Women + Film festival: How local filmmakers bring women’s stories to the big screen
DENVER — Spring is here, and so is Denver’s Women + Film Festival, a three-day celebration of the women who bring film to life, both behind the camera and on screen. This festival is among the few festivals in the state focused solely on women in the industry. Taking over the Sie FilmCenter April 24 to 26, the festival is celebrating its 16th year with a record number of projects from Colorado filmmakers.
“We ultimately hope our audiences leave feeling inspired and empowered,” said Ambriehl Turrentine, lead programmer for the Women + Film Festival. “We really try to bring thought-provoking films to the festival in order to highlight the diversity of women’s lives.”
Cinema at large is more masculine than ever, with only 29% of 2025’s top-grossing films told from a female perspective. That’s a noticeable drop off from 2024, when that number sat at 42%. This year’s festival hopes to tackle that discrepancy, with events beyond typical film festival screenings — panels discussing gender bias in AI, a local marketplace, networking mixers and pay-what-you-can screenings designed to make the festival more accessible.
Among that programming is the Rocky Mountain Women’s Shorts, a showcase of locally-made short films and documentaries. Rocky Mountain PBS sat down with several of those filmmakers to talk with them about their work, the films they made and why collaboration is the key to success.
Erin Kirby - Director, writer, cinematographer, producer
Film: “Why We Ride”
Premise: Get to know Fems and Thems, a Denver biking and social meet-up group for femme and non-binary folks founded by Erin Kirby. The documentary showcases what the group is about and why it’s not just a “workout group.”
Erin Kirby hasn’t made a film in 10 years, but her documentary “Why We Ride” landed her a spot at the Women + Film Festival. The coolest part of her comeback? The film is about a cycling club that she started.
“I don’t know if I would claim the title “filmmaker,” Kirby said. “I think of myself as a community advocate or organizer.”
Fems and Thems is a cycling and social group for female and non-binary riders in Denver. With monthly rides (usually 10 to 20 miles in length) and events throughout the year, Kirby has seen a community spring up around the shared interest of cycling in the three years since the group’s inception. The group started as a Reddit post, inspired by Kirby’s experiences in Denver after relocating from Ohio.
“I was trying to find a bike ride group when I moved here, but I could only find groups of men,” Kirby said. “That original Reddit post reached a lot of people, and I realized there was an empty space in the community for something like this.”
Kirby handled the majority of the film’s production on her own, compiling a year’s worth of footage and several months of interviews into a documentary. “Why We Ride” follows the friendships, liberation,and joy that comes from cycling and community. Kirby decided to make a documentary about the club to dispel a common misconception she hears from people about the club — that its main focus is exercise.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Oh, you have a cycling group, which means this is an exercise group,’” Kirby said. “So my film is a response to that, because I want people to understand it’s a lot more than burning calories. It’s about community.”
Kirby is thrilled to be showing “Why We Ride” at Women + Film, and even more excited that Denverites find long-lasting friendships and community through Fems and Thems. For those who are interested, you can find information about the group’s upcoming rides on their website and Instagram. The group is free to join.
Kenzie Claflin - Director, editor, cinematographer
Film: “Fly Chicks”
Premise: A look at the female fly fishers of Colorado and why they are so passionate about the sport. For this group, it’s more than just fishing — it’s healing and empowerment.
Kenzie Claflin is fresh out of the University of Denver’s film program and wasting no time getting her documentary career underway. Her film aspirations lie in environmental documentaries — her first project focused on solitary bees. Now, she’s turning the lens to Colorado’s female fly fishing community in “Fly Chicks,” her documentary making its debut at Women + Film.
“Fly fishing is therapeutic for a lot of women,” Claflin said. “It's a lot about finding confidence, finding agency and connecting with nature and the outdoors.”
“Fly Chicks” came out of Claflin’s capstone class at DU, where her professor asked her to highlight a subculture in Colorado. She grew up fly fishing in her hometown of Cañon City, but only took an interest in it during COVID-19. Going out on the river with her brother and dad was one of the few activity options Claflin had during lockdown.
“I thought it was so wonderful to be out on the water and escape the world for a bit,” Claflin said. “It became really therapeutic for me.”
Others find the sport therapeutic too, with cancer patients and veterans alike finding solace on the water. Claflin hopes her documentary communicates how empowering and healing the experience can be, how something as simple as casting a line can help someone achieve flow state. Claflin got to show her documentary at the Colorado Women Fly Fishers annual banquet, where many of the documentary subjects got to see the film for the first time.
