Author: Fara

LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE is a a much-needed examination of the collateral damage of immigration. The film interweaves video letters carried across the U.S.-Mexico border by the film’s director with the personal stories of women left behind in post-NAFTA Mexico. LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE provides the human context that has been missing from the immigration debate and offers a fresh perspective, painting a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics, communities dying at the hands of globalization, and governments unwilling to do anything about it. 2006, 73min.

ARTISTS’ TELEVISION ACCESS is proud to present for one night only Winnipeg Boy Wonder John Paizs’s 1986 8o min Low-Budget Feature length Canadian Comedy Classic “CRIME WAVE” . Considered as one of the most influential Indepedent Canadian Comedies of all time. The film is an homage to late 1940s-early 1950s “color crime pictures”. Paizs plays Steven Penny, a struggling screenwriter who lives above the garage of a suburban family, and begins typing each night from the moment the street lamp comes on. Everything we learn about the character comes from Kim (Eva Kovacs), the family’s daughter, who has a schoolgirl crush on him, as Penny never utters a word in the entire film. John Paizs later went on to direct the highly original smash television hit “KIDS IN THE HALL” Steven Penny wants to write the greatest “color crime movie ever made.(a “color crime movie” is a movie in color about a crime.)This must see self referential Canadian movie about a crime writer with writers block is a true must see for Aspiring Filmmakers and or anyone who ever wanted to make it to the top.

“CRIME WAVE” breakdown
Terrible Twists, Color Crime Quarterly, an Evil Elvis, Self Mutilation, The Jaws of Life,Car Counting, A Dynamite-Wearing Party Crasher, Crime Club High Jinks, Possible Pedophilia, Screenwriting By Streetlight,Paralyzing Moments of Self Doubt, Dr. Jolly’s Twisted Pony Ride, Persistence of Vision, The Top Of The World. Over All Rating 9, Come Out and Enjoy This Epic Tale Of The Crime Wave.

In an intimate encounter with five very different women in Brazil, India, Jerusalem, and Senegal (narrated by Susan Sarandon with introductory narration co-written by Edwidge Danticat) THE SHAPE OF WATER offers a close look at the far reaching and vibrant alternatives crafted by women in response to environmental degradation, archaic traditions, lack of economic independence and war.

The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the US National Committee for UNIFEM (UNIFEM/USNC) was launched in June of 2009. UNIFEM is the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and it works on women’s rights and development issues across the globe. We are committed to expanding support and raising funds within the United States for UNIFEM. Through our efforts we hope to encourage ourselves and others to become involved in advancing women’s rights around the world.

If interested in learning more, please send us an email at sanfranbayarea@unifem-usnc.org.

About the Film Series:

This monthly film series will look at women’s rights and development issues. Each month, a film that touches on one of the four themes of UNIFEM (The United Nations Development Fund for Women) will be selected. These four themes are:

– enhancing women’s economic security and rights,
– ending violence against women,
– reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among women and girls, and
– advancing gender justice in democratic governance in stable and fragile states.

After each film, a discussion will be held that focuses on the issue being highlighted and what local Bay Area organizations are doing to address that issue.