Reel Talk: Diving into the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival
Welcome to another exciting episode of Exploring Washington State. This episode we’re diving into the vibrant world of film and community with a special focus on the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival. We sit down with the festival’s dynamic executive director Cheryl Crooks. Our conversation covers the festival’s impact on the local arts scene, the power of in-person connections, women in film, and much, much more.
The Return of Community and Collective Experiences
With the world slowly emerging from the grip of the pandemic, Cheryl Crooks notes an uplifting trend in community engagement. She mentions the increase in festival attendance, particularly among the younger generation. The increase is reflecting of a growing desire for collective experiences and interactions. As we all emerge from isolation, there’s a palpable need for real connections and social skills, and the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival aims to foster just that.
Diving into the Festival Experience
The festival, which will take place from April 25th to 28th 2024, with an online version running from May 2nd to 12th 2024. promises a delightful lineup of heartwarming and thought-provoking films. Cheryl highlights “Last Dance” from Switzerland and Belgium, as well as “Ama Gloria” from France, as two particularly noteworthy selections, each offering an element of hope and meaningful experiences.
Embracing Change and Reflecting on the Past
We delve into the festival’s evolution following the challenges posed by the pandemic. Cheryl and her team faced adversity but quickly pivoted, moving the festival online and adjusting their plans to showcase films digitally. Despite technical challenges, they successfully presented an online festival, allowing them to reach a wider, more diverse audience, and consider the value of a hybrid approach for future events.
Focus on the Pacific Northwest and Women in Film
Cheryl shares the festival’s commitment to highlighting exceptional films by women and featuring diverse representation in its lineup. This dedication extends to the festival’s origins, with Cheryl and her colleague, Polly Miller, founding the festival as a way to showcase women-directed films and reflect the beauty of the Cascadia area in the festival’s identity.
Exploring Bellingham: A Cultural Gem
We have a delightful exploration of Bellingham, a city brimming with cultural and recreational opportunities. Discussing the city’s charm, from its vibrant downtown and recreational activities to its close proximity to the Canadian border. Described as a great small city with around 100,000 people, Bellingham offers a welcoming and diverse tapestry of experiences, making it a must-visit destination for a long weekend.
Looking Ahead: Collaboration and Anticipation
With the festival’s West Coast and Pacific Northwest premieres of fascinating films on the horizon, the stage is set for another thrilling chapter in the festival’s legacy.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this recap of Exploring Washington State. Be sure to tune in for more fascinating insights, delightful debates, and inspiring stories of Washington’s rich cultural tapestry. Remember to share the show with fellow enthusiasts and connect with Scott on Twitter to join the conversation. Until next time, happy exploring!
Cheryl Crooks Cascadia International Womens Film Festival Episode Transcript
Hello, friends, and welcome to the exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. I’m sitting here today with Cheryl Crooks, the executive director of the Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival, which from now on, I’m gonna call Cascadia because that’s a mouthful. Okay, Cheryl?
Cheryl Crooks [00:00:36]:
That’s exactly what we want you to do.
Scott Cowan [00:00:39]:
Perfect. So, Cheryl, before we get started on the film festival, give my audience a little bit of your story. How did you end up in Bellingham?
Cheryl Crooks [00:00:49]:
Literally, we picked it out on a map. Really? Yeah. No. Seriously? We were living in Los Angeles at the time and, looking to make a move out of, LA certainly, and we weren’t sure out of California. But my husband had gone to school at or in Oregon. I I know it’s a bad word on this show, but he was
Scott Cowan [00:01:11]:
still in Oregon.
Cheryl Crooks [00:01:12]:
And I had family living both up here and in and in Oregon. And, so when we were thinking about making a move, my husband was looking at a map one day, and he says, look at this town. Look. It’s not that far from Seattle. It’s not that far from Vancouver. Here’s the mountains. Here’s the islands. I wonder how big it is.
Cheryl Crooks [00:01:33]:
Because when we did that before, it’s like 5,000 people. And we thought, no. I don’t think we can go from LA to 5,000 people. And it turned out, you know, Bellingham was a good sized city. It, not only had it that it we looked it up. It had a university. It, you know, it was well located, obviously. And for us, because we were I was a journalist at the time and he was a former journalist, it had a really good newspaper.
