Everett Film Festival Returns This Weekend

The Everett Film Festival. It started out more than a decade ago with a few friends in a living room. Now it’s grown to a full weekend experience featuring a gala and films from around the world.

Teresa Henderson, one of the founders, gave MyEverettNews.com an overview of this year: Our festival is coming up Friday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 20. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the community to enjoy eight great independent films, experience a beautiful catered buffet on opening night and taste menu items from 15 local restaurants on Saturday all for $50, less if you are a senior/student or military. Not only that. but we have filmmakers coming in to share their insights on their creative experience. It is a truly screamin’ deal and we would love to have as many people as possible in the Everett and Snohomish County area learn about us. Try getting all of this at your local cineplex.

Here’s the schedule for this weekend…

FRIDAY – Feb. 19

6:00 – 7:15 Gala – A variety of hors d’oeuvres, light desserts and beverages. David Lee Howard performing on guitar.

7:15 – 7:20 Opening Remarks

7:20 – 7:37 Dr. Ruby by Peggy Lycett and Alesia Massingale.

The first Japanese-American female doctor in Seattle, Dr. Ruby overcame social and cultural bias to become a much-loved Seattle physician. This is her story. Documentary.

Q&A with award winning filmmakers follows the film. Dr. Ruby’s daughter will be in attendance.

Break

8:00 – 8:10

8:10 – 10:00 Sweet Land by Ali Selim.

Beautiful and sweeping as the Midwestern plains, Sweet Land chronicles the life of Inge, a German national, who travels to rural Minnesota for her arranged marriage to Olaf. Battling prejudice and language barriers, will Inge realize her hopes for a better future? Narrative feature.

SATURDAY – Feb. 20

1:00 pm Opening Remarks

1:05 – 2:50 Little Accidents by Sara Colangelo.

A small town experiences a deadly coal mining disaster. The disappearance of a teenage boy draws the lives of the sole surviving miner, a lonely woman and a young boy into a net of secrets. Drama feature.

Break

2:50 – 3:00

3:00 – 3:29 Jessica Walking by Maria Sanders.

Strangers to each other, two women try to find a missing cellphone while piecing together the previous night’s events. Narrative short.

Q & A with Maria Sanders follows the film.

3:45 – 3:53 So Glad I Found You by John Harrison.

The quirks and charms of Edison, Washington. Documentary short.

Q&A with John Harrison follows the film.

Happy Hour

4:05 – 4:50

4:50 – 5:06 Playdate by Paige Morrow Kimball.

A little girl discovers a homeless woman hiding in her back yard playhouse. A friendship forms and a play date happens. Narrative short.

5:06 – 7:00 If I Were You by Joan Carr-Wiggin.

A woman befriends her husband’s sexy young mistress. Deceit, surprises and King Lear follows. Comedy feature.

Break

7:00 – 7:10

7:10 – 8:40 Unfinished Sky by Peter Duncan.

An Australian Outback farmer conceals an Afghani woman who has fled from a brothel. Her captors are on her trail and determined to get her back. Narrative feature.

Here’s a bit of EFF history… a group of visionary women banded together in the firm belief that the time had come for Everett and Snohomish County to experience quality international film in a festival setting. With this idea in mind, the Everett Women’s Film Festival was born. The festival was dedicated to highlighting the strength, humor, and creativity of women through provocative and entertaining films. Over the years, the festival broadened its view to embrace not only films primarily crafted by women but also to present movies offering insight into the lives of women from various cultures, times and experiences as they meet the challenges of work, family, aging and love. With changing times, the name of the festival changed to the Everett Film Festival.

Even though the festival name has changed, the Everett Film Festival continues to offer engaging and thought provoking films from around the country and across the globe with a unique look into the lives of women through documentaries, feature films, animations and film shorts.

Henderson tells MyEverettNews.com that the festival is also looking for more volunteers to help suggest films, screen potential films and work the festival. Click here is you’re interested.