Phote Dilip Mehta SHABANA Azmi (as Radha) and Nandita Das (as Sitma) star in Deepa Meh‘:’s Fire. The film will be shown as part of the Women Filmmakers: . Refocussing conference. The Pacific Cinematheque will screen Fire or: Thursday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. with Mehta in attendance. ‘Ve Women filmmakers meet in Vancouver for major academic conference Katharine Hamer Contributing Writer MOVE over, boys. At the largest film confer- ence to be staged in Vancouver for 20 years, women take centre stage. Beginning tonight, Women Filmmakers: Refocussing will stretch over two weekends and bring together high-profile acade- mics and filmmakers from around the world to discuss the progress of women in cinema. According to organizer Jacqueline Levitin, it was a0 idea “whose time had come.” “ve been wanting to do this for a while,” says the Simon Fraser University women’s studies professor, who first broached the sub- ject of a women’s film confer- ence with colleagues nwo years ago. The inspiration for the conference came from the feminist film festivals staged across Europe and North America in the early 1970s. 25 years on, Women Filmakers: Refocussing will celebrate the achievements of women in film. Levitin sees the event as an opportunity for Vancouverites to discover “really good filmmakers they may not know,” and as a unique forum for the exchange of dialogue between crities and filmmak- ors. Renowned Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta, who will be running masterclasses at the conference for budding tingastes, thinks the event is “extremely i important” contribution to women’s issues and the fostering of tucure generations of film- makers. “Activism in any form intrigues me,” she told the News. Mehta, whose $11 million budget for 1994’s Camilla was the largest amount ever given to a female Canadian director, says she has “never, ever felt thar ve been treat- ed differently because ('m a woman.” However, she does feel thar. Canadian filmmaking needs to be encouraged, and that current funding restric- tions (which specify that films must be largely set in Canada and centre on a Canadian topic) should be revised. “Sometimes I feel Canadian and sometimes } don’t,” she says. “The people who make the (funding) poli- cies need to rethink Canadian identity and realize that there are more and more second- generation Canadians. It's no good sitting on the multicul- tural fence of rules made in 1970. It’s like following a blind ox.” Melita, who is due to appear at the screening of her new film, Earth, at Pacific Cinematheque on March 25, has encountered little diffi- culty making films on the subcontinent. “India is alive with talent- ed artists,” she says. Mehta was surprised but unshaken by the controversy surrounding the Indian release of her 1996 film Fire, which drew criticism from traditionalists for its portrayal of a lesbian relationship. “For every fundamentalist who said the film was immoral, there were 20 oth- ers who said, ‘You can’t tell us whar to watch,’” she says. German director Helma Sanders Brahms (Germany, Pale Mother) will also be offering masterclasses at the conference. The event is divided inta rwo subject areas. The first, which opens at Pacific Cinematheque tonight with a screening of Agnieszka Holland's Washington Square, and continues Saturday and Sunday, focuses on European film history. Holland, who also direct- ed the Oscar-nominated Europa, Europa, was sched- uled to appear in person at the conference, but is now unable to attend due to film- ing commitments. Her work will be discussed instead by the University of Western Ontario’s Janine Falkowska. Next weekend the atten- tion shifis to documentary and postcolonial films, with an emphasis on works from South East Asia, Souch America, and Africa. Film students will be able to dip into a huge selection of lectures on the representa- tion of women in celluloid, with close-ups on German, French and Canadian films; gender issues; and national, sexual and physical identity. * Among the filmmakers whose work will be discussed are Margarethe von Tratte; Marlene Gorris; and Saily Potter. British film critics Annette Kuhn (known to all film stu- dents for her seminal work Women’s Pictures), and Ann Kaplan ( Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera) will speak alongside such noted filmmakers as Guita Shyfter of Mexico; Patricia Prattner of Switzerland; and Pratibha Parmar of the U.K. Canada will be represent- ed by Vancouver’s own Genie award-winning Nettie Wild (A Place Called Chiapas) and Apply now on-line for a low cost HOME EQUITY MORTGAGE "687-2020 _ Tender Broker fees may apply Laser Printer BC LASER AUTHORIZED . Rie3 Skckana RESELLER & OKIDATA Hilf Service On the North Shore Expert Service cf your office or ours. « HP, Okidata, IBM/Lexmark, Canon, Panasonic & most brands © Premium Quolity Remanufactured Tener Cartridges © Guaranteed satisfaction © We refill Ink Jet cartridges Open Mon. - Fri. 984-7661 204 Donaghy Av., North Von fellow documentary directors Loretta Todd; Christine Welsh; and Brenda Longtellow. The conference costs $70 for both weekends, or $40 for one weekend. A full schedule of events can be | found at . For more infor- mation call 822-9171. A full complement of screenings featuring the works of conference guests will be running at Pacific Cinematheque until March 25. For screening times, con- tact Pacific Cinematheque at 688-FILM. SOME of the highlights trom the Wonen Alnonakers: Refocusstig contercnce open- ing todav ar SFU*s Harbour Centre. Note registration is required for attendance at SFU and UBC events. Film screenings are at Pacific Cinematheque. March 19-21: Focus on Europe and Film History: Location — Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Registration 7230-10 pun. Opening Remarks - facqueline Levitin, (SFU, Canada) School tor Contemporary Arts & Women’s Studies. Screening, of Washiigtan Syuare by Agnieszka Holland tollowed by discussion of her films with Janina Falkowska CO Western Ontario, Canada). Saturday 20 : Harbour Centre. — Siew Jin Ooi (LU. of Sydney, Australia), “Wrestling with the Patriarchy in the Films of Margarethe von Trotta”. — Stephen Taubeneck (U.B.C.) “Helma Sanders Brahms and New German Cinema”, -—— Margarete Lamb- Faffelberger (Lafayette College), “Bilder der Beruchrungen: 30 Years of Experimental Film Art by Valie Export”. — Focus on France and Italy (session in French, summary available in translation)- Room 1900. — Donia Mounsef (UBC), “De Dulac 4 Duras: les femmes et Pavant-garde”. — Caroline Eades (U. de Grenoble) “Nouveaux films de femmes en France”. — 2 to 3p.m. Panel discussion with Helma Sanders Brahms, Caroline Eades and Patricia Plattner, moderated by Jacqueline Levitin (SFU, Canada) School of Contemporary Arts & Women’s Studies - Rm 1900. — Focus on Gender Issues: Akerman and Helland - Room 1900. — Janina Falkowska (U. of Western Ontario, Canada), “Agnieszka Holland, Barbara Sass and Dorota Kedzierzawska in the World of Male Filmmakers”. — Catherine Fowler (Southampton Inst. of H.E., Sve Fils page %