2026 Key West Women’s Film Festival

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Women, whether singular or coupled, are transformative engines of our society. They are leaders, philosophers, creators, designers, fixers, nurturers, and all in between.

It is time again to celebrate this fierce, inventive, and resilient gender in all of its combinations with this year’s Women’s Film Fest at the Tropic every Wednesday in March. 

First, on March 4, is “Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer” (2021) a documentary by Dawn Porter.

DeNeen Brown uncovers the execrable and evil event of the 1921 bombing in Oklahoma in which Tulsa’s wealthy black district of Greenwood was decimated by fire, gunshots, and armed planes. For over 90 years the reprehensible crime was covered up by racists and their collaborators.

This direct and searing documentary is pointed and poignant. A gut punch to the heart.

One follows the vivacious yet sincere Brown as she uncovers page after page of the massacre, where whole neighborhoods were burned to the ground simply because the residents were African-American and rich, predominantly from oil locations.

The horrendous event had many precursors. Racist white mobs grew in some 23 cities across the country. The mobs lynched or shot innocent black men, women and children often in the street, sometimes dragging the dead behind cars.

Pastor Robert Turner, bold and beautiful appears in the film arguing for a complete transparency and reparations and nearly anyone watching the film would frankly agree with him in regard to the horror that is brought to light here.

Embarrassingly, investigations and excavations are still ongoing and there is no consensus on the number of victims.

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Then, on March 11, from director comedian Tig Notaro, “Am I Okay?” (2022) is a brisk and lighthearted romantic comedy. Funny, easing, and poignant, this earnest comedy is a fine study in friendship that never loses its verve.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is best friends with Jane (Sonoya Mizuno). One day Lucy announces that she has a crush on her masseuse Brittany (Kiersey Clemons). Jane distances herself. Brittany is unsure of her own feelings. Pushes and pulls commence.

Notaro herself has a laugh out loud outing as a new age guru.

This is a small and affectionate film that will also bring chuckles.

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Next, on March 18, from the French New Wave master Agnès Varda, “The Gleaners and I” (2000), follows Varda herself as she examines the act of gleaning. Gleaning is the act of reusing leftover crops from a harvest.

Varda conducts several interviews throughout the urban and French countryside. There is a Michelin two-star chef who recycles food, the noted psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, and mixed media artist Louis Pons who sees junk as his harvest and calls trash and discarded materials “clusters of possibility.”

Varda is always eccentric and here she adopts a loose and spontaneous method of filming; she simply asks anyone she comes across about gleaning and recycling and her subjects tell their stories.

Varda is unapologetically surreal, distinctively unique and she never disappoints. Who can resist her quirky ferocity and her mop-top persona?

The film was an “official selection” at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and won top honors at The Chicago Film Festival that year.

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Lastly, on March 25, we have “Yentl” (1983) from the legendary Barbra Streisand, the famed film of courage and survival. With its themes of cross dressing and high drama, the film may be kitschy to some but it still remains emotive with iconic musical numbers and unmatched vocals from Streisand.

Yentl Mendel (Barbra Streisand) a woman from an Ashkenazi shtetl in 1904 Poland, secretly studies the Talmud and refuses to marry. After the death of her father, Yentl is compelled to dress as a boy and take her late brother’s name Anshel so that she can secretly enter yeshiva, a religious school.

Yentl as Anshel befriends Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin) who is betrothed to Hadass (Amy Irving), but Hadass has feelings for Yentl, believing she is a boy.

As Avigdor is revealed to be insincere to Hadass, he encourages Anshel to marry.

Melodrama commences in full force.

Barbra Streisand is energized here, a spectacular individualistic heroine and Amy Irving is nuanced and delicate.

Though the finale is a matter of debate, the epic score by Michel LeGrande is iconic.

The original source material is taken from a short story from the inimitable Isaac Bashevis Singer.

We will see you at the movies! All films start at 6 PM in the Natella Carper Theater.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com