Using Up All the Tissues

After 17 years of running the Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival, artistic director Linda Broker no longer worries about attracting controversy, or even attracting an audience. Both just show up every year.

Broker always has a sellout crowd at the two theaters she uses for screenings over the course of the two-day event, which took place this year from November 12 to 14. But featuring movies about women and the issues they care about is always something of a balancing act in the conservative community of Colorado Springs, CO, making the festival's success even more impressive. This year's lineup, which focused more on female power than on star power, unlike so many other film festivals, looked at tomboys, fairy tales, sex after 65 and the home funeral movement. No less than four films highlighted the societal toll of police brutality, war and poverty.

"There are probably quite a few people in Colorado Springs who wouldn't come near this festival," Broker sighs with a shrug. She assembles a roster of thought-provoking films on purpose, not to attract protest but to encourage lively discussion among a close-knit community of cinephiles and filmmakers. "There are also people who see this festival ‑- I don't want to overstate it ‑- as a real highlight."