SW New Mexico News

For eight years, the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF) at New Mexico State University has focused on short films. In its ninth year, the festival will also screen feature-length films and include a day-long zine fest from June 28-29 during International Pride Weekend. Zines are self-made, small circulation publications.

Film screenings are scheduled for both days. This year’s festival selections include 54 short films (15 minutes or shorter) and 15 features. The film and zine fest will host filmmakers, artists, scholars, and zine-makers from across North America at the University Art Museum for the first time since the 2020 pandemic. The festival is free and open to the public.

Founding co-directors and gender and sexuality studies professors M. Catherine Jonet and Laura Anh Williams started Feminist Border Arts (FBA) as a platform for research, creativity, and curation, fostering critical engagement and social awareness. The film festival and zine fest are FBA’s two biggest projects.

“The philosophy of the festival is about using film and media arts to cross boundaries and borders,” Jonet said. “It’s about imagining new social relations and ways of being and to challenge or critique status quo ideas. The imagination is not only about the new; we have to also think of things that we live with every day.”

June 28 marks International Pride Day and the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots when patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police raids, catalyzing the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

“June is pride month. We haven't had a lot of programming for pride month at NMSU because it's summer, and many students are out of classes,” Williams said. “So I think this provides us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the occasion with our campus and local and regional communities.”

Spring 2024 graduate Alex Fonnest’s short film “Memory” will be screened as an Official Film Festival Selection. Her film focuses on her relationship with her mother’s death.

“The FBAFF is a safe space for stories like mine,” Fonnest said. “Not only has participating in the festival taught me about the world of film but it also gave me a space to discover myself.”

Jonet and Williams have created a concentration in media arts and cultural studies to provide students with opportunities to practice critical methods, engage in socially transformative ideas, and contribute to expression and public scholarship.

Students were involved in reviewing, evaluating, and selecting some of the festival’s films. With FBA’s focus on both digital and material work, Williams offers students the option of creating their own zines.

“I think it's important for students to see themselves as actively shaping culture,” Williams said. “If we want future media to look different, this is a wonderful way to see how that change might happen.”

An interdisciplinary team including gender and sexuality studies alumni supports the festival along with UAM partners.

FBAFF 2024 will host several New Mexico premieres including local LGBTQ+ filmmaker Ryan Rox’s feature debut “Hidden Flora” and “Kim Carnie Out Loud,” an international premiere about a Scottish musician connecting with other formerly silent LGBTQ+ individuals.

The festival also features internationally recognized films such as Liz Winstead’s exploration of reproductive justice advocates in “Who Asked You”; “Missing From Fire Trail Road,” documenting Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis's disappearance; and Marusya Bociurkiw’s documentary “Analogue Revolution” tracing analogue feminist communications before "MeToo."

In collaboration with UAM outreach coordinator Eva G. Flynn, there will be a hands-on workshop focusing on making zoetropes from 1-2 p.m., Saturday June 29. For more information visit uam.nmsu.edu or fba.nmsu.edu/fest-and-expo.html.

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