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Feminist Film Festival Heading To The Alamo Drafthouse

San Antonio's Feminist Film Festival kicks off October 10. Joyce Townsend produces the festival, and this year she's starting with a change that will highlight the newest filmmakers.

"We're going to kick it off with a series of short films from some students at Brackenridge High School.   They're very short films. They're almost PSAs by nature," Townsend explains.

After that they'll show a Sundance blockbuster, Woman On Fire.

"And it's an incredible film about a woman who was actually was the marshal at the Gay Pride Parade in New York City. And it talks about her transition from  male to female as a firefighter, which is obviously a very patriarchal environment," she says. "It re-defines what family is and it re-defines what love is, so it's an incredible film, and we've got a great panel that night."

The Feminist Film Festival doesn't just play movies, the event plans to provide context with panel discussions. The second evening of festivities takes place on Oct. 12.

"It's also a pretty exciting night for a couple of reasons. Our first one is called Under the Moon. And it deals with sexual assault, but it's a different angle in that the sexual assault part of the film is actually the first couple of minutes," Townsend explains. 

The film is much more about the protagonist's journey back to herself rather than the assault.

"The last film is called Queen of Katwe, which is about this amazing little 9-year-old girl, who learns to play chess. It allows her to take on a skill that literally will take her around the world for competitions with people my age," Townsend says.

The speaker for the second night is a woman of great accomplishments: Marie Ferdinand, a WNBA Hall of Fame honoree.

The Feminist Film Festival is all about film, but there's another reason you may enjoy it.

"Yeah, there's some great food! We've got some incredible Becker Wines and we've got some St. Arnold's Beer, so everyone leaves happy,"  Townsend says.

New student rates should open the door for younger film lovers and the location is easy to find: Alamo Drafthouse Park North. 

Find more on the San Antonio Feminist Film Festival here

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii