The 10th annual Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF) June 6-7 will again screen feature-length films as well as short films and include a daylong Zine Fest at the University Art Museum at New Mexico State University. The festival is free and open to the public.
The FBAFF will span two days with 66 film screenings and programs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. The Zine Fest, returning for its second year, will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 7. Zines are self-made, small circulation publications. Zines will be available for purchase with most exhibitors accepting cash, Venmo or PayPal. A comic workshop will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 7.
The festival received 266 submissions from 35 countries.
“This year’s films explore survival, kinship, grief, joy and transformation — through animation, documentary, narrative and experimental forms,” said M. Catherine Jonet, NMSU associate professor of gender and sexuality studies. “Aligned with Pride (Month), the program creates space for stories of becoming and connection. Whether you’re LGBTQ+, a woman, a man, an ally or simply curious, the festival welcomes all who are drawn to bold independent film, media and meaningful connection. We’re also excited to welcome several filmmakers in person to share their insights and creative journeys.”
Jonet and Laura Anh Williams, associate professor of gender and sexuality studies, are founding co-directors of 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.
“Feminism, as a critical approach or lens, can be used to view all kinds of topics and artforms,” Williams said. “The Film Festival curates many different kinds of approaches to social crises we currently face, for example, through serious nonfiction engagements with serious topics like in documentaries, but also through more creative approaches like animation, narrative film and comedies.”
Williams spearheaded the Zine Fest.
“Zines are a big part of feminist pedagogy because it’s all about having the individual become a maker, that we’re not just consumers of culture, we can also actively be producers of culture too,” Williams said. “We don't have to go through traditional publishing. We can just make whatever we want and then trade. So again, the film festival takes place outside of industry distribution. It’s not about making money – it's about getting your voice out there. So, Zines go really well with the film festival.”
Film screenings are scheduled during both days. The film and zine fest will host filmmakers, artists and scholars as well as zine-makers from across North America. Featured guests at this year’s festival include zine maker and graphic memoirist Nicole J. Georges, along with acclaimed illustrator and comic artist Stef Choi.
“Nicole Georges is a writer, an illustrator, a professor, a graphic memoirist and a podcaster,” Williams said. “She’s really all about storytelling, and they’re all biographical. She creates nonfiction, storytelling in very creative ways, in multimedia approaches. Stef Choi and Tony Candelaria are both filmmakers and animators. Stef and Tony have worked on animated films like ‘Wallace and Grommet,’ ‘Coraline’ and ‘The Boxtrolls.’”
A special screening of the film “Half Life,” celebrating the collaboration with the UAM, will include a pre-recorded conversation featuring artist and filmmaker Cassils, UAM Director Marisa Sage, and FBAFF co-founders Jonet and Williams.
Cassils is a Canadian transgender artist with more than 40 international exhibitions. Cassils uses their body as a site of resistance to create powerful performances that redefine identity, power and care. “Half Life,” filmed in White Sands National Park, is the second installment in Cassils’s “Movements” trilogy, commissioned for an exhibition at SITE Santa Fe.
“FBA has always been about creating a space where independent media doesn’t have to justify itself,” Jonet said. “Where work is engaged on its own terms, in community, and in context. It’s a space of connection and survival, where creativity meets inquiry and activism converges with expression. It’s something we’ve built with intention and care as a public-facing humanities and arts initiative.”
“There aren’t many zine fests, so I’m really excited about expanding and creating more opportunities,” said Williams. “Students are really interested zine culture because there's something really empowering about figuring out what you’re an expert on or what you care about deeply and wanting to get your own voice out there in a creative way and that’s what zines are all about.”
This year’s festival is dedicated to Jonet’s mother, Cynthia Sue Jones, who passed away May 13.
“This festival has always been a family project,” Jonet said. “She taught me to love film, not just as entertainment, but as a way of seeing, feeling and making sense of the world. Her belief in storytelling, in creativity, and in me has shaped everything I’ve built. Her legacy and quiet acts of support live on in every part of this work, including the visual identity of the festival and my own filmmaking.”
For a detailed schedule and more information on the FBAFF and Zine Festival, visit https://fba.nmsu.edu/. The UAM, located at1308 E. University Ave. in Las Cruces, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For a schedule of programming and exhibitions, visit https://uam.nmsu.edu/.
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