Wild Woman

PALMER — Saturday was the fourth annual Equinox Women’s Film Festival at the Glenn Massay Theater, featuring 10 films from across the world. This cinematic endeavor was created by women for women; to give their voice an outlet and to showcase strong, independent stories both near and far. Among these varying stories of female narratives was an animated short called, ‘Wild Woman’.

“The imagery alone is just gorgeous. You can turn off the volume and still enjoy Wild Woman,” said Equinox Film Festival event coordinator, Kristen Nagel.

Cal Arts graduate and Alaskan import, Vanessa Sweet finally completed her poetic “Illlusion of Life,” the animated poem painted by the colors of her very real life. This is one of two animated films in this year’s roster. The multitudes of stories vary in style, tone, and medium. From documentaries to original works of fiction, the Equinox Film Festival called out for the tales of women from all walks of life. After starting way back in 2010, Sweet completed her film with all the bells and whistles in January of this year. She said that the journey of believing in herself as a creator was a long one.

“My whole life started to mirror this film I was trying to make,” Sweet said.

She started the movie while she was still working towards her masters in animation at the California Institute of the Arts, a place that’s been called “Disney’s magic school.” That’s where she met her husband, Nic Sweet. After they both graduated, he eventually convinced her to move to Alaska with him and the two set up a life, family and studio together, “Sleeping Fox Studios.” They currently reside in Shishmaref, a small town on an island about 100 miles north of Nome and 14 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

Nic works for the Bering Strait school district as an art teacher and he does a lot of work as an illustrator. The two will occasionally work on projects together. They both do a lot of freelance, commercial work with their multifaceted set of artistic skills; and can often be seen in their studio working on their next art project, when they are not busy raising their daughter.

Sweet said the family has a motto: “art is a verb,” meaning you have to do something to make art happen- to keep moving forward.

Her movie, “Wild Woman” was a labor of love and became something important and deeply personal, shaped by the highs and lows of her own life. She wanted it to mean something and that’s why she didn’t rush it. Plus, life kept her pretty busy. After getting pregnant and losing two family members, she did some soul searching. She wrote a poem called Wild Woman to express her feelings. She said that she also encountered politics, racism, xenophobia.

“Man or woman – your world changes after having a child,” Sweet said.

After her life’s upheaval, she said that the movie was totally transformed what she was making into something she felt is even stronger than before. Becoming a parent filled her with both “pride and fear” and she conveyed a story about what it means to be a mother-not just strong and altruistic but sensual and loving.

Sweet got a grant from the Rasmuson foundation back in 2017, and that really helped put wind in her sails. She got most the work done in the summer but needed to make the finishing touches, which included getting professional sounding audio, “which can cost a pretty penny.” She said the grant helped her take care of all those loose ends and they were overwhelmingly supportive of her and other artists.

“It was such a great blessing,” Sweet said.

She noted how Studio Ghibli often, in their animated feature-length films, showcase strong female leads. She can talk about the history and craft of animation without end. Her own short film is a hybrid of traditional animation and digital techniques, giving her it a watercolor feel and an unmistakably unique style. She is throwing her movie headfirst into the festival circuit. She’s applied to over 50 festivals all over the world and has been accepted into three so far. She is particularly excited to feature her works in an Alaskan film festival.

“I appreciate her putting her voice out there,” Nagel said.

According to Nagel, the National Organization of Women (NOW) Mat-Su chapter (AK0150) started Equinox after the successful run of screenings with the Lunafest, an established, international women’s film festival. They wanted to create a festival within the state to collect stories of local women as well as those from other counties. She said the name itself derived from starting the festival on an actual equinox and harkens to the world “equal.”

“In Alaska, so much more is accessible — actually reaching out to your politicians, helping your neighbors, actually helping in your community,” Sweet said.

At first, it was free to enter Equinox but they had over 800 submissions the first year so they added a $15 entry fee to siphon the floodgates of cinema, which proved to help allocate higher quality films.

“That shows how committed to the work people are,” Nagel said.

Sweet said that the sense of community and awareness that people try to foster in Alaska is something that she loves and something that grew within her. She said that festivals like this are “an avenue for engagement in the community.”

“Art can help carry positivity forward. 100% of people aren’t going to agree 100% of the time but art helps open up conversations and I think that’s a really beautiful and helpful thing,” Sweet said.

Synopsis of Wild Woman:

“Wild Woman is an animated poem to mankind which invokes current world issues such as drone-strikes and religious persecution in a plea for empathy. Scenes transform and melt as the animator also explores her personal struggle of becoming a mother and identifying as such in our current social and political climate.”