About Us
herland is an annual, non-competitive festival featuring women media artists from across Canada and abroad. We promote and contribute to the professional advancement of and cultural exchange between independent Canadian women media artists, and foster an appreciative audience for the media arts in Alberta through thought-provoking and innovative film and video programs, artist and curator talks and workshops, and community events.
Founded in 1974, Calgary Status of Women Action Committee (CSWAC) established the herland Film & Video Festival in Calgary, Alberta in 1989. As the living legacy of an impactful activist and artist driven initiative, respecting and celebrating innovations that arise out of our differences as women is integral to the feminist vision of herland. During the course of her story, the herland Festival has played a significant role in nurturing a deeply felt need for models of resistance, relevant expressiveness, and positive images of women's lives on the big screen.
The organisation has survived many challenging social climates and attitudes over the course of thirty years, and is proud of the contributions herland continues to make to enrich our regional and national social fabric through her services, activity and community relationships. Some facts about the herland Festival:
herland is only one of three presenters in Canada that hosts an annual event to feature works by women media artists, and stimulates an inclusive process of programming in order to reflect the needs of women from a broader community. She has a rich and expanding relationship with related festivals and organisations around the globe and hosts a library of nearly one thousand original video and film works made by women.
We are the only annual festival in the western provinces that specifically showcases women media artists. Our unique presence in the region promotes a wide range of exchanges between the arts, social justice and women's communities while also providing a conduit for coast-to-coast communication and cooperation. herland is one of only three annual festivals in the Calgary region that prioritizes Canadian independent content.
The herland Film & Video Festival is the longest running media arts festival in Calgary, now embarking upon her 17th consecutive year.
herland is an artist and feminist run organisation with a strong commitment to the continual improvement of our responsiveness to the innovative work that Canadians are producing and every year our programming endeavors to bring as much of this work to regional audience’s as possible. Programming themes are determined by the submission’s themselves and by the broader community. If you are a woman who is interested in participating in the programming process, visit our Opportunities page.
Realizing the importance that presentation plays in an artist’s personal and professional development, and their ability to access support for future projects, herland’s programming criteria includes an emphasis on first works, local artists, works by women of colour, queer women, transgender persons, Aboriginal, and women with disabilities. The organisation is strongly community oriented and festival events are organized to allow for maximum accessibility by these various communities.
Admissions are based on a pay-what-you-can sliding scale donation, to ensure that personal financial constraints do not effect anyone's ability to attend the screenings.
The festival screening venue is centrally located and is transit and wheelchair accessible. Patrons may request transportation and child-care subsidies to support their attendance. Programming themes differ each year, check out past festival line-ups or check back on this site for the upcoming festival details.