Tag: Melanie Wise

The excitement is brewing as filmmakers and musicians prepare to see their works stream live virtually for the sixth edition of the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival (AWIAFF).  Every edition, the momentum builds, and despite 2020 events, Artemis approaches the finish line with some of the strongest talent on the independent playing field.  Artemis is a festival that has been associated with industry luminaries such as actors Tom Cruise, Melissa McCarthy, actor/producer/festival sponsor Paul Feig, director Kimberly Pierce, and many in the stunt/action design community. Artemis will be offering an exciting and interactive celebration.  Festival-goers will enjoy well-scripted storylines with powerful characters in narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and more.  AWIAFF offers affordable, all-access tickets that include all events, including screenings, panel discussions, Q and A’s, award presentations, and networking opportunities, available from the comfort of your home (or viewing party) to imbibe and experience all of the excitement for which this festival is known.

Melanie Wise, Founder/Director of AWIAFF states,

“We’ve always done live events, brick and mortar. Observing 2020, what really stood out to the Artemis team was the need for this edition to focus on celebrating the talent of our filmmakers, musician/composers, and screenwriters.” – Quoted from Agenda, “Artemis Women In Action Film Festival Goes Virtual and More for 2021”

Melanie Wise continues,

“We are going to securely stream all of the official selections. We won’t be selling individual tickets, but rather, we will be selling very reasonably priced all-access passes. We will have some interactive panels and other cyber events, and do an online greeting, so everyone can get together in cyber space and toast one another. That will be open to all the official selections and any of the Artemis fans and supporters who would like to participate. Artemis has built its own streaming platform, [as well as] partnering on a platform or two.  Last year, festivals came to the table doing their virtual events, making it a highly adaptable, highly designable way of doing a festival.”

This Sixth Edition continues with the tradition of strong women characters, announcing its official selections for narrative features, documentaries, shorts, screenplays, songs and compositions with a landscape of artistic work that continues in the form of independent and unconstrained creativity.  Past festivals have brought incredible talent to the table with the diversity of topics and indomitable strength of characters and physicality being consistently represented in this year’s official selections. The 2021 edition focuses on the “creatives,” making this year’s festival all about the talent!

Melanie Wise talks about this year’s entries.

“As with every year, we always get an extraordinary variety, in terms of narrative, documentary, feature, shorts, but also we have an amazing range, from comedy action to drama. There’s just absolutely thigh-slapping stuff to serious stuff to some really cool pieces of history. We have a film about the old USO tours, and the women who’ve traveled overseas for US Troops—really great pieces of history. This is the part of the festival that always makes me very excited, very pleased, and very proud, because we are showing pieces of history that really shouldn’t be unknown. We also will have amazing films that challenge social issues. Amazing stories of people positively reshaping perceptions of self-value, stepping outside comfort zones to redefine the human condition in ways that do leave “the place” more beautiful.  Wise adds, “We work really hard to come to the table and offer a program where we’re not pushing agendas, except that of showcasing positive, powerful women… we always have. And this year is one where it is completely about the talent because it’s virtual. We will be stripping some aspects of the festival, and we are going to work very hard to make every creator shine.”

Bella Composer’s Kaylene Peoples talks about the music part of the festival. “Women Powered Music” is about female intention and inclusion. Women have been composing and going unrecognized or ignored forever, really before the last century. And even then when you consider the number of studio films that have been produced, won Oscars, how many of those movies hired a female score writer. I applaud those women who broke through and actually have that career. There are female orchestrators, even some conductors, but we are definitely in the minority.” Peoples goes on to say, “The Fifth Edition in 2019, was astronomical and even more eye-opening.  For our inaugural music competition, there was an overwhelming response with composers from all over the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia, who not only had scores in studio films, but symphonies performed and recorded with world class orchestras in many styles, including neo-classical, jazz, and more. What made this moment even more eye opening was the women that traveled to the festival last edition from Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and from all across America just for the chance to be recognized. And wow, they are the most phenomenally talented composers and musical artists I had the honor to meet.  Peoples Concludes, “This music competition is so needed. The world is filled with incredibly talented women composers and it’s about time we paid attention. If you are a female composer, please consider submitting your scores. It’s time for the world to know you exist!”

Here are the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival’s Sixth Edition Official Selections:

FEATURES  

A Deadly Place  

All Earthly Constraints  

Beyond Driven  

Christmas in Baghdad  

Firewoman  

Intercessors  

The Broker 

The Meeting  

Uprooted  

Where We Disappear   

SHORTS  

10 Minutes For A Pound  

A Blossom in the Night  

A Girl from Parsian  

A Woman’s Touch  

Ally 3000  

America 

Bagheera  

Barbell Snatch  

Blessing  

Boy Eats Girl

EmBlem  

Fast and Faster  

Fayettenam  

Fellowship  

Glass Darkly  

Gozde The Fighter  

Have It All  

Hunted  

If I Rise  

Inner Self 

Kara the Invincible  

Life, Boat, Home  

Moment  

Naretoi  

Now You See Us  

One Moment(s)  