Cheryl Crooks [00:02:00]:
And so, we made some exploratory trips up here. First time was a couple of days, next time was 2 weeks, next time was, like, a month or so when we actually rented a house from someone who turned out to be actually family members now. But, just to try it out, and then we took the newspaper for, like, a year ahead of all this. And we were, like, astonished by everything this small city had to offer in terms of, I don’t know, educational opportunities and arts. The arts activities were really important to us. Just it had a real livelihood, and one thing that was especially important to both of us is it had it had a real downtown. It wasn’t a, you know, fabricated or a Disneyland downtown. It had a real working downtown with businesses that were locally owned and, restaurants and and, you know, a very vibrant downtown.
Cheryl Crooks [00:03:00]:
So, that’s in a nutshell how it came to be. We tried it out. We came here. We said, you know, I think we Cowan live here.
Scott Cowan [00:03:09]:
So I’m impressed actually. You you know, you you took the paper. You made multiple visits. Most people don’t go to that much effort. They just kinda, you know, they throw the dart at the dartboard and go, this looks cool. We’ll give it a try. And then they they’re unhappy. So you did your research.
Scott Cowan [00:03:25]:
So when what year did you move to Bellingham?
Cheryl Crooks [00:03:29]:
In 96.
Scott Cowan [00:03:30]:
In 96. So Bellingham has changed quite a bit.
Cheryl Crooks [00:03:34]:
It’s it has changed. I mean, it hasn’t changed as bit as as friends of mine who are, you know, real natives will never cease stop telling me. And it has changed and, good things, bad things. You know, it has grown. Traffic has gotten heavier. But if you’re you’re comparing traffic in Bellingham, I always have to laugh. Between traffic in Seattle or traffic in Los Angeles, you haven’t got traffic in Bellingham. You know?
Scott Cowan [00:04:00]:
Well, in the last time I was in Bellingham was a couple 3 years ago. And and so I’m gonna draw a con what I believe to be a comparison between Wenatchee, where I live, and Bellingham. We have traffic. Bellingham has traffic, but it’s not Seattle has traffic from about 2 AM till about 10 PM. You know, no matter no matter where you go because of, you know, whether it be a bow, I’ll say Boeing air quotes, you know, factory worker working swing shift. There’s still a lot of people on the road, etcetera. So I’m gonna guess the Bellingham. Your traffic window is before work, after work, and then it re and it settles down to kinda normal.
Scott Cowan [00:04:36]:
Now I 5 going through the middle of your your your city, and you can’t control that, but
Cheryl Crooks [00:04:40]:
Right.
Scott Cowan [00:04:41]:
Not like they have a lot of not a lot of people commute from Bellingham to Seattle. I mean, it’s happening, but not a lot. Yeah. No.
Cheryl Crooks [00:04:49]:
I would love it if we had the train that just, you know, did that. But yeah. No. You’re you’re absolutely right. And then, of course, the big traffic jam is up at the border because, you know, we’re only 20 minutes from the Canadian border. So I keep forgetting where the big traffic jams come coming in and going out. But, and depending on the times that you go, we are we’ve, you know, we’re so we’re much closer to Vancouver, BC than we are Seattle.
Scott Cowan [00:05:10]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:05:11]:
So we have actually my family, we’ve spent a lot more time in Vancouver because we’re 45 minutes from downtown Vancouver, depending on your time of day. Is that close? Yeah. Yeah. We we would go up for hockey games. I know this sounds bad for all the Kraken fans, but we were Canucks fans. And we would go up for the games. And when we came back, at 10 o’clock at night, I mean, we would be home by 11 o’clock. It was, like, it was fast because there’s no more there’s no, you know No.
Scott Cowan [00:05:39]:
No. This interview this interview could go bad right away, but I’m gonna ask you a very important question. I mean, this is this is this this I mean, this might be the shortest interview in my history so far, but okay. You’re you’re are you still a Canucks fan? Uh-oh. She’s got that shifty look, folks. She’s got that shifty look on her face.
Cheryl Crooks [00:05:58]:
Answer that. Yes. But we haven’t been to a okay. Yes. But qualified. We no longer have season tickets.
Scott Cowan [00:06:07]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:06:07]:
We haven’t been up for a game for a couple of years. We went up just right after Cowan, and then we just we just haven’t gotten back to it. So we haven’t been there, but we also haven’t been to a cracking game. And so we kinda still follow it, but, not as closely as as
Scott Cowan [00:06:23]:
we could. Alright. Well, we’ll do I
Cheryl Crooks [00:06:25]:
don’t I I have a Canucks jersey, but I don’t have a Kraken jersey yet. I’m sorry.
