BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Bellingham rejoins the international stage with the CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival. Events throughout the four-day fest range from a red carpet event at Penny Farthing to several interviews with directors after screening their films throughout the weekend. A Script Studio workshop at the New Prospect Theatre adds to the immersive and accessible quality of the festival.

In all, 29 films will take to the screen in the Pickford Film Center, with the featured film by Yvonne Russo titled “Viva Verdi!” screening at the Mount Baker Theatre, followed by a Q-and-A and an afterparty. This year, three documentaries are going to be shown, along with 23 short films and four feature-length films.

In its ninth year, the festival is continuing to grow, according to Executive Director Cheryl Crooks, who said that it is unique.

“When we’re looking at our movies and making our selections, we feel we really have more of an international or national perspective, rather than just a local perspective,” Crooks said.

She and the jury choose from many films during their selection process to ensure that films made by female-led teams are showcased.

“We provide a platform to create awareness for [gender] inequity but also to showcase the wonderful movies that these women are making and that deserve to be seen,” Crooks said. “We’re very specialized in that regard and very proud of what we’re doing.”

Filmmaker Nil Unerdem echoed Crooks’ sentiment as someone active in the film industry.

“I think that it’s so important because it’s so hard to make films. And especially now, with the industry contracting and the films that are getting funding are so few, and so based on [intellectual property, or IP], especially within like the studio system and so getting something going as an independent filmmaker is very difficult, and the number of women directors is so small,” Unerdem said. “I just think this is such an important festival to be a part of.”

Unerdem was featured as a filmmaker at the festival in 2023 with her short work called Pearl in the Window. It follows an old woman, Pearl, and her caretaker, Ada. When Ada goes missing, Pearl must find the strength to search for her. Crooks lauds the film, especially as it was Unerdem’s debut.

“It was so fabulous, production quality, everything. It’s hard to get into our festival because we don’t have very many spots, we don’t have enough screen time to show a lot. So, if you’re in our festival, it is very selective, and Nil’s film was just on many levels… It really won our hearts,” Crooks said.

12 directors will be attending the festival. Some will attend virtually to answer questions, while others will walk the red carpet in Penny Farthing.

“I love being on set. I love making films, but it’s hard to get one off the ground,” Unerdem said. “So now I’ve been kind of focusing more on screenwriting, and so I have three features, and I’m kind of working on trying to pitch and do marketing for those. [It’s] a difficult road, but it’s still rewarding, and I’m really lucky to be able to [do] it.”

Unerdem worked as a unit production manager in Bellingham last year, taking a step back from championing her own works until recently. She will join three other writers for a script workshop on Sunday morning. Actors will read aloud a script as the writers explain how they work through creating the framework of a film.

“[Within the film industry], women have been grossly underrepresented for years,” Crooks said. “That wasn’t always the case, but since the 1920’s, women have been relegated basically to the cutting room floors of the editing rooms or the costumers or makeup people, and their representation as someone who is directing [or] behind the camera has been very limited, and people do not realize also that women have been making films for a long time, but there just has not been a platform you know present them.”

From the cutting room floor to the red carpet, CASCADIA looks to highlight both women filmmakers and the region of Cascadia. Crooks emphasized that the area is just as important as the content of the festival.

“It’s here in the Cascadia region, and we’re bringing the world to our people here and anybody else who comes through the films and the directors that attend.” – Cheryl Crooks

“The entire name will say Cascadia, because we’re really trying to tie it to a specific geographic region, just like you do with Sundance or Telluride or Tribeca. Everybody knows exactly what you’re talking about, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish with Cascadia. It’s here in the Cascadia region, and we’re bringing the world to our people here and anybody else who comes through the films and the directors that attend.” Crooks said.

Bellingham was chosen for this festival largely by chance, according to Crooks. She fell into the role as executive director after being drawn to the city decades before and mainly for its arts community.

“My husband literally picked it out on a map, and we thought, ‘We’ll come check this out,'” Crooks said. “When we got here, not only were we so impressed by the natural beauty — as everybody is — and the location — the proximity to both Vancouver and to Seattle — but also, I had never seen a city of its size that had so much to offer in the arts.”

Crooks and her family moved to Bellingham when the Mount Baker Theatre was still under renovation. Her husband was involved in the film industry in Los Angeles before their move, and her son still works in California. She finds Bellingham to be a happy home for the CASCADIA because of the basis of the arts that originally drew her here.

“It’s just a natural fit into the city, because it truly should be a cultural destination. We like to help promote our area as a cultural destination, because there is so much here that, once you arrive and you come and see — in addition to all the recreational stuff — you can go out any night in town and hear really great live music: jazz, rock or folk… Whatever you want there is,” Crooks said.

“I feel like it’s more like a small European city than really an American city, because I think it’s quite extraordinary that to have all this kind of depth of resources available in a city of the size of Bellingham.” – Cheryl Crooks

Though Unerdem currently splits her time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Bellingham, she is no stranger to the area and called it her second home even before the transition.

“I just love the sense of community here, and the beauty of nature everywhere, the lake and the bay, and just the fact that it’s a college town. But also, there are many exciting things to do and nature and hiking, and so when [I’m] in Bellingham, I just feel so much more part of the community,” Unerdem said.

The festival begins on Thursday, April 24 with the feature film “Magic Hour” as well as an introduction from Crooks. It ends with the feature film “The Village Keeper” on Sunday afternoon, followed by a free closing night party at Red Star Taco Bar. Short films will screen in two parts on Friday and Saturday, with panel discussions on Saturday.

According to Crooks, tickets are selling fast. She told My Bellingham Now that movie-goers buy their tickets in advance, whether a weekend-long pass or for individual screenings. People who cannot attend the festival in person can do so virtually for the first 11 days of May.

For more information, head to cascadiafilmfest.org.

 

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