By Darian Scalamoni
For our latest Artzine, we sat down with Marci Mazzarotto, a filmmaker, college professor, and scholar living in Asbury Park who founded the Bread & Roses Film Festival, now in its second year. In this interview, we discuss how the name of the festival came to be, the importance of inclusion during the selection process, and the group's plans of expansion in the future for not only the festival, but for female filmmakers across the state. The Bread & Roses Film Festival runs from October 18th to October 20th, with all film screenings taking place at The Showroom in Asbury Park.
How did the name Bread & Roses come to be for this female-focused film festival?
The term "Bread and Roses" goes back to the suffragist movement. It is most famously associated with labor of strikes that were led by women in 1911 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. I was reminded of that slogan a couple years ago, so when I came up with the idea of the film festival, the name seemed perfect. I wanted to focus on not only some of the social justice things, but on elevating women's voices in a way that is not just about sustainability in terms of what you can do to have an enriching career, but also to be able to do it with dignity.
What made you decide to create this festival in the first place?
I came up with this idea when Roe v. Wade was overturned. I had this kind of existential crisis, in relation to just how there was still a danger in terms of women's rights. This is something that is obviously very polarizing, but it's really more about protecting rights and seeing that huge disparity in the rights of women. I had just come back from Ireland where they had a bread and roses festival related to poetry that was free and open to the community. So given the situation with women and being somebody who's a filmmaker and an academic – and a woman – the idea of a festival just came to me. About six months later, I put together a team and our first festival was in October 2023. It's still in an experimental stage. It's very much a passion project.
In your mind, what made Asbury Park the prime location to house a festival such as this?
It’s a great place to bring people because Asbury is a destination city – it’s a place where people want to go. If we have people flying from Europe or across the country, this is a place that they'll think, “I can go there and really experience the arts and culture and the food and the energy in a time when the weather is still good.” There are a lot of reasons why Asbury Park just made sense. I’d like it to stay here and I specifically want to collaborate with female-run spaces in Asbury Park.
When it comes to selecting films for the festival, what are you looking for?
In terms of the submissions, we're looking for films that have a woman in a top creative position. Sometimes that can be producing and sometimes that can be cinematography or editing, but it's usually director, writer. We are inclusive, however; if somebody identifies with being female, that's all that really matters. We do this because we want to create a space that elevates and celebrates women's voices in film because there just aren’t enough of them.
What do you hope festival goers get from the Bread & Roses Film Festival?
The people who attend can be very different from the filmmakers themselves, right? You have the filmmakers and the people supporting the film, people who are just avid about filmmaking, festival goers, and film enthusiasts. The most rewarding thing from last year was when attendees said their lives were enhanced by what they saw and the stories they heard. We also try to build the social and the learning aspects of it with other events besides the screenings. But with the films themselves, we want to get stories on the screen that can really broaden minds and perspectives.
How do you make this an inclusive event for all film fans?
We had a very diverse audience last year. The festival is all about showcasing stories that celebrate women and celebrate women filmmakers. We have a wonderful publicist who helps us with that message because we want people to know that just because the submissions are female centric, that doesn't mean the audiences we have are just female. Everyone is welcome. We do our best to keep not only entry fees as low as possible for filmmakers, but our events. We do need to cover costs, but we try to keep things inexpensive.
This year we're having a deal where if someone wants to do a screening block, it's $10. If they want to spend the whole day, it's $20. If they want to spend the whole weekend, it's $40. For students, we comp the ticket price. We make sure that we can have people regardless of their financial ability. And then we have other people who donate money. We just want to be able to cover costs and be able to have really good programming.
How do you want the festival to evolve in the future?
This year we're really excited that we're having an opening reception and screenings the same night. We're grateful that we were able to raise funds to do that and have a panel, so we’ll have a panel of industry professionals and screenwriters. The greater goal is to have that going on year-round. We had our first fundraiser in July, which was really wonderful. I would love to be able to have things where we can have more of a connection with high schools and colleges to evolve. I definitely don't have the desire to think, “let's make this a two- week thing” – that's overwhelming – but we want to offer the highest quality programming possible throughout the year. And we’d like artists to be able to connect with other people throughout the year.
The second annual Bread & Roses Film Festival takes place in Asbury Park at The Showroom this October 18-20. Purchase passes for the Bread & Roses Film Festival on Film Freeway.
Where can people find out more about Bread & Roses Film Festival?
Website: breadrosesfilm.org
Instagram: @breadrosesfilm
Interested in becoming a nonprofit member like Bread & Roses? Join Monmouth Arts today!
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