Scott Cowan [00:06:29]:
It’s okay. I don’t have either. So, I mean, you know, if I I can’t I’m not hockey is that is I’ve been to 1 hockey game in in my life, and it was, it was really interesting. I mean, it was a Wenatchee Wild, so it’s minor league, hockey. Uh-huh.
Cheryl Crooks [00:06:43]:
Oh, yeah. Right.
Scott Cowan [00:06:44]:
And and and that was before they moved up to the WHL league, blah blah blah. But it was it was interesting. It was it really was a lot of fun. I could see myself I say this. I’m, like, 5 miles from the stadium. It’s not like it’s very far. I could see myself going tomorrow, but I haven’t. So Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:06:58]:
Alright. But It’s Okay. I never thought I would
Cheryl Crooks [00:07:01]:
be a hockey fan either. I mean, I I grew up in the Midwest where there was hockey, you know, and we became fans on while we were still in Los Angeles because it was the period of time when the great Wayne Gretzky was playing for the LA Kings, you know, and the town was just, you know and we had a son that became a a big hockey player. And so, you know, before your kids get into it, then you kinda kinda learn something about this game. So
Scott Cowan [00:07:27]:
So do you ever go to a Bellingham Bells games? Do you ever go to the the the Summer Ball?
Cheryl Crooks [00:07:31]:
Scott for a long time, but I love going to the Bells games. I mean, the the you know, that kind of minor league baseball is so much fun. And that’s another great thing about you know, we’ve got that stadium here at Bellingham, and it’s just a real family friendly, fun, you know, place. Something something more you could do in in the summer. I was telling you the other day. I said, there’s so much that’s crazy. I’ve never lived in a town where there’s so much happening all the time.
Scott Cowan [00:07:56]:
Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:07:57]:
You can’t get to it all because there’s just so much going on.
Scott Cowan [00:08:02]:
Bellingham is very special in that regard, but Washington state in general has that kind of problem, if you will. I mean,
Cheryl Crooks [00:08:08]:
you know, think
Scott Cowan [00:08:09]:
about it. If you live in Seattle, and I’m making fun of Seattle when I say if there was no traffic, But, no, if you lived in Seattle, I mean, in one day, you could go to Mount Rainier or be at the Pacific Ocean. I mean, it’s kind of amazing. So
Cheryl Crooks [00:08:21]:
it’s we’re really kinda lucky here. Thing here. You know, you Cowan go snowboarding and ski up on Mount Baker
Scott Cowan [00:08:26]:
Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:08:27]:
And then you can go down and I don’t ski, but I do paddle and kayak, and you Cowan be down in the bay. I mean, that’s that’s the race that we have here. You know, we have the make the big race on Memorial Day, ski to sea. You know about that?
Scott Cowan [00:08:39]:
I I’m I’m casually familiar with it. How’s that?
Cheryl Crooks [00:08:42]:
Yeah. It encompasses all that stuff, mountain biking, road biking, And and it’s kinda like you tell people that and they they don’t really believe you, but then when they’re here, they go, oh my gosh. You know? So
Scott Cowan [00:08:54]:
Right. No. And Bellingham is a it was on our list of of possible places to move, and we left the Seattle Tacoma area. The weather, we just pick we just pick different weather decisions, for us. Okay. So the Cascadia or Cascadia, not the Cascadia, Cascadia started in 2017. You’ve been in Bellingham since the mid mid to late nineties.
Cheryl Crooks [00:09:18]:
Right.
Scott Cowan [00:09:19]:
What was the motivation? Who who got this film festival started? Let’s let’s talk about how it happened. How did it come about?
Cheryl Crooks [00:09:26]:
Yeah. So, I can’t take credit for the idea, and I won’t take credit. I was serving on a on a board here a at the university, the College of Minor and Performing Arts. And one of the women on that board was a woman named Polly Miller who had come here to live from Toronto. And at some point, we became friends. And at some point, Polly, who was in the advertising business, said, you know, Bellingham would be an ideal place for a film festival. And she had been president of, the board of a film festival in Toronto called, Female Eye. It’s been going on for, like, 20 some years now, and, it it shows only films directed by women.
