“For the past year we’ve been having such important and diverse conversations about women in the film industry — mostly in Hollywood. With this program, we bring a new dimension to that important discussion and focus on lesser known films — most of them short films. We also want to celebrate the wide-ranging work women have been making since the movies began: documentaries, short fictions, and experimental films,” Warren told Dallas Innovates via email.

Sunday’s event will be separated into two programs with the first kicking off with “Women Who Made the Movies (1992),” a feature film directed by Gwendolyn Foster and Wheeler Dixon. It showcases the careers and impacts of early female filmmakers.

The program will continue with three short films: “Meshes of the Afternoon (1943),” by Maya Deren; “Fannie’s Film (1979),” by Fronza Woods; and “An Island Surrounded By Water (1985).” by María Novaro.

The second program will screen nine short films including “Sari Red (1988),” by Pratibha Parmar; “Measures of Distance (1988),” by Mona Hatoum; and “All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001),” by Natalia Almada. 

“I selected films that would highlight the many faces, bodies, nationalities, struggles, and stories that matter to feminism.” 

Shilyh Warren

“I selected films that would highlight the many faces, bodies, nationalities, struggles, and stories that matter to feminism. I’m also interested in the ways that women have explored feminist questions — about family, desire, justice, race, capitalism, dreams, and more — through film,” Warren said. 

Warren has written essays on feminist filmmaking. Her book, “Subject to Reality,” explores how the histories of documentary, ethnography, and feminism all intersect in women’s documentary filmmaking. 

“Gender has always been a major part of the overarching story of film. These days as women on and off screen shout their truth to the world, I want to share a longer trajectory of filmmakers who have been fighting this fight all along,” Warren said. 

For more information on the two programs, go here and here.