11th Athena Film Festival
March 1 - 31, 2021
Latin American and U.S. Latinx Films co-presented by Cinema Tropical
The 11h edition of the Athena Film Festival (AFF), a joint partnership between Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood, will take place virtually from March 1 through March 31. The annual festival includes film screenings, in-depth conversations with filmmakers and industry experts, a series of programs that support the pipeline of women creatives, and a wide variety of events focused on celebrating and amplifying the stories of bold, courageous women leaders.
LA MADRINA: THE S̶A̶V̶A̶G̶E̶ LIFE OF LORINE PADILLA
(Raquel Cepeda, USA, 2020, 81 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla is a feature-length documentary about a beloved South Bronx matriarch and former “First Lady” of the Savage Skulls gang struggling to remain visible in a rapidly gentrifying community she helped rebuild in the 1980s. With one foot firmly grounded in the outlaw life and the other as an activist and spiritual advisor, Lorine straddles the complexities of multiple worlds. Employing rich never-before-seen archives of the borough that gifted the world both salsa and hip-hop culture, we will go on a complicated and, at times, surreal journey through five decades of Bronx history and resilience in La Madrina’s own words.
MY NAME IS BAGHDAD / MEU NOME E BAGDA
(Caru Alves de Souza, Brazil, 2020, 96 min . In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Baghdad is a 17-year-old female skater, who lives in Freguesia do Ó, a working-class neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Baghdad skateboards with a group of male friends and spends a lot of time with her family and with her mother’s friends. Together, the women around her form a network of people who are out of the ordinary. When Baghdad meets a group of female skateboarders, her life suddenly changes.
THROUGH THE NIGHT
(Loira Limbal, USA, 2020, 72 min. In English)
To make ends meet, people in the U.S. are working longer hours across multiple jobs. This modern reality of non-stop work has resulted in an unexpected phenomenon: the flourishing of 24-hour daycare centers. Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a childcare provider—whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center. The film follows a mother who works the overnight shift at a hospital; another holding down three jobs to support her family; and a woman who for two decades has cared for children of parents with nowhere else to turn. Over the span of two years, across working holidays, seven-day work weeks, and around-the-clock shifts, the film reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in the U.S and the close bonds forged between parents, children, and caregivers.
IMMACULATE / INMACULADA
(Stephanie Sandoval, Chile, 2018, 17 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Alejandra is a shy late bloomer who lives in the safe bubble created by her mother and her Catholic school in Santiago, Chile. Alejandra’s mother has signed her up to play the role of the Virgin Mary in the school’s celebration of the Annunciation. Meanwhile, she has an encounter with the school’s heartthrob and seems to connect with him, but Carolina -her best friend- takes the spotlight away from her.The Annunciation day arrives and Ale will have no choice but to face womanhood, although she will find she’s not alone in the task.
PLAYBACK
(Agustina Comedi, Argentina, 14 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In Córdoba, far away from Argentina’s capital city, the end of a military regime promises a spring that doesn’t last long. “La Delpi” is the only survivor from a group of transgender women and drag queens, who began to die of AIDS in the late 80’s. In a catholic and conservative city, the Kalas Group made their weapons and trenches out of improvised dresses and playbacks. Today the images of a unique and unknown footage are not only a farewell letter, but also a friendship manifesto.
LUPITA
(Monica Wise Robles, Mexico/USA, 2020, 21 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced, their land stolen, where students disappear without trace following police arrest, and journalists are murdered at an alarming rate, a courageous new voice emerges. Lupita, a Tsostil Maya massacre survivor, at the forefront of a new movement of indigenous women. If anyone can change the conscience of Mexico, it is Lupita, confronting corrupt militares, mobilizing her pueblo’s resistance, and cultivating a new generation of organized and vocal Maya activists. The film intimately follows Lupita taking on risks and responsibility to represent her people, weaving her personal narrative into the painful revolutionary history of Mexico. Part lyrical testimony, part vérité storytelling, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the world.
Streaming March 1 - 31, ‘Imagining a New Future’ Shorts Program
BASTA / ENOUGH
(Cecilia Albertini & Lesley Elizondo, USA, 2020, 12 min.)
East Coast Premiere
Veronica was a 24 year old immigrant from El Salvador when she was sexually assaulted while working as a night janitor in Los Angeles. Thanks to her resilience and strength, she did not stay silent and helped create a grassroots movement to change the janitorial industry and fight its normalization of sexual abuse in the workplace.
Streaming March 1 - 31, ‘Imagining a New Future’ Shorts Program
LA INDEFINIBLE
(Agustina Biasutto, USA, 10 min. In English, Spanish, and Portuguese with English subtitles)
There are 33 countries in Latin America, each with a tremendous amount of different cities and cultures. Somehow, all of these cultures constantly get condensed into a single series of broad generalizations and assumptions. The ideas surrounding the Latina woman are no different. _La Indefinible _is based off of recorded conversations with Latinas, from different countries and backgrounds, about how being a latin woman has shaped their life. The project aims to show how there are many different cultures, appearances, personalities, customs etc. that make up Latin women.
Streaming March 1 - 31, ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ Shorts Program
EXILED / EXILIADA
(Leonor Zúniga, Nicaragua, 2019, 24 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
New York Premiere
This 24 minutes documentary film explores the life of Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, adoptive daughter of Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista revolution and the current President of Nicaragua. The film reveals her struggle as a survivor of sexual abuse twenty years after she publicly accused Ortega of rape. We learn about her fate, her family and the impact of the accusation on her 10 years old son. The film, mostly shot inside Zoilamérica’s home, delves into her exile as a form of physical and emotional isolation, which is imposed on her as punishment for daring to seek justice, confront her abuser, her family and the Sandinista party.
Streaming March 1 - 31, ‘Resilience Through Uncertainty’ Shorts Program
MARGARITA OF THE RIVER / MARGARITA LA DEL RÍO
(Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma, USA, 4 min. In Spanish with English subtiles)
A documentary paper cut-out animation in Spanish showcasing moments in the life of a woman from Honduras who immigrated to the United States in order to support her family.
Streaming March 1 - 31, ‘Resilience Through Uncertainty’ Shorts Program