Cheryl Crooks [00:10:17]:
And so it was Polly’s idea that this might, you know Bellingham because of its location and because of all the arts opportunities and and the high interest, you know, here, that, we would be a good location for that. And, myself, along with a few other people, we we said, oh, that’s a great idea, Polly. When you get that together, let us know, and and we’d like to we’d like to help you with that. And we meant it, but but we never quite knew. We didn’t really know quite what we were getting into, but a small group of us kinda got together. And this was in 2015. And, she started kind of putting things in place and and telling people how it would work, and we did we did a couple of tests, runs at the, Pickford Film Center, which is where the festival is at our host theater to see would there be an interest locally in in that, and we got incredible feedback. People asking us, when are we gonna have another one? You know, all that sort of stuff.
Cheryl Crooks [00:11:15]:
And so that’s kind of how it how it kind of came about. We started organizing ourselves, you know, going through the process of getting a nonprofit status, setting up a board, all the stuff you have to do. I mean, I it’s it’s kinda ironic I I got so involved because I had helped in Los Angeles to establish a writer’s association. And if you’ve ever been in a room where you’re writing bylaws with a group of writers, you know, I said, I’m never doing this again. And here I was again helping to write bylaws with a group of people. Wenatchee we’re really great people. I mean, we’ve had a fantastic team because Bellingham is an unusual place and the people who live here, there’s all these incredible resources of people who have wound up in Bellingham for some reason. And, they came together and so putting putting this thing together was it wasn’t streamlined.
Cheryl Crooks [00:12:04]:
I don’t wanna say that, but there were people who knew what they were doing and had either done something like this before or whatever. So we really took a great deal of care. We test marketed the idea. I mean well, we test marketed the idea, but we test marketed the name before it was selected
Scott Cowan [00:12:22]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:12:22]:
Because, we wanted the name to reflect the area. And, originally, we had thought we would affiliate with the female eye in Toronto. That was the idea. But, we quickly learned that trying to do an affiliation across the border with nonprofits was a big challenge.
Scott Cowan [00:12:40]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:12:40]:
And as it turns out, it’s better that we didn’t because we have developed our own character separate from the female eye, you know, which I think is a good thing. And also, you know, as I was saying with the oh, the female eye is one thing. It’s a little more, I will say edgy, but it’s certainly more urban because of it’s located in Toronto. We, you know, we’re Cascadia, so we’re trying to reflect the beauty of the, you know, the area, the exquisiteness of where we live and the films that are here. So that’s kind of, worked out for the better in that sense. And, then then what basically happened is, I was president of the board at the time. She asked me if I’d serve as president, and I I guess foolishly said yes or or it was such a great idea. You know, you couldn’t turn Polly down.
Cheryl Crooks [00:13:30]:
And then she ended up, through one reason or another, ended up moving back to Toronto. And she kept telling us she was coming back, and we kept saying, when are you coming back? And she didn’t come back, so everybody, that was involved said, well, what are we going to do now? Should we continue? And everybody agreed that, yeah, it was worthy idea. It was not something that was happening anywhere else, certainly not happening in Bellingham. They all agreed that, yes, we should push ahead on this because we put so much work into it and and that we had such good response. And, honestly, we were getting calls from or emails rather from women directors around the world before the festival had our first festivals thanking us for what we were doing.
Scott Cowan [00:14:15]:
Oh.
Cheryl Crooks [00:14:15]:
And I had to say to them, well, you you know, you might wanna wait until we have a festival.
Scott Cowan [00:14:21]:
They were just they were just they were just smooch schmoozing so they could get their films accepted the 1st year. I mean, that’s what it was.
Cheryl Crooks [00:14:27]:
Yeah. Maybe. But, you know, we we we realized that because this was pre, you know, pre, COVID and pre everything. You know, we realized that we could have a real impact and that there seemed to be a a real need for it. So we we agreed to do it, and then they asked me to be executive director. And, again, I foolishly said yes, not ever having run a film festival. But, I learned quickly, and I have a really I’ve had a the good fortune had really good boards, committed people, you know, that have worked with us to bring this thing together. And, we’ve had a lot I gotta say we’ve had a lot of help from other film festivals, not just in Washington, but nationally because we belong to a a national organization of film festivals, and I can ring up different people and say, hey, what do you do about this or, you know, how you do this and vice versa.
Cheryl Crooks [00:15:27]:
So that was that was really a key component for how fast we were able to come along to really establish ourselves. You know?
