For 11 years, a film festival has used the art of movies to spread awareness and raise funds for Planned Parenthood.
The Reel Women’s Film Festival screens thought-provoking films that serve to educate, inspire, entertain and uplift women through storytelling in cinema. At 9:30 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 10, the program of five films and a keynote speech, all at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, will benefit Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.
During a recent phone interview with Jacque Casillas, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest’s donor relations manager, she explained why Palm Springs is a perfect host for this meaningful film festival.
“Palm Springs has a rich history of having film festivals there, so it was very appropriate to create something like this, where we could tell stories from independent filmmakers and mainstream filmmakers about women, for women, and support Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest,” Casillas said. “I think we’re the second-largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the nation. We cover three counties—San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties—and we have 20 health centers. It’s really a way to connect stories through this beautiful art form and support an organization that helps make people’s lives better.”
Casillas has been involved with Planned Parenthood and the Reel Women’s Film Festival for a decade, as an attendee and an organizer, and she said she remains in awe of the work being accomplished.
“For me, it’s a real privilege to work with Planned Parenthood supporters who see the value of the sexual and reproductive health care that we provide in the community, and who have found a creative way to support that, to raise funds for the more than 120,000 patients that we see every year,” she said
At the first festival Casillas attended, she quickly realized the power of filmmaking, and how poignantly movies can express the harsh realities of life as a woman. She said one of the films at that first festival was about a young working mother who was sexually assaulted by her employer.
“We are all humans going through so many things, so many problems, and reproductive health care and reproductive health access, and having that bodily autonomy—it weaves itself through all of our narratives,” Casillas said. “Every single person has sexual reproductive health, and it is so critical that you have not just access, but safety and security. Watching these films drives home for me—and they have always from the beginning to now—just how critical it is that we have organizations like Planned Parenthood supporting people through their lives. That film wasn’t about Planned Parenthood; it is about violence and having safety, and why it’s connected is because we have organizations like Planned Parenthood who do help survivors of abuse.”
Each year, the Reel Women’s Film Festival lineup manages to both move and educate audiences.
“Last year, we had a couple of films talking about trans youth,” Casillas said. “We showed a film called Mama Bears. After the first program, we had a panel of speakers, and we had a youth who is trans as one of the panelists, and they shared their personal story. We had people in the crowd who literally walked away and said, ‘I learned something today. I learned the importance of pronouns. I learned the importance of standing up for people.’ The film and the speakers, coupled together, have educated a room full of supporters on issues that some of them thought they knew about, and others had no clue. Everyone walked away with a better understanding of what it looks like to be supportive of our trans community.”
For this 11th edition of the Reel Women’s Film Festival, among films highlighting older queer women, Karyl Ketchum, department chair of Women and Gender Studies at Cal State University-Fullerton, will provide a keynote speech titled “Health Disparities Among Older Lesbians: What Studies Tell Us.”
“Not to spoil the conversation, but what she has shared already is that this is a community—because of these different systems and societal pressures and stigmas—that will tend to have a disproportionate number of negative health outcomes, and that’s something that we should be aware of,” Casillas said. “Why is it that older lesbian women have a disproportionate number of heart attacks or heart disease and X, Y and Z?”
Planned Parenthood faces a lot of criticism because it offers abortion-care services, and a goal of the Reel Women’s Film Festival is to showcase films that empower women and destigmatize reproductive health care.
“The medium of film is one great way of getting and hearing stories, but it also supports the services that are provided at Planned Parenthood,” Casillas said. “A lot of people don’t know all of the services that are covered at Planned Parenthood. Of course, there’s abortion care, which is the one that makes the most headlines; that is a small and important part of the services that we provide. We also provide (sexually transmitted disease) testing, life-saving cancer screenings and hormone therapy. We even provide complex procedures like colposcopies and vasectomies, and we provide services for men and women and nonbinary folks.
“What I would love for folks to take home is that while this is a great way to sit and be in community and listen to good stories and watch good stories, it’s all in service of real, tangible sexual and reproductive health care for our community.”
The Reel Women’s Film Festival will take place at 9:30 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 10, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets start at $25. For tickets and more information, visit rwff.festivee.com.
