February to me means it’s time to get ready for the Everett Women’s Film Festival. I’m a long time film fan, and in the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that I am a Festival volunteer. Many of my festival favorites have become part of the collection of the Everett Public Library, which means you can enjoy them whether you’re able to attend the event or not. I’ve selected just a few of my very favorite films to whet your appetite.
Seattle filmmaker Francine Strickwerda’s mother died from breast cancer when she was a child. Her family never discussed the subject, leaving her with a fear of these most obvious of female body parts. Busting Out, a film by turns funny and heartbreaking, explores America’s obsession with breasts as well as the grim reality of breast cancer, and is Strickwerda’s attempt to lay her personal demons to rest.
I’m not a sports fan, but Ward Serrill’s The Heart of the Game won my heart. Serrill follows the Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team, including their amazing coach Bill Resler as well as their star player Darnellia Russell, through six tumultuous seasons. Another great sports film for non-fans is A Hero for Daisy, which documents Olympic medalist Chris Ernst and her college rowing crew’s battle to force Yale University to provide equal facilities for female athletes. I would rate A Hero for Daisy as required viewing for young sports enthusiasts.
If you are a mother, or if you have a mother—and that’s all of us, right?—The Story of Mothers and Daughters is worth a look. Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg explore this often complicated relationship, minus the sentimentality that creeps into Mother’s Day cards.
Death comes for us all, but most of us never imagine our lives ending with a home funeral. Elizabeth Westrate’s Family Undertaking introduces us to several families who decided to do it themselves, finding a meaning in death they believe is lost when we turn our loved ones over to the funeral industry. Despite its rather dire subject, this film is thought-provoking and heart-warming—and sometimes even funny.
I’ll leave you with one final recommendation, and it’s a film by Coline Serreau (yes, it has subtitles—but you won’t mind). Chaos, the funny, action-packed tale of an unhappy French wife who ends up the unlikely ally of a young prostitute seeking to escape the criminals who force her to work for them, received a standing ovation from festival attendees.
Eileen
This past November, I spent several incredible weeks in Egypt and Jordan. Of course, being a librarian, I had to visit the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. It’s a stunning building surrounded by water to give the effect of floating. The building’s curve is covered on the outside with a gray granite wall that displays letters from the alphabets of some 120 languages. One walks through a small entrance into the entrance hall, which then leads to the main building with its soaring columns and astonishing ceiling (meant to represent eyes with eyelids). These features allow light to enter, but also protect against the sun’s rays. There you experience the reading room which is the largest in the world. The library’s collection has yet to reach the magnificence of the original library’s collection which is discussed in 
After visiting Alexandria and Cairo, we took an overnight train to Luxor, where we boarded a boat and set sail to Aswan. While floating down the Nile on a felucca in Aswan, we could see the Cataract hotel (currently undergoing renovations) where Agatha Christie stayed while writing 
After entering Jordan through Aquaba (captured by Lawrence during WWI) we spent a night with the Bedouin in Wadi Rum where there is a rock formation also called The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. On the way to this breathtakingly beautiful nature reserve, which Lawrence visited several times, we crossed the railway tracks several sections of which had been destroyed by him with the aid of the local Bedouin in 1917 & 1918. For a complete description of Lawrence’s time in the Middle East, I recommend reading 
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