It can be incredibly intimidating to make professional connections as a filmmaker, but occasionally you find out help could be right next door, as Emily Broderick and Rebecca Martin Fagerholm did shortly before partnering up on the Cinema Femme Film Festival in Chicago.
“It was February [of 2024], so it was cold and I had been at Sundance as a photo editor, and I just threw on my Sundance jacket to go outside and lo and behold, here comes Rebecca strolling down the street with her dog Daisy, wearing a Sundance hat, and we’re both like, ‘Oh, look at you, Sundance,’” recalls Broderick of her fateful encounter with Martin Fagerholm, the founder of Cinema Femme Magazine who had started the festival a few years before. “Emily, our neighbor, who I had actually told about being [recently] unemployed, [was there too and said] ‘Rebecca, you do film stuff, right?’ And then I mentioned wanting to do film festival stuff and Rebecca [said], ‘I have a festival that’s happening in two months.’”
When Martin Fagerholm hired Broderick a few days later to join the staff — and subsequently serve as festival director the following year, it was indicative of how easy she’s long believed it should be for those qualified to get a foothold in the film industry, but so rarely is, particularly if you’re a woman. That’s why she started Cinema Femme, which began as an online publication amplifying the voices of female, trans and nonbinary filmmakers and has since grown into an even greater platform with an annual film festival where the central notions of connectivity, confidence boosting and lack of gatekeeping is believed to lead to great things. Those beliefs have been borne out by the fact that this year’s festival, its seventh edition starting Thursday at the legendary Music Box Theatre on Southport, is taking over the movie palace’s 700-seat auditorium for its opening and closing night festivities after holding court the past two years in its 70-seat screening room, as well as an expanded lineup from previous years, but a lot of the success that the organization has had is the kind that’s largely imperceptible until it’s in full flourish when it involves one generation of filmmakers cracking open the door a little wider for the next.
After first using the pages of Cinema Femme to inspire others with the example of directors who beat the odds and often employing interviews to forge connections between filmmakers of different levels of experience, Martin Fagerholm’s appreciation for art and craft from fresh perspectives married with more practical consideration for building a sustainable career is now reflected in the film festival’s deft balance of information sharing and networking with industry professionals at panels while the big screen is reserved for shorts from filmmakers who will surely feel a boost alone from seeing their work in such an environment early on in their careers, let alone the others who may lay eyes on it. (This year’s festival will operate as a hybrid where the in-person event will be followed by a virtual component, allowing audiences anywhere to check out this year’s selection of films.) Yet although the Cinema Femme Film Fest is the pinnacle of the year for the organization, they make progress throughout, not only producing a robust quarterly edition of the online magazine but establishing the mentorship program Breaking Down Walls that’s paired seasoned vets with up-and-comers to offer guidance on specific projects and general professional advice.
To look at the diverse lineup of films that will be presented at the Cinema Femme Film Festival offers an irresistible glimpse of what a multiplex could look like in the future if we’re so lucky, featuring films that have been among our recent favorites such as Mindie Lind and Megan Griffiths’ “View from the Floor,” local Windy City-produced gems such as Allison Torem’s “Don’t Come Home Before Midnight” and finds from as far away as the Estonian “Come Sit With Us,” but it’s a future that seems actually within reach due to the infrastructure that an ever-growing staff has been steadily putting together and on the eve of this year’s festival, Martin Fagerholm and Broderick spoke about how they’ve gone about building community both amongst the filmmakers and the broader Chicago area, the festival’s evolution out of the pandemic and the pride of seeing filmmakers grow before their eyes.
Cinema Femme is so impressive simply as a publication. Rebecca, what was it like to decide a few years back that you should be doing more with this film festival?
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm: I started Cinema Femme because I didn’t see or hear female, non-binary and trans voices represented in terms of film criticism in mainstream media, and I [thought], we need a platform where we elevate underrepresented voices in film, talking about film. And when I started, I was doing interviews with female and non-binary filmmakers, and all of these emerging artists started reaching out to me who [said], “We feel seen for the first time, and we’re getting the best advice from these people in film that are have gone through the ringer because of this magazine.” I got addicted to [doing these interviews] and I got to a point where I [thought], I’m in a unique position, I need to connect to these emerging filmmakers to all these people I talked to and a great platform for that would be a film festival and a mentorship program would be the grand prize for a select number of filmmakers.
That’s how it started in 2020, and it was a virtual film fest because there was the pandemic, but I wanted to start small and it was crazy how after I decided to do a virtual, everybody was home anyway. We got Karyn Kusama to be a part of our first festival because she was like, “Sure, I’m chilling, I can moderate a panel,” and we chose 20 emerging female non-binary filmmakers to be a part of this competition to win a mentorship program, where we’d match them up with seasoned film professionals. It was a three- to six-month program, mostly online in the beginning, and the mentorship program’s in its seventh edition, and we just have a great group this year. We’ve come a long way, and it’s our third in-person year at the Music Box Theater, one of my favorite places in the world, so to have our festival at that theater is so special.
What’s it been like to bring those elements together in person over the past three years?
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm: 2023 was very hybrid. Since we were dipping our toes in the in-person, it was a real intimate affair. We didn’t have a big budget to fly everyone in, but a few filmmakers were able to come and we had four screenings in the small theater [at the Music Box] and then we did all of our panels and tribute events online. We have the online portion again on Eventive, but we were also on YouTube. Then the next year [in 2024], it was all in-person when Emily came on board, and I’m glad we expanded our in-person element, but we’re back to the hybrid model and we’re doing a lot of in-person events this year. The Music Box Lounge is a great space for intimate panels and parties. They have an open garden area in the back and we’re really taking advantage of that space and kind of taking over the whole theater space this year. We have a lot of exciting panels.
