Strong Leads: A Film Seminar for High School Girls is a free after-school program spotlighting films by women. It is designed for 10th, 11th and 12th grade girls of all identities including gender-nonconforming youth. A presentation of the Belcourt’s education and engagement program, Strong Leads explores gender representation in cinema, in the Hollywood establishment, and in film discourse.
Students will meet at the Belcourt Wednesdays, Sep 4–Oct 2, 4:00–7:30pm, to watch films and discuss with their peers. Strong Leads is facilitated by Allison Inman, the Belcourt’s education and engagement director, and Jessie Griffith, the Belcourt’s theatre operations director and education associate.
Participation in Strong Leads is by application only. This seminar is offered at no cost to participants, but capacity is limited, and students must apply and be selected to attend. It is designed for students only and is meant to be taken in its entirety (no single sessions). Please note that the seminar is for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students. No exceptions, please.
Strong Leads features high-quality films designed to spark conversation about important issues. Because of that, some films contain adult situations, profanity, drug/alcohol use, nudity, sexual situations, and violence.
Applications are due Wed, Aug 28. Students will be notified Thu, Aug 29.
Wed, Sep 4: BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ Dir. Pamela B. Green | USA | 2018 | 103 min. | NR
Wed, Sep 11: LOVE & BASKETBALL Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood| USA | 2000 | 124 min. | PG-13
Wed, Sep 18: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Dir. Céline Sciamma | France | 2019 | 121 min. | R
Wed, Sep 25: CARAMEL Dir. Nadine Labaki | Lebanon | 2007 | 96 min. | PG
Wed, Oct 2: SMOOTH TALK Dir. Joyce Chopra | USA | 1985 | 91 min. | PG-13
BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ
When Alice Guy-Blaché completed her first film in 1896 Paris, she was not only the first female filmmaker, but one of the first directors ever to make a narrative film. In BE NATURAL, Pamela B. Green acts as a detective, revealing the real story of Guy-Blaché and highlighting her pioneering contributions to the birth of cinema and her acclaim as a creative force and entrepreneur in the earliest years of movie-making. Narrated by Jodie Foster, the film features commentary from Diablo Cody, Geena Davis, Julie Delpy, Ava DuVernay, Michel Hazanavicius, Patty Jenkins, Ben Kingsley, Andy Samberg, Agnès Varda, Evan Rachel Wood and more.
LOVE & BASKETBALL
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s dazzling debut is a milestone among sports films, and a milestone among Black screen romances. It emphasizes the love over the basketball, and the female point-of-view over the male, but without short-changing the other side in either case. The story covers roughly a dozen years in the relationship between Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps), next-door neighbors since childhood, both nurturing hoop dreams. Quincy, the son of an NBA star (Dennis Haysbert), has been groomed for glory, while Monica has to struggle during an era when opportunities for women are limited. A b-ball wannabe and track star in college, Prince-Bythewood knows how to capture the intensity of competition, but she also takes time to develop the characters (including the parents) off-court, resulting in a film of uncommon emotional depth. Executive produced by Spike Lee; music by Terence Blanchard.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Brittany, France, 1760. Marianne, a painter, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young lady who has just left the convent. Héloïse is a reluctant bride-to-be, and Marianne must paint her subject’s knowledge. She observes her by day and secretly paints her at night. Intimacy and attraction grow between the two women as they share Héloïse’s first and last moments of freedom, while Marianne paints the portrait that will end it all. Céline Sciamma (WATER LILIES, Cannes 2007 Un Certain Regard; TOMBOY, Berlin 2011 Jury Prize; GIRLHOOD, Cannes 2014 Directors’ Fortnight Opening Film; MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI, Cannes 2016 Directors’ Fortnight, Cesar Award for Best Screenplay) reunites with Award-winning actress Adèle Haenel for an intimate and deeply moving period drama.
CARAMEL
A beauty salon in Beirut is a safe haven for five women in this Lebanese romantic comedy. Shop owner Layale (Nadine Labaki) consults her employees about a problematic affair, stylist Rima (Joanna Markouzel) does not know how to handle her attraction to a female client, and seamstress Rose abandons her own ambitions to care for her family. With the support of their friends in their familiar salon, the women search for the answers to questions of life, love and happiness.
SMOOTH TALK
Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ celebrated short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and produced for PBS’ American Playhouse, the narrative debut from director Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance from Laura Dern as Connie, the 15-year-old black sheep of her family whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, SMOOTH TALK captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration as it transforms the ingredients of a standard coming of age portrait into something altogether more troubling and profound.
