Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival Builds Community

This year marks 39 years in Colorado Springs for the longest-running women’s film festival in North America, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival on Oct. 16–18. If you’ve had it on your to-do list, do it this year!

The festival’s roots began in 1987, when friends Donna Guthrie and Jere Martin were driving home from the Telluride Film Festival and hatched the idea. Nearly four decades later, it has grown into a fixture on the city’s cultural calendar, drawing filmmakers and audiences for three days of documentary, narrative, short and animated films that center on women’s stories around the world.

This year’s lineup includes more than 40 films, ranging from Olympic soccer to small-town journalism. “Reggae Girlz” follows Jamaica’s women’s soccer team at the 2023 World Cup, while “Rapinoe” traces retired U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe’s career and activism. “State of Firsts” chronicles Sarah McBride’s run to become the first openly trans member of Congress, and “Seized” examines the police raid on a small Kansas newspaper that drew national attention. Other stories include “Saving Etting Street,” about a Baltimore carpenter training young Black women in construction trades, and “Free Joan Little,” revisiting a landmark 1975 self-defense case.

Nicole Nicoletta serves as executive director and Linda Broker as artistic director of Rocky Mountain Women’s Film, the nonprofit behind the festival, which runs year-round programming in addition to the flagship event. Post-film conversations and filmmaker forums give audiences a chance to talk directly with the creators, and the organizers say access is part of what has kept the festival relevant for 39 years.

Ticket options for the main festival range from single day to all-access. A Full Festival Pass, at $200, covers opening night, all films on Saturday and Sunday, the Saturday After Dark screening, every filmmaker forum and virtual encore access. A day pass is $65, and a Flex Five pass, at $75, offers five punches good for any block of films across the weekend, including Saturday After Dark.

For those who can’t make it to Colorado Springs, or who want to catch what they missed, the festival offers a Virtual Encore on Oct. 22–25. A selection of this year’s films will be available to stream on demand during that window, either as an add-on to an in-person pass for $45 or as a standalone virtual pass.

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film was founded with a mission to build community around film by elevating the stories of women and other voices that are often underrepresented. More information, including the full film lineup and tickets, is available at rmwfilm.org.