“Fly fishing can be a little nerve-wracking, especially when you’re getting out there by yourself,” Claflin said. “But the more you do it, the more confidence you gain — not just in that area, but in other areas of your life.”
Claflin hopes to continue diving deep as a documentarian, celebrating the stories of her home state and beyond.
Sheila E. Schroeder - Director, writer, producer
Film: “For All Humankind”
Premise: Part of the anthology series “Womanhood: The Series,” “For All Humankind” follows a female engineer who finds herself in a male-dominated brainstorming session. What follows is a feminist tale exploring the ways women make themselves heard and the challenge to find equitable and inclusive spaces.
Sheila E. Schroeder fell in love with film in a cornfield. While working as a cinematographer on a film about a group of nuns who ran an organic farm, she woke up at 4 a.m. to get footage out in the field.
“I really wanted this shot,” Schroeder said, laughing. “Once I got out there, I saw the heat of the corn rising and the bugs playing in the early morning light, and I was like ‘Well, this is where I need to be.’”
Decades later, Schroeder is about to retire after 29 years at the University of Denver, where she’s been a key member of the film department. When asked how it feels to reach such a huge milestone, Schroeder had a clear answer: she still has a lot more to create, and she’s tremendously grateful for the time she’s spent among film students.
“This job has put me in touch with young creators who are searching for ways to say the things they want to say,” Schroeder said. “Getting to help them facilitate that has been the gift of a lifetime.”
An advocate for critical thinking and a constant ally to her students, Schroeder has played an active role in developing the unique energy of DU’s film program. Unlike most schools in the country, DU has a film program made up of mostly women.
“We have women in leadership positions which, I think, cultivates a feeling of comfort among the student body,” Schroeder said. “There’s a real opportunity for women to tell their stories here.”
Schroeder’s film “For All Humankind” is part of a larger anthology series about women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Each of the five films in the anthology focus on equity, with Schroeder’s film focusing on the fictional tale of a woman who finds herself in a brainstorming session with all men.
“They’re brainstorming ideas for moon helmets that astronauts will use to explore moon caves,” Schroeder said. “So that's the sort of backdrop for this feminist tale of trying to find your voice in a room.”
Schroeder knows that looking at women and film as a whole can be discouraging, with conditions rarely improving and margins of representation remaining imbalanced. However, she cites the tale of throwing a starfish back into the ocean — even if you can’t save every starfish that washes up on the beach, even throwing one back makes a difference.
“I tell my students all the time to find your tribe, even though the numbers are appalling,” Schroeder said. “We don’t have to go through studios or gatekeepers who invariably tell us that women are not worthy of their money. Screw that.”
Andrea Nordgren - Director, Producer
Kat Svaldi - Writer
Film: “Ploujét”
Premise: While weathering the impact of their father’s passing, a family comes together and finds unique ways to cope with grief and finds levity along the way. The film is based on a true story from Svaldi’s life.
"Ploujét" trailer.
Kat Svaldi and Andrea Nordgren’s collaboration on “Ploujét,” a familial tale of grief, resulted in more than just a festival-worthy short film.
“She’s my hero,” Svaldi said of Nordgren. “Working together as a team has just been such a great experience and I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher.” The women were introduced to each other after Svaldi attended a writer’s retreat, where a mutual friend passed along Svaldi’s script to Nordgren.
Svaldi wrote “Ploujét” based on her experience of losing her father, bringing the true story of her family’s final send-off to life through dark humor and some unexpected twists. While it’s Svaldi’s first film, Nordgren has spent years working as a director and producer. When it comes to collaboration, Nordgren’s biggest priority was honoring the script’s vision.
“It was really important to me to collaborate with Kat and make sure her personal story was treated with the highest honor,” Nordgren said. “Her family was with us on set, so all the emotions were just right there.”
The film was shot mostly on a boat at Shadow Mountain Reservoir, near Grand Lake. Filming in her home state of Colorado made Svaldi’s debut even more special. Svaldi knows that grief is a universal experience, which is what compelled her to write the script.
“I like human stories, dynamics of relationships with families and stuff like that,” Svaldi said. “That's something that everybody experiences, so it can be a way to kind of laugh through the hard times and connect through the joyful times as well.”
Svaldi hopes to make “Ploujét” into a feature, and Nordgren hopes that it would lead to her feature directorial debut. Nordgren values authenticity above all else in her work, and she’s grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with a fellow woman in film to create such an intimate and moving product.
“It was such a great experience filming this project,” Nordgren said. “I just try to approach everything with care and humanity. I think that’s the key. It’s also the joy of being on set with other women.”
The twist of “Ploujét” is best saved for the big screen.
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