Emily Broderick: Yeah, it was pretty manageable for us to sell out 70 seats here and there [in the small theater], but we’re jumping from doing four screenings last year and some panels in the lounge over the course of two or three days to a five-day festival with five screenings, four panels and two parties because what we really saw last year is there’s a want for people to be around that and a part of it, whether they’re filmmakers or in the industry or people who love the Music Box or just love movies. We really wanted to lean into that this year by giving people the most amount of things that they can go to. We’ve been very immersed this last year in the Chicago film scene and what people want, especially from that industry perspective, are places that they can get together and network and talk, so we really want to give people a space where they just have the room to really immerse themselves fully in these kinds of films.
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm: Something that was really fun about last year, and we’ve extended in a bigger way is a silent auction where we partner with women and LGBTQ-led businesses. This year we’ve moved that portion online so there’s more opportunity for people to bid on things, but what also is exciting this year is we partner with a lot of organizations that align with our mission. Mezcla Media Collective are a Black women and non-binary filmmaker organization who are going to do a panel and we’re connected with DePaul, which has this organization partnered with the Chicago Housing Authority where they elevate teen girls that want to become filmmakers and actually help them make short films, so there’s going to be a panel elevating their work.
Emily Broderick: Yeah, many other festivals have sponsors and [partnering] organizations who come in and help, but we really want to make sure they all have similar missions to ours and a lot of them are actually coming in in a programming and content way as well. [For instance], JourneyWork [a Chicago-based post-production house] is an amazing company and Ana [Christian] and Ryan [Stemple] are people that we’ve worked with closely in a lot of different ways and they’re hosting a panel for us about post-production for producers, so we really can work with these local organizations and businesses to see what is lacking, what can we elevate and how can that be a part of our festival.
What went into programming the screenings at the festival this year?
Emily Broderick: Our screenings are really exciting. We have two in the big, iconic Music Box Theater this year — an opening night retrospective, looking back at the first six editions of our festival and then our closing night, I would say, is looking forward, where we’re really looking at films that have been on the big stage for short films at festivals such as Sundance and South By where people go to see shorts and specifically are stories that look out into the world, all about very important cultural, social, political things that are important to us as an organization and to the people who come and see our films. In between, we have our competition shorts, [which are] three shorts programs of films that have been submitted from five different countries — Australia, New Zealand, Iran, Switzerland, and the U.S. — and we have so much going on. It’s so exciting to be able to present this much to everyone and be like, “Look at all we have to offer.”
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm: Like Emily said, our opening night’s a retrospective and we have some really authentic shorts, [such as] “Places of Worship” about a lesbian girl who falls in love with the Virgin Mary, which is crazy, but part of the film is filmed in the Music Box, so it’s a very meta [experience seeing the] Music Box in the Music Box and we’re really excited about that. “Rough River Lake” is another LGBTQ [film] with a bunch of women who go camping, but then get stuck with all these bros and it’s really funny. There’s another film from our first year called “Papi,” a documentary about this girl and her relationship with her father in Puerto Rico that’s such a beautiful film. Then on closing night, we have the Oscar-nominated “A Lien” [about] immigration, and I’m also really excited about “Team Dream” about two elderly women of color who were really into politics in Chicago, but then now that they’re senior citizens, they start doing competition swimming and that’s been elevated a lot by the Obama Foundation, so there’s a lot of cool things involved.
Rebecca, with the retrospective screening opening this, it must’ve wild to think you’ve been doing this long enough to see some of these filmmakers really flourish and make progress. What’s that been like for you?
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm: It’s amazing. I remember when I started the festival and the mentorship program, my dream was to have one of our competition emerging filmmakers at the Oscars and be like, “Cinema Femme just made a difference for me.” I don’t even want to be named [because] Cinema Femme is such a community and a strong organization that elevates people. Gabriella Ortega, who I mentioned with that film “Papi,” she’s working on all these series now on Disney Plus and HBO and she was a part of our mentorship program. Laura Moss, a non-binary filmmaker, was her mentor, and just to see how she skyrocketed. Then Giovanna Molina, who was a part of our festival for two years in a row, is in all these Sundance programs now and she’s working on her feature. So seeing these people get into Sundance and crediting Cinema Femme as help in their evolution is so exciting to me.
Emily Broderick: What Rebecca is saying too is one of the things that makes this festival so specific and one of a kind. We don’t just talk the talk and show something and [say], “Look at this great thing.” We also want to say, “Look at this great thing and how can we continue to help these filmmakers in their careers and get their stuff out there.” Being able to offer this mentorship is saying that we believe in you and in the work that you do and we want to make sure that we can help you have a sustainable and incredible career. That’s super special.
And we have the community [behind the festival] itself – looking at like our team, it is all made up of people who are so incredibly passionate. One of the first festivals had a short film in it and the filmmaker from that short film is now our technical director and our mentorship program director. And last year, my good friend Anna [Pattison], who is our magazine editor-in-chief, [first] came to the festival as someone who had just moved to the city and just wanted to meet people and is now an incredibly important part of this organization. So seeing people who come to the film festival and see what we’re doing want to stay and keep being a part of it has been so incredibly special.
The Cinema Femme Film Festival runs from July 17th through July 21st in person at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago and will be available to watch virtually from anywhere between July 22nd through 29th.