It’s statistically undeniable: Even in 2023, women are sorely underrepresented in the film industry. A 2022 study by USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative showed that just 9% of directors for the year’s 100 top grossing domestic films were women. Moreover, just 2.7% of directors for these top 100 films were women of color. These numbers alone underline the importance of Bellingham’s CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival, an annual multi-day event that’s dedicated to spotlighting and celebrating films made from a female perspective. CASCADIA is one of the few festivals of its kind, and from 2017 through 2022, it has presented more than 185 films from across the globe. These films span all genres, but they’re united by one important detail: Every film at CASCADIA was directed by a woman.
Photo courtesy of CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival
This year’s festival takes place at the Pickford Theater in Bellingham from May 4–7 and will stream online from May 11–21. Beyond the entertainment component, Executive Director Cheryl Crooks notes that it provides an important opportunity for learning and connection among filmmakers and audiences alike.
“Film can entertain, it can enlighten, it can educate, and it can inspire,” she says. “And it’s a powerful, meaningful medium, especially when it’s in a theater because it’s so big. It just envelops you.”
Early Days
The idea for CASCADIA originated as a potential extension of the Toronto-based Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF), which was chaired by then-Bellingham resident Polly Miller. In 2015, Miller and a chosen group of affiliates presented a block of films curated by FeFF during Doctober at the Pickford to gauge community reaction. Unsurprisingly, audiences and local industry pros alike proved to be hungry for a female focused film festival.
“I always craved women on the set, women’s ideas, subject matters, perspectives, stories,” says Sheila Goodwin, who has 50 years of experience as an actress. Goodwin is also a CASCADIA founding member, past board member, and current advisory board member. “The feminine eye of the CASCADIA’s Executive Director Cheryl Crooks 18 Life Film Festivals world around her. Cascadia was created to hear their voices and bring them to others to hear as well.” CASCADIA made its debut as a festival in 2017 with Crooks as its executive director, and she attributes its success in part to the organization’s affiliation with the Film Festival Alliance (FFA). Before CASCADIA’s launch, Crooks and then Board President Amy McIlvaine attended an FFA conference and were able to learn the ins and outs of film festival production from a variety of industry professionals.
Collaboration with FFA also underlined an important detail: Even in 2023, there are only a handful of film festivals dedicated to providing a platform for female directors. Thus, CASCADIA fills an important niche not just regionally but globally.
Local Base, International Scope
Photo courtesy of CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival
CASCADIA’s reputation has grown tremendously since 2017, and despite being based in Bellingham, its reach is truly worldwide. So far the festival has featured directors from 45 different countries, and this roster continues to grow.
“We’ve had directors from Russia, from Brazil, from Iran, Sweden, Italy, Australia—all over,” Crooks says. “They become part of our family, those directors, and when they go back [home] they’re kind of like our ambassadors. They tell everybody about what we’re doing.”
CASCADIA’s board is able to curate these diverse stories in part thanks to partnerships with other film festivals and organizations, including the New York-based African American Women in Cinema. Additionally, CASCADIA’s program director, Claudia Puig, is also the president of the L.A. Film Critics Association as well as a program director for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Given her extensive industry experience, Crooks says that Puig’s curation and expertise has been a major boon.
CASCADIA selects its short films using a thorough selection process. Initial picks are made by a jury of roughly 30 industry professionals; of these jurors, about a third are based regionally, another third are U.S. nationals, and the remaining third are based internationally.
Each short film is carefully reviewed by at least three jurors before being passed to the final selection committee, which is made up of locally-based current and former industry professionals like Crooks and Goodwin. More than 160 short films were submitted in 2023, but this year only 24 could be chosen so as to fit the allotted screening time.
“I don’t look at the directors’ bios before I look at their films, because I want the film to stand on its own merits,” Crooks says of the selection process. “But we’ve been very proud of the fact that, in the past three years, more than 30% of our films have been [directed by] women of color. Last year it was half.”
Moreover, the committee makes a concerted effort to feature at least one film by an Indigenous director each year. Crooks says the 2023 festival will also include films from places including—but not limited to—Macedonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, and the U.K. In other words, while CASCADIA may be based in Bellingham, it’s certainly not a Bellingham-centric event. The city’s artsy spirit and ideal location make it a perfect destination for audiences outside of Whatcom County; beyond the international filmmakers, CASCADIA has garnered devoted audiences from Seattle, Vancouver, and across the West Coast.
“We’re very committed to the downtown arts district,” Crooks says. “And so we want those businesses and companies locally to understand that we’re creating a destination festival. … It’s not ‘chick flicks.’ They’re really |high-quality international films.”
Photo courtesy of CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival
2023 and Beyond
As word of the festival spreads both domestically and internationally, Crooks says the selection committee has been presented with a unique problem: “We have more films that we’d like to show that we don’t have room for.”
The Pickford is limited to just two screens; however, given the theater’s plans to expand into a second location on Grand Avenue, Crooks hopes that the festival can increase the number of showings for each film. She would also like to increase the number of films included in the festival overall, noting that while CASCADIA will never be huge, showing 40 to 60 different films per festival is a reasonable goal.
Another solution to this problem has been to sponsor smaller showings throughout the year. CASCADIA has presented films at the Pickford for International Women’s Day in March, Black History Month in February, and Native American Heritage Month in November. They have also partnered with local organizations to coordinate special events, such as an LGBTQ+ festival presented alongside the Whatcom Queer Film Society.
“The thing is, we’re bringing films in that cross over these different cultural worlds,” Crooks says. “Not only is that serving that particular community, but it’s also transcending that and hopefully building bridges with all the other communities.”
Moving forward, CASCADIA also hopes to reintroduce its “Visions and Voices” series, which spotlights female-directed films throughout history and further contextualizes the importance of CASCADIA’s mission.
Making an Impact
Having world-class directors in Bellingham provides the community with a unique opportunity for education. As the festival continues into its seventh year, attendees can expect not just film showings but in-person conversations with esteemed directors, panel discussions, script workshops, and more. Such events are invaluable to film students and aspiring professionals, but even those outside the industry have something to gain.
“Our directors who come, we place them to stay with home hosts in the community,” Crooks says. “I just was talking to someone today who’s done it. And she was telling me about the woman she hosted, and how they’ve just become family. We did [the hosting program] on purpose, because we wanted to immediately connect our community with the filmmakers and the filmmakers with the community, so that they understand how difficult it is for women to get a foothold in this industry.”
In the early days of the festival, hardly a day went by without Crooks getting emails from female directors thanking CASCADIA for carving a space just for them—and she continues to receive such emails in 2023. Crooks notes that the film world was not always so exclusionary; in fact, female directors dominated throughout from the 1920s through the early ‘30s. With festivals like CASCADIA gaining prominence, perhaps a shift is on the horizon once again. “It’s making a huge impact, just creating that awareness,” Crooks says. “There needs to be more [female directors], and they need to be recognized for the work they are doing and respected.”
The 2023 CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival will be presented May 4–7 in person at the Pickford Film Center and streamed online May 11–21. This year’s honored guest will be the two-time Oscar-winning Director Barbara Kopple. For more information, visit cascadiafilmfest.org
