A Celebration and a Call to Action: The Festival’s First Four Years

By Marina Romani

“I remember vividly the evening of the first Global Voices Film Festival (GVFF).”

It was May 22, 2016, and we — audience and volunteers — had spent a day witnessing the power of visual storytelling through a series of exceptional films directed by women filmmakers. Around 6 pm, screenings were over at Lucasfilm’s Premier Theater in San Francisco, and we were ready to head to the site of the reception in the Presidio park. The award ceremony was about to take place; but that evening was truly going to be a celebration of all the filmmakers and creatives featured in the festival, as well as of the amazing group of people who had made this 100% volunteer-run event possible.

Over the years, GVFF has featured both stories based in the Bay Area and narratives from around the world — from Latin America to the Middle East, from Oakland, CA, to Panipat, India. GVFF films have tackled issues that are urgent and often tragic: the inhumane practice of one-day brides in Hyderabad, India (Leeches, directed by Payal Sethi); the intersection of systemic racial injustice and homelessness in American urban environments (Woman Outside, directed by Shelly Lauman); the humanitarian and environmental impact of Western consumerism (Unravel, directed by Meghna Gupta); child sex trafficking in the Bay Area (Surviving International Boulevard, directed by Sian Gowan); the immense courage of a sexual abuse victim and her fight against the Afghan legal system (A Thousand Girls Like Me, directed by Sahra Mani).

Other films brought to the fore different versions of female empowerment. A vigorous example is Bridging Emcees (directed by Laura Valladao, Kelly Jo Noonan, and Megan Loretz), a documentary highlighting the experiences of female MCs in the Bay Area — among them, RyanNicole, Josie Stingray, Mad Linesand, Queen Deelah,  Hopie Spitshard — and their resistance of  gender stereotypes and sexualization within the traditionally male world of hip hop. One of the featured artists, poet and MC RyanNicole, offered a surprise performance during the 2016 reception; her words still echo in my ears and heart in all their strength and brilliance.

When planning our festival, community is an integral part of our practice. We hold several meetings throughout the year — sometimes in person, lately online — with each one coming from different time zones, each one bringing our commitment to creating a space for female filmmakers and artists to shine. The first meeting of the film viewing committee is always a special moment: we get to meet new volunteers, and, before the pandemic, it was also a time in which to catch up in person with friends from the festival committee and returning volunteers living locally.

During those first important phases of the festival, there’s something which I remind myself and the volunteers as we go over the criteria for film selection: in the GVFF, we are able to offer a wider platform for these stories to be heard; but what are the privileges, biases, and blindspots that each one of us is carrying and which impact our view? Additionally, in the film selection phase, we always try to find balance between bigger budget films which have received widespread acclaim and smaller productions which, despite not having received the same amount of attention, tell stories that are equally or even more urgent.

Reflecting on the first three editions of GVFF and looking forward to the forthcoming 2021 edition, two ideas come to mind: responsibility and gratefulness. Institutional responsibility is one of our guiding principles: we have the opportunity with the festival platform to promote women’s voices and gender equality, to fight against all kinds of discrimination, create a global conversation that crosses borders and worldviews, and promote a call to action. At the end of each festival, the GVFF team is proud, heartwarmingly exhausted, and grateful to the creatives and to the audience for trusting us and allowing us to build a space to showcase impressive stories of women, by women, and their communities.