Jo O’Donnell (left) Director of “Realm of Reality”, Natalia Coiro (center) Al Warren (right). Photo by John Stitz
Buffalo, New York – The third annual Valkyrie International Film Festival will be held at the Screening Room Cinema & Arts Café in Amherst, New York, Friday, May 30th – Tuesday, June 3rd. VIFF showcases films directed by women from all walks of life. The five-day event is programmed by festival founders and mother-daughter duo Tamar Lamberson and Kaelin Lamberson, who will screen 70 films from around the world, including 25 produced in Western New York.
Festival founders and mother-daughter duo Tamar Lamberson(right) and Kaelin Lamberson(left).
“We received more submissions this year than we did our first two years,” says Tamar. “That 25 were produced in our area shows how the number of women creating films in our community has increased. Many of those are student films, too – the next generation. We expect 10 out-of-town filmmakers to attend in addition to local artists. Our goal is to create the same supportive atmosphere we did the first two years.”
Some of the local artists whose work will screen include Kristen Skeet (Phantom Frights, Agency, Slasher Days of Summer), Taylor Martin (Underbelly and Will Roger), Amanda Woomer (Cupcake and Where Is Earth Mother?) and Hope Muehlbauer (Jane and the Brain). Muehlbauer also worked as assistant director for Skeet and for first-time director Gabrielle Nunzio (Reverie), a local actor. Sabrina Pena Young and her daughter Eve Rose Young have one film each screening (The Soul Within and Siren Tale, respectively). Jo O’Donnell directed one film (Realm of Reality) and produced another (Chore Wheel).
Official Selections include features and shorts: documentaries, comedies, dramas, horror, dystopia, experimental, and animation. Approximately 120 were submitted, and narrowing the list down proved challenging.
“They were all so good and we had to make some painful choices,” says Tamar. “We like to watch each film together and discuss it afterward. Kaelin was in high school when we started VIFF, but now she’s a student at Cornell University, so watching them together is harder. Sometimes we did it in Ithaca, sometimes we did it when she came home, and sometimes we did it over Facetime. We also moved the festival from its regular March slot during Women’s History Month because she went to Switzerland and Austria with her chorus.”
“Slasher Days of Summer” Directed by Kristen Skeet
Documentary features screening include Know Her Name, directed by Zainab Muse, about the erasure of female directors from film history; Miss Fury and the Lost Legacy of Tarpe Mills, directed by Chelsea Stone, about the creator of the first female comic book superhero; and Fight for Ukraine: For the Children, directed by Karen Floyd.
Narrative Features include the comedy 5683, directed by Brittany Benedict; My Little Renaissance Girl, a comedy-drama directed by Amy Heller Zimmerman; and Slasher Days of Summer, Kristen Skeet’s horror spoof.
The full schedule for VIFF is posted at www.valkyriefilmfest.com. Admission is only $50 for a five-day Pegasus Pass; $25 for a Saturday Day Pass, or $20 for a Day Pass on Friday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. Passes are only available at the Screening Room box office for cash. Single block admission is $12, available at showtime.