by Rafael Gallegos
Daily Lobo
The SouthWest Film Center, always the haven for the cutting-edge, will play host to The MadCat International Film Festival this weekend.
Based in San Francisco, the all-volunteer organization provides a forum for experimental and avant garde media makers. MadCat is one of the only truly independent film festivals left in the world -- all the films and videos are directed by women.
MadCat warns us that it "is not Lifetime Channel for bizarre celluloid experiments or man hating diatribes," but rather a collection of provocative and visionary works generated by women that are original in their use of film or video.
Festival curator and organizer Ariella BenDov will be here this weekend for screenings of two of the MadCat programs, "Truth Seekers" and "NYC, Just Like I Pictured It." Each program is centered around a unifying theme, so the festival isn't one big mess of experimentalism. "Truth Seekers" is a program of shorts about man's relationship to war and hunting.
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Featured in "Truth Seekers" are "Drawing the War" from Lebanon, a short black and white video that chronicles the horrors one child observes while growing up in the Middle East, and "Encierro," a three-minute super 8 film made in Spain that explores one bull's challenge and the "art" of bullfighting.
Other offerings in "Truth Seekers" are from the United States such as "Pilots are Badass," Cheryl Park exposes one man's search for identity in the Air Force. "The Hunter's Guide" is a documentary that reveals the beauty, horror and camaraderie of the "sport" of hunting, and "Standing at Grand Zero" is a story about one man's experiences during World War II.
"NYC, Just Like I Pictured It" features 16mm films from the U.S. about neighborhoods and images and stories from New York City.
Often marginalized in the world of corporate-sponsored film festivals, female filmmakers shine in MadCat, which is in its sixth year of operation.
The MadCat International Film Festival is only showing for two nights. "Truth Seekers" will screen on March 1 at 7:30pm and "NYC, Just Like I Pictured It" will play March 2, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the shows are $5. The Southwest Film Center is located in room 2018 in the Center for the Arts building.
