Everett Film Festival returns Sept. 10 with fresh flicks

EVERETT —  After three years on hiatus, the Everett Film Festival of independent films is back.
On Saturday, Sept. 10, a lineup of 11 movies, varying from animated shorts to documentaries and features, will be shown at the Everett Community College Jackson Center.
Festival director Teresa Henderson said she’s particularly excited about “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” to be shown at 1:10 p.m.
“Bombshell” chronicles the life of Hedy Lamarr, a Hollywood actress who helped pioneer the radiofrequency technology today used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Lamarr’s daughter, Denise Loder-DeLuca, will be joining for a Q&A after the screening.
At the festival, after the doors open at 12:30 p.m. and an Introduction at 1 p.m., the short “Pooling” opens the day with a mix of animation and breakdancing. After that is the brief animated documentary “Lotte Reiniger: The Unsung Heroine of Animation,” followed by the Hedy documentary and Q&A. After a break time, the 30-minute short documentary “Seeing Brave” will follow three women to improve the world.
In the 4 o’clock hour, the next short, “From on High,” tells the story of the friendship between a Syrian refugee girl and European boy. After that, the narrative short “Spin the Barrel” is about “a troubled teen who gets hold of a gun and leads her friends into a potentially deadly game.”
“Nelly Bly Makes the News” recounts the exploits of the legendary investigative journalist, such as her exposé on an asylum and breaking the record for travelling around the world. “Perfect 36: When Women Won the Vote” focuses on the final days of the fight for women’s suffrage in 1920 Tennessee. After another break comes the narrative short “Driving Lessons,” about an Iranian woman learning to drive from her traditional husband.
Finally, the last screening and feature film “Sophie and The Rising Sun” at 6:28 p.m. takes viewers to 1941 South Carolina, where a Japanese man forms a deep relationship with a local woman amidst rising prejudice. The festival closes at 8:15 p.m.
Tickets are $40 to attend any part of the festival and can be bought at www.everettfilmfestival.org
The website also has the full schedule.
The festival’s history goes back to 1997, when it was founded as the Everett Women’s Film Festival. It was “dedicated to highlighting the strength, humor, and creativity of women through provocative and entertaining films,” according to the festival’s webpage. Over time, the name has changed and films other than those made by women have been admitted, but the festival’s director stressed in a phone interview that the selected screenings still center the experiences of women or, as the website puts it, “present movies offering insight into lives from various cultures, times and experiences from a woman’s perspective as they meet the challenges of work, family, aging and love.”
Those interested in helping can volunteer at www.everettfilmfestival.org/volunteer or donate on the same site.
Henderson noted that the festival has struggled without the ticket revenues during COVID.