Love Hurts

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Love Hurts, written and directed by Barra Grant

Synopsis from the movie's website:

Ben Bingham (Richard E. Grant) has slipped into a fossilized middle-age, unlike his vibrant wife Amanda (Carrie-Anne Moss). When she finally leaves him, Ben is at a loss. He drowns himself in gin and refuses to get out of his pajamas until his popular 17 year-old son Justin (Johnny Pacar) takes over. He changes Ben's "look" and pushes him out into the social scene. Before Ben knows what is happening, he is the most popular single man in town, pursued by his nurse (Jenna Elfman), his trainer (Janeane Garofalo), and karaoke-singing twins. Things change when Justin falls in love for the first time and now finds his father's lifestyle incredibly superficial. Ben is forced to refocus, recapture his humanity, his heart, and most importantly, his wife... who is now with another man.

Stages

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Stages, directed by Meerkat Media Arts Collective

Synopsis from the PWFF website:

In New York City's changing Lower East Side, a group of older Puerto Rican women and inner-city youth come together to create an original play out of the stories of their lives. Over twenty weeks, the participants confront stereotypes and examine their own histories, exploring themes of immigration, relationships, aging and coming of age. Woven together, their stories take on new meaning, first as they are spoken across generations, and later when they are performed for a sold-out show. In response to a political climate that assigns little value to community arts initiatives, Stages offers an intimate portrait of an unlikely ensemble, transformed by the liberating power of their own stories.

Raspberry Magic

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Raspberry Magic, written and directed by Leena Pendharkar

Synopsis from the film's website:

Raspberry Magic is a coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old girl who believes she must win the science fair in order to bring her father back after he runs out on the family. She blames herself for her parents' problems, and takes charge when her mother falls into a deep depression.

Set behind the backdrop of a beautiful Pacific Northwest forest, Monica's experiment uses touch therapy to help raspberries grow faster. She asks, is it nature or nurture that can truly help a being grow? Does it even matter? Through her ups and downs with her family, she learns that it's a complex question, and the answer isn't so simple.

Finding Face

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Finding Face, directed by Patti Duncan and Skye Fitzgerald

Synopsis from the film's website:

Finding Face details the controversial case of Tat Marina, who was attacked with acid in Cambodia in 1999. At 16, Marina was a rising star in Phnom Penh’s karaoke music scene. She was coerced into an abusive relationship with Cambodia’s Undersecretary of State, Svay Sitha, and subsequently doused with a liter of nitric acid—allegedly by his wife—that disfigured her face. A decade later, despite the fact that there were multiple witnesses to the crime, no charges have ever been filed in the case.

The film contextualizes acid violence in Cambodia as both a human rights violation and a gender-based form of violence. In it, human rights workers and survivors of acid attacks discuss the many challenges faced by victims, as well as what they see as a culture of impunity surrounding violence against women. They also discuss the rise in acid violence following Marina’s attack, a result of the public’s awareness that perpetrators are unlikely to face any serious penalties.

Marina, who was granted asylum to enter the U.S., struggles to emerge from a shattered self-image and escape a constant state of fear. She breaks her long silence with the hope that she can gain some form of justice, if not in the state judicial system then at least in the court of public opinion.

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

I often wonder why New York can't be more like Portland, and the existence of the Portland Women's Film Festival just added some fuel to the fire.

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, written and directed by Cathy Randall

Synopsis from the movie's Facebook page (the website seems to be down):

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is a coming of age comedy that explores what it’s really like to be an outsider in your own world. Esther (newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) is not like other girls; she befriends a duck, talks to god through the toilet and break-dances at her bat-mtizvah. Her all-girls private school is a daily torment of mind-numbing conformity and bell-ringing rituals. Home is a pressure cooker driven by her mother Grace’s (Essie Davis) demand for perfection. But life changes when Esther meets Sunni, (Keisha Castle- Hughes) and her mother Mary (Toni Collette). She learns that it’s ok to be different and being true to yourself is more important than fitting in.