MUFF: A Look Back
When people ask me how many screenings MUFF has had, I usually just answer with "a lot" or "more than 20... I think." I'd never actually sat down and put together all the numbers. I figured the end of the year and the end of our screening series was as good a time as any to dig into our various tracking/organizational spreadsheets to put together the ULTIMATE SPREADSHEET. Are you ready for the data? The numbers? The STATS?!
FIRST SCREENING: 11 December 2014, Spice World
LAST SCREENING: 13 December 2017, Little Women
NUMBER OF TO EVENTS: 39
NUMBER OF NYC EVENTS: 5
NUMBER OF SF EVENTS: 5
TOTAL EVENTS: 49
NUMBER OF FILMS SCREENED OVERALL: 55
NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL FILMS SCREENED: 49*
*Some films were screened in both NYC and TO, for example.
NARRATIVE FEATURES: 44
DOCS: 4 (via HER-Story)
SHORTS: 7 (via Reel Girl Talk)
PANELS/Q&AS: 10 (via Reel Girl Talk and HER-Story)
ORGS WE WORKED WITH FOR CO-PRESENTATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS, GIVEAWAYS: Christie Pits Film Festival, TIFF, Etheria Film Night, Hot Docs Cinema, TO Silent Film Festival, Drunken Cinema, Goethe Institut Toronto, Trash Palace (full list here)
MOST ATTENDED SCREENINGS: Reel Girl Talk x Black Women Film! Canada Short Film Night, Practical Magic, Ghost World, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Girl, Interrupted.
BEST PHOTOBOOTH PROPS: Keanu and Patrick faces (Point Break), no parkour sign (Punisher: War Zone), limes (Little Women), giant bus pass (Josie and the Pussycats).
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We made an effort to pick films in order to highlight specific women behind the camera. These are the statistics for the women we highlighted at our screenings. (Note: there were many more women in roles behind the camera that we did not specifically highlight.)
DIRECTORS: 29 films
SCREENWRITERS: 19 films
EDITORS: 4 films
STUNTS: 1 film
CINEMTOGRAPHERS: 3 films
PRODUCERS: 3 films*
STORY ONLY: 4 films
*There are, of course, many more women producers who were involved with these films. The number above simply reflects the films where they were a main reason we chose to screen it.
That means that our entire program was 59% directed by women, 39% written by women, 8% edited by women, 6% shot by women, 6% produced by women. (For those curious, there were 3 films where the director and writer was the same woman.)
That's not that bad! Would I have liked to have screened more women-directed films? Yes! But I'm also pleased that out of all of our screenings, only four were films that we chose for the story only. (Oh, and those films were: Spice World, The Craft, Jawbreaker, and Ghost World.) On the day of each screening we also took the time the shout out other women who worked on the films, from set designers to makeup artist and everything in between. You can check out that album here!
And those aren't even all our stats! The above numbers covered films and shorts in our main film program. We also programmed shorts specifically for our beloved mini MUFF program. These shorts from local female filmmakers screened before our features and gave our audiences a chance to see some local homegrown talent. Here are the mini MUFF numbers:
SHORT FILMS: 38
MUSIC VIDEOS: 3
SHORT DOCS: 2
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DIRECTORS and DIRECTOR/WRITERS: 42
WRITERS: 2
PRODUCERS: 2
EDITORS: 1
(Plus many more roles, from animation to cinematography and everything in between, because as we all know when it comes to short films, filmmakers often wear a lot of hats. Or all the hats.)
If you want to get to know our mini MUFF filmmakers better, you can read all of their profiles on our blog! (They, unfortunately, do not load entirely in chronological order because copying to medium is frustrating like that. But if you keep scrolling you can see them alllllllllll.)
One bit of feedback we got was our programming was overwhelmingly white. It was something we took seriously and were wanting to improve in the new year. If MUFF had continued on for 2018, we would have implemented programming policies to be more intersectional and more inclusive.
That being said, I'm still incredibly proud of what we accomplished in three years. I started MUFF because I wanted a fun and sparkly way to celebrate women in film. I think we accomplished this over and over again. Not only that, but we also introduced our audience to incredible local filmmakers via mini MUFF, led challenging discussions via Reel Girl Talk, and saw perspectives in documentaries via HER-Story.
And even though are screenings are over, we are still going to keep on keepin' on via the magic of the internet. We'll keep sharing news and stories of interest on our social channels, profiling rad filmmakers on our blog, and partnering with awesome local organizations. Oh, and our newsletter will keep going out monthly to keep you up to date on all the awesome female-centric Toronto events you need to know about. So if you don't follow us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram or haven't subscribed to our newsletter yet, what are you waiting for?
