The annual Family of Woman Film Festival brings issues that confront women and girls around the world to the big screen in Sun Valley. Through a partnership with Boise State University, special events also will take place in Boise this year.
Boise audiences can see two of this year’s films — “Sepideh” on Feb. 25 and “The Supreme Price” on Feb. 27 — along with featured guest speakers. Both screenings will take place in the Special Events Center on the Boise State campus and are free and open to the public.
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m. “Sepideh” (90 min.)
This feature documentary from Iran will be presented in the United States for the first time outside of the Sundance Film Festival. Barbara Morgan, former NASA astronaut and distinguished educator in residence at Boise State, will join the film’s assistant director, Mona Rafatzadeh, in a conversation following the screening moderated by Idaho Public Television’s Marcia Franklin.
The star of her village school’s astronomy club, Sepideh lugs a telescope as tall as herself to a mountaintop to stargaze. She confides her dream of becoming an astronaut like her idol, Anousheh Ansari, in a journal addressed to Albert Einstein. When she’s passed over for a university scholarship and suitors come knocking at the door, her determination is seriously tested. This film is suitable for all ages.
Friday, Feb. 27, 6:30 p.m. “The Supreme Price” (75 min.)
This feature documentary from Nigeria will be jointly presented by filmmaker Joanna Lipper and the subject of the film, Hafsat Abiola. Abiola’s father was Nigeria’s first democratically elected president. After he was overthrown in a coup, her mother was assassinated while campaigning for his release, and he mysteriously died in prison. A college student in America at the time, Hafsat Abiola did not return to Nigeria until 1999, after the transition from military dictatorship to civilian rule, where she founded Kudirat Initiative for Democracy. The non-governmental organization is dedicated to advancing the status and rights of Nigerian women and girls. Learn more at www.thesupremeprice.com.
The 8th annual Family of Woman Film Festival kicks off in Sun Valley on Feb. 24 with the second Bonni Curran Memorial Lecture on the Health and Dignity of Women, featuring Women Deliver founder Jill Sheffield. The festival concludes March 1.
“Each film we select has exceptional artistic merit and many have gone on to win major awards,” said festival co-chair Peggy Elliott Goldwyn. “But the main purpose of the festival has always been educational.”
The events at Boise State are presented by the Idaho Film Collection and the university’s Arts and Humanities Institute, Gender Studies program and Women’s Center.
Learn more about festival activities at www.familyofwomanfilmfestival.org.