Posted on 13th Mar
Mansfield Town Film Festival (MTFF), in collaboration with the Art Power women’s group, is set to host a short film screening on 21st March 21 at Mansfield Palace Theatre to celebrate International Women’s Month.
The festival, which was born of an ethos to promote diverse working class talent, took place in July 2023 and saw hundreds of filmmakers and film goers travel from all over the world to celebrate the talent of up and coming filmmakers.
This year MTFF has committed to programming a series of events in the lead-up to the main festival in July, centred around a range of topics and aim to highlight months and weeks of national celebration.
The ‘Women’s Voices’ event, with only 30 seats available, will showcase some of the best female-directed short films from the festival’s inaugural programme and will also see an interactive question and answer session between audience members and the featured filmmakers.
The showcase has been programmed by the festival’s community engagement officer, Priya Joshi, in collaboration with the Art Power women’s group, which meets regularly at Mansfield Museum.
The Art Power group was set up as a social prescribing project to give vulnerable women, who had experienced abuse or trauma, an opportunity to explore their creative side within a safe, supportive and caring environment.
Over two years, Art Power has delivered 160 workshops and cultural outings and has helped more than 50 women. It drew on the museum’s extensive collections as sources of inspiration for art activities such as clay, felt, print and stitch and collage.
Festival director Jay Martin said: “We are immensely grateful to be helping bring the voices of these incredible female artists to the forefront with this event.
“It was of the utmost importance to allow the female members of our organisation to lead in the programming of this event, to ensure subject matter and stories that resonate with them are at the forefront of the conversation.
“MTFF is committed to empowering diverse voices from all walks of life and with this year’s festival we are expanding our offering to include showcases of neurodiverse and disabled filmmakers in addition to our industry leading focus on working class artists.”
In attendance will be filmmaker Amelia Sears, director of Mansfield Film Award-winning Three, and Beeston-based director Leanne Davis, whose film A Last Resort,’ received three nominations at last year’s awards ceremony.
Attendees will be treated to a diverse selection of shorts from animations, documentaries, narratives and more which all deal with wildly different subject matter relating to the female experience.
Films include:
Sem – In a world where water has special powers, a couple picks flowers throughout the forest to put them in a very precious place.
Hello, Muscles – A young girl develops muscles, but finds a different kind of strength.
A Last Resort – A mother and daughter day-trip to the sea-side. As the enigmatic duo regress back to childhood ways, A Last Resort takes a humorous and painfully honest look at mother/daughter relationships and the dastardly life cards so many are dealt.
The Women’s Voices screening forms part of a larger Art Power exhibition, which launched officially with a ceremony on 8th March, to coincide with International Women’s Day. It runs until 26th March and will feature works produced by the women over the last two years.
Tickets for the event are limited, and are available at the link below.