Pure  

Resurfacing  

Rose & Raven  

RU  

Rueful Warrior  

SADAF  

Scenic Fights Presents: My Fight Tresa Man  

Sensei Fran Kicks Ass  

Seven: The Short Film Combating Domestic Violence  

She Who Wasn’t Tamed 

The Fastest Woman of All Time  

The Suicide of Lillian Sellers  

Therese  

Twin Turbo  

Violin Scratches  

Warriors of Education  

What Didn’t Kill Me  

You Too

SCREENPLAYS

Bells on Wheels by Thomas Heinonen

Between the Flames by Tishia Malone

Feather by Johanna Juntunen

Girl Hunters by John Saunders

Heard by Maureen Sasscer

Private Thompson’s Secret War by Gina DeAngelis

Ripley of Valor by Thoren Syndergaard

Roses and Rattlesnakes by Colin Simpson

The Hardest Hit by Sam Jeurgens

The Reckoning by Neil Marshall

Then and There, Here and Where by Esabella Strickland

Undercard by Dylan Kilgour

Warpaint by Helen Taylor

SONG FINALISTS

“Alleluia” | Erin Beute

“Alone with Bees” | Connie Lansberg

“Body Communion” | Toni Short

“Fade” | Fay Gauthier

“Fear, I Got Nothing for You” | Toni Short

“Make It Better” | Deborah Hurwitz

“My Amazing Grace” | Debra Gussin

“No Fight” | Elizmi Haze

“What Do You Say” | Floyd Music

COMPOSITION/SCORE FINALISTS

“40 Years One Night” | Giya Rushidat

“Boy Eats Girl” | Christy Carew

“Cowboy Boots” | Nikki Morgan

“Farewell” | Jaime Pangan

“Ganna Sorbat” | Ganna Sorbat

“In Trouble” | Monica Hodnett, Callie Day

“Molecules” | Maria Rago

“Piano Fantasy” | Deborah Offenhauser

“Spirit Vision” | Margaret Brandman

“Streetlight Dancers” | Kasey Crawford

“You know, I get the view from the moon every year. A lot of people show up, and they just watch a few things or they have a film in the festival. But when you get to see a broad field of content, and when you get to see the gravity of the stuff that’s presented, that’s where I think it gets very interesting. The most common compliment we get at the festival where people literally walk up to me is “I’m so inspired.” I think that’s my favorite compliment of the festival, because I think the whole point of it is to inspire people. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, a man, or a dog. We all need to be able to look out through life with a lighter lens.” – Melanie Wise, Founder/Director (Quoted from Agenda, “Artemis Women In Action Film Festival Goes Virtual and More for 2021”)

The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival is happy to announce the following sponsors: Wise Remedies, Agenda Magazine, Bella Composers, Keslow Camera, and others.

ABOUT THE SPONSORS

WISE REMEDIES: 

Premium quality, handcrafted herbal remedies now available online. Committed to creating unadulterated, effective products, boosting natural defenses and addressing foundational issues. All plant materials are either certified organic or custom wild crafted, never altered with heat, radiation or freezing temperatures; liquid extracts are made with Non-GMO alcohol, processed to remove gluten, using dried herbs and distillation, spanning six weeks to six months. All teas and powdered formulations are excipient-free (filler free). For two decades, Wise Remedies has taken great pride in creating products that are the purest and most powerful they can offer!

Visit the Wise Remedies website to see their complete catalog of products.

AGENDA Magazine:

The fashion and lifestyle magazine that has been telling the story behind the story since 2004 is in its third year as a lead sponsor for the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival. A print and online magazine, Agenda has a diverse readership, consisting mostly of women from various backgrounds, ranging from college age to 65 years old and beyond.  Touted as “the intelligent read,” Agenda is credited for being the first online magazine to stream video and documentary-style interviews.  In print since 2014, the magazine has consistently put out breathtaking coffee table keepsakes with content including fashion, beauty, photography, interviews, entertainment, and more.  For AWIAFF Fifth Edition, Agenda Collector’s Issue titled “Artemis Women Kick Ass!” featured honorees Jeannie Epper, Daniela Ruah, and Dot-Marie Jones on the cover and chronicled that year’s festival’s events.  Agenda magazine is available in print worldwide!

Visit Agendamag.com for details.

BELLA COMPOSERS:

Created by Kaylene Peoples, an award-winner singer/instrumentalist, composer/arranger, and conductor, Bella Composers offers women new opportunities, self-expression, empowerment, and employment in the world of classical, neoclassical, and other traditional musical genres by showcasing their compositions through live performance, film, new media, and more. The Bella Composers Women Powered Music Competition is the first of its kind, representing women composers from across the globe.  Participating for a second term as the curator of the music portion of Artemis, Bella Composers continues its mission for inclusion by celebrating the talents of this underserved demographic.

Visit Bella Composers to learn more.

KESLOW CAMERA: Keslow Camera houses the Industry’s finest technicians and continues to design and inspire unique high-quality accessories that are unmatched by its peers. This pioneering atmosphere creates an energetic and positive employee environment, fostering unparalleled customer service and experience, providing the best service and ensures unparalleled product quality in the Industry: https://www.keslowcamera.com/

ABOUT Artemis Women In Action Film Festival:

Artemis Women In Action Film Festival was founded by Melanie Wise and Zac Baldwin, two filmmakers with a long time love of female-driven action films. Wise and Baldwin have produced shorts and features, focusing on female action projects. They saw that the genre was loved by audiences around the world, despite the fact that studios for many years claimed female action films were box office poison. In 2014, the idea of Artemis was born with the intent to create a space where these types of films could play for audiences with an unsatisfied hunger of female-driven action films. And for the Sixth Edition, Artemis is proud to include for the second year women-powered music: AWIAFF 6th Editon, Bella Composers