CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival presents a free, online screening of eight short films directed by 2020 CASCADIA director Satinder Kaur created for PBS’ American Portrait Project. The films document “Life in the Times of Coronavirus” and are available here this weekend, starting Saturday, July 4 through Sunday, July 5.
Kaur, whose short film, “Blood and Glory” was selected for CASCADIA’s 2020 Festival, was one of the filmmakers hired by PBS from every state to create content for this project. Kaur was one selected from Washington State.
“Originally, the plan was to create videos around a variety of themes, but due to the coronavirus lockdown, I ended up focusing on the impact of coronavirus on the lives of family/friends here in Washington state,” says Kaur who grew up in Bellingham and until the virus lived in Los Angeles.
Unable to physically interview people, she asked friends to film their own stories on their cell phones and conducted interviews online. The films are two to three minutes in length.
“The making of these helped me process my own anxiety and cope with the great uncertainty we felt during the early weeks of the lock down,” Kaur says. “My hope is that watching these stories helps others know that they’re not alone and
that we are all in this together.”
Clips from these videos appeared in the PBS special “In This Together” aired in May and are available now on PBS’s website.
CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and showcasing the work of women filmmakers, was formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 2015. CASCADIA hosted its fourth annual independent film festival online May 14-17, 2020. The organization works year-round to provide film production, exhibition and distribution education. More information about CASCADIA may be found on their website at www.cascadiafilmfest.org. CASCADIA does not tolerate racism or other discriminatory behavior or expression.