I'll leave you now with a comprehensive list of every film and filmmaker we celebrated over the last three years, both in our mini MUFF and main program:
She Sings For Me
Sisters
Lovesick
The Funeral
Cupcake Bob
Cinderella, A Shadow Ballet
Firecrackers
Crystal
Pearl Was Here
Stryka
I Am Not A Weird Person
Rosita Lopez for President
The Thing Under The Tree
Not Til We're Married
Lunchbox Loser
The First Date
Hypocrites & Strippers
Star Princess
Stray Dog
Long Branch
Fish Out Of Water
Mitten
Remote Viewing
Grace
The Makeover
Madre De Dios
Flower Girl
Gay Mean Girls
Scratchers
Suite Spot
Penny's For Tea
Cheese
We Make Stories Out Of Totem Poles
“Something More” by RALPH
"Not Up To Me" by Kandle
“Tongues” by Dear Rouge
Olivia
Constant Refugee
The Path
You Say Good Morning At Midnight
The Fortune Teller
Undress Me
In My Mother's Closet
Rebecca Davey, Marie-Claire Marcotte
Hye Yun Park
Maggie Levin
Ella Rowan
Olivia Accardo
White Widow
Caitlin Grabham, Jasmin Mozaffari
Chell Stephen
Kate Marks
Emily Charmichael
Molly McGlynn, Marni Van Dyk
Rachel Goldberg
Lily Fang
Shannon Hanmer
Virginia Abramovich
Janella Lacson
Kim Yaged
Nicole Dorsey
Simone Smith
Linsey Stewart
Kirsten Carthew
Amanda Row
Kristen Anderson-Sauvé
Karen Neilsen
Dara Jade Moats
Gigi Saul Guerrero
Dominique van Olm
Heyishi Zhang
Maria Mealla
Alexandra Cananzi
Sophie Jarvis
Hannah Cheesman
Patricia Marcoccia
Thea Hollatz
Natalie Rae Robison
Emma Higgins
Laura Vegys
Leila Almawy
Emily Jenkins
Sarah Rotella
Juliet Ross
Amelia Moss
Adri Almeida, Carolyn Wu
Spice World
Clueless
Point Break
Mean Girls
Pitch Perfect
Josie and the Pussycats
The Craft
Romy & Michele
Punisher: War Zone
Jawbreaker
All I Wanna Do
Death Proof
Whip It
Tank Girl
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Legally Blonde
Ginger Snaps
Wayne's World
But I'm A Cheerleader
Ghost World
Goodfellas
American Psycho
Bring It On
The Being
Blood Diner
When Harry Met Sally
Desperately Seeking Susan
Now & Then
9 to 5
Angry Inuk
Ladies & Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains
Girlfight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dear White People
Migrant Dreams
Half Baked
Girl, Interrupted
The Prison in 12 Landscapes
It Takes Two
My Millennial Life
Practical Magic
Beauty
Spectrum
Continuum
Muna
Haven
Hyphen-Nation
All Day All Night
Little Women
Amy Heckerling
Kathryn Bigelow
Tina Fey
Kay Cannon
Deborah Kaplan
Robin Schiff
Lexi Alexander
Sarah Kernochan
Zoe Bell, Sally Menke
Drew Barrymore, Shauna Cross
Rachel Talalay
Lona Williams
Kirsten Smith, Karen McCullah
Karen Walton
Penelope Spheeris
Jamie Babbit
Thelma Schoonmaker
Mary Harron
Jessica Bendinger
Jackie Kong
Jackie Kong
Nora Ephron
Susan Seidelman
Lesli Linka Glatter, I. Marlene King
Jane Fonda, Patricia Resnick
Alethea Baril, Sophie Farkas Bolla
Nancy Dowd
Karyn Kusama
Fran Rubel Kuzui
Effie Brown, Lena Waithe, Stephanie Allain
Min Sook Lee, Lisa Valencia-Svensson, Iris Ng
Tamra Davis
Lisa Loomer, Anna Hamilton Phelan
Brett Story, Avrïl Jacobson, Maya Bankovic
Deborah Dean Davis
Maureen Judge, Maya Bankovic
Robin Swicord
Magda Uculmana-Falcon
Christian Anderson, Brittney Marvell
Noncedo Khumalo
Keeya King
Kelly Fyffe-Marshal
Samah Ali
Ayisha Gariba, Maya Morgan, Misha Louise Gilchrist
Gillian Armstrong, Robin Swicord
