WIDC-Chicago

Women in the Director's Chair, Chicago, March 1999

The highlight of the festival was the screening of Women Are Not Little Men on March 25 at UNITE! The festival screens at a variety of venues around the city, and this program called "Invisible Labor: Women in the Workforce" was held at a Union Hall, to attract the women that the films attempt to represent. It was great to see such a diverse turn out for the film, and the casual setting facilitated in the post-screening Q&A.
Many thanks to the staff and board of the festival for showing us such a great time in the windy city! A special thanks to Cheryl Miller (super hostess and cab driver pictured at right) for taking us in and giving us a place to stay.

Hayes, Goldate & Tiberius When I got the letter inviting me to Chicago, and that they were showing my three films, I decided to accept. Fellow filmmaker, Paula Tiberius decided to come along. Here I am with Stacy Goldate (Assistant Festival Coordinator) and Paula Tiberius, enjoying the post-screening party at HotHouse on Saturday March 20 after the Chicago premier of DIKE. The festival gave us a chance to check out lots of great work by women, and to get to know the captial of the mid-west. A good time was had by all!!

Opening Party The festival boasts well curated programs of films and videos directed by women. A special treat was a chance to hang with fellow Canadians who now live and work in Chicago. Bruce Alcock (co-founder of Toronto's Cuppa Coffee animation, now of Tricky Pictures) accompanied fiancé Ann Marie Fleming for the premier of her 35mm animation AMF's Tiresias.
Here we are at opening night, singing "Oh Canada" and enjoying our national beverage: beer.

Volcano Drinks We did meet lots of locals in Chicago, but for some reason, the photos with Toronto people turned out to be the funniest. (Afterall, what can you photograph at a screening?) Here we are enjoying a little drink with Toronto artist and Sinker Wear creator, Tina Cooper, me, Paula, and Mercury Men's Drummer Marty Knox.

Paula's band, Sticky Rice, opened for the Mercury Men and their CD Release on May 13 at Lee's Palace in Toronto. They rocked!

Chicago el

Chicago's characteristic "L", the elevated subway system. A novelty for us Torontonians.

Paula and I took advantage of this somewhat unique train system to shoot some snappy super 8 footage. We took the L to the Loop and just kept going around and around until Paula ran out of super 8 Kodachrome.

"... it looked just like it does on Chicago Hope"

But the fun didn't stop there! We extended our US tour to include a stop in the Big Apple. That's right, New York City! (photos to follow)

We missed the Princeton screening of WANLM on March 27, but we still managed to have a good time, despite the unfavorable CDN$ to US$ exchange rate.