Buffalo’s ‘Valkyrie International Film Festival’ Aims to Raise Profile of Women Filmmakers

The 3rd Valkyrie International Film Festival — a Buffalo-based celebration of film

Tamar and Kaelin Lamberson. (Photo by Greg Lamberson)

directed by women of all backgrounds — is set to take place this Friday through Tuesday, June 3, at the Screening Room Cinema & Arts Café at 880 Alberta Drive in Amherst.

The festival was founded by Tamar Gonzalez Lamberson and her daughter, Kaelin, whose husband and father, respectively — film director Gregory Lamberson — ran his own film festival in Buffalo for several years. Through that experience, Tamar began to wonder: Why do so many more male directors, rather than female directors, submit their work?

The observation inspired the two women to start their own film festival to showcase films directed by women only.

“A couple of years ago, I approached Kaelin because I noticed a lot of the female filmmakers that were accompanying their husbands were mostly producers and not directors. I told Kaelin, ‘why don’t we start a festival just focusing primarily on female directors?’ because I didn’t see a lot of female directors,” said Tamar, who has produced three internationally distributed feature films (Johnny Gruesome, Widow's Point and Guns of Eden).

Kaelin, who was raised on film sets and has acted opposite Craig Sheffer in the feature film Widow’s Point, said she believes the industry is skewed toward men. She noted that while there are many female directors — something she has seen firsthand through the Valkyrie Film Festival – they seem to have fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.

“Our film festival has actually inspired people to start directing for the first time, which I found incredible,” Kaelin said, adding the best part of the festival for her has been the feedback she’s received of the how the event has impacted those who’ve attended.

Of the almost 70 films to be shown this year, 25 were produced in Western New York. The founders said they are especially excited about the number of submissions from locals, as well as students.

“We have a lot of the contacts who came to my dad’s festivals and the people at festivals where he’s submitted his films. We’ve networked with people and spread the word verbally and then they told their friends about it, who have told their friends,” said Kaelin, a student at Cornell University.

“It’s a lot of work because you have to get people to actually submit their films, and you have to have a certain number of films in order to have a festival,” Tamar added. “That first year was so hard because we really didn’t know how many submissions we’d get. But we were pleasantly surprised. We have a good number of films.”

This year’s festival nominees range from three to five per category and those categories cover a wide range, including: Best Documentary Feature, Best Narrative Feature, Best Animated Student Short, Best Comedy Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Dramatic Short, Best Experimental Short, Best Fantasy Short, Best Horror Short, Best International Short, Best Romantic Short, Best Student Documentary Short, Best Student Short, Best WNY Short, and Best WNY Student Short.

This year’s event also includes a documentary titled “Know Her Name.” Directed by Zainab Muse, the documentary focuses on female directors that were “erased” from film history.

“It’s about the history of women in film. It’s basically saying that women directors have always been around, they’ve just been forgotten,” Tamar said.

The Valkyrie Festival, she noted, aims to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

To learn more about the festival, click HERE. Venue and ticket information can be found HERE.