Filminism

We’re used to seeing women on camera — sometimes as strong multidimensional leads and too often as saccharine saps chasing after unattainable men in rom-coms hatched from the minds of what we can only imagine are middle-aged guys on their third divorces who high-five each other’s PMS jokes. But women behind the camera? Not so much. In fact, Kathryn Bigelow was the first female director to win an Academy Award — in 2010. And that year, as in most previous decades, women directed only 7 to 9 percent of top films. So it’s likely you haven’t seen a ton of flicks from a woman’s perspective this year either.
No worries: The seventh annual Women’s International Film Festival is rolling into town with 50 mostly female-directed films that run the gamut from Without Men, a widely distributed comedy starring Eva Longoria, to Facing Mirrors, an Iranian drama about a transsexual male who flees home. Catch Without Men opening night this Wednesday with director Gabriela Tagliavini at Margaret Pace Park (1775 N. Bayshore Dr., Miami).

March 28-April 1, 2012