Scott Cowan [00:15:35]:
Okay. So the 1st year was 2017. I love to ask this question. So I want you to think about 2017. I want you to think after you successfully executed the film festival for the first time. Right? Okay. What went better than you thought and what didn’t, what, where did you, what mistake or what didn’t work the way you thought it would, because I know we’re gonna learn something here. So what went better and what, you know, what mud puddle did you step in?
Cheryl Crooks [00:16:10]:
Well, it it was funny about 2017. We really were flying by the seat of our pants. Right?
Scott Cowan [00:16:16]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:16:16]:
Because we had never done this before.
Scott Cowan [00:16:18]:
What could go wrong?
Cheryl Crooks [00:16:19]:
We had we had a skeletal we have no we have no staff. I mean, we had no staff. We had a really good board and some volunteers. The support of the Pickford Theatre, which was really important because they did know about film festivals. Those people.
Scott Cowan [00:16:38]:
Okay. Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:16:39]:
Right? And, and we had gone to a few. We went to a few exploratory ones to, you know, see how everybody else did theirs and that Scott of stuff. So I think what what went really well is that people were coming out of the theater and were saying to us, oh my gosh. You’re like a film festival that has been around for 10 years. Wow. That’s a compliment. How good the films are.
Scott Cowan [00:17:01]:
That’s that’s a great compliment. Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:17:03]:
Yeah. That was great. I kinda laughed because I thought, yeah. Did you think we were just gonna put, like, junk up on the screen? So our our selection process went, you know, really better. What we were laughing though when they were saying things like, you look like a festival that’s been around 10 years because we knew behind the scenes that we were scrambling. We, you know, we were like, oh, we didn’t have any that year, we didn’t have any technical problems that I can recall. But we were scrambling to just cover the bases and inventing things as we went along. Like, what do we do about this? Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:17:41]:
Well, let’s do this. You know? Apparently, nobody saw that, which was great.
Scott Cowan [00:17:45]:
That’s good. That’s good.
Cheryl Crooks [00:17:47]:
So, you know, we learned a lot from that 1st year. We’re still learning. I mean, every year you learn a little something. You try to, you know, hammer out some of the wrinkles and and how’s the way that we could do this a little better, make it run a little smoother, make the audience experience better, make it better for the directors. I mean, we were we worked very hard, to make our directors feel welcomed, respected, part of the community, and support them. And, that, that’s something we continue to do. So, you know, every year, there’s there’s there’s something new that we try or, you know, try to improve upon, I guess. And after that 1st year, we we sat down and said, okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:18:28]:
What didn’t we do? Right. You know, there was a lot of different little things like that.
Scott Cowan [00:18:35]:
Well, see, the thing is is that if you if you think about it too much, you’ll never do anything because you’ll go, what could go wrong? And you’ll come up with a laundry list a mile long. Right? I mean, I’ll be like, I can’t forget it. This just won’t work. It’s it’s the, it’s the getting in and splashing around and making a big mess. That’s fun. I mean, it might not be fun in the moment, but you look back on it and go
Cheryl Crooks [00:18:58]:
Right. Yeah. Later, it’s fun. At at the moment, you’re trying to make, why isn’t the sound on?
Scott Cowan [00:19:03]:
See, what happens?
Cheryl Crooks [00:19:04]:
Or that film’s not supposed to be there.
Scott Cowan [00:19:07]:
Oh, yeah. So so 2017 and he had, you know, 2018, we won’t, we’ll skip 2018. Not that it wasn’t important. I don’t mean it like that, but where I’m going is, and then COVID hit. So you have this new film festival, and then we have a pandemic. Uh-huh. You weren’t planning on that. No.
Scott Cowan [00:19:26]:
No. We weren’t planning on it,
Cheryl Crooks [00:19:27]:
but I I gotta say, you know, it it hit us. We had our 2019 festival.
Scott Cowan [00:19:32]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:19:32]:
And then, it was in 2020 that that we had to close Cowan, and and we were really gaining momentum. I mean, in 2019, people were starting to get excited about what we were doing, and we were 3 weeks away from opening the 2020 festival. I mean, directors had bought tickets and, you know, all sorts of stuff was in place. We were planning if you remember, that was the year that was the, 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. So we had planned this big gala event that was going to be a reunion of, the people that had made and celebrate this film called Iron Jawed Angels, which was about the suffrage, Alice Paul and and that whole team. And it was directed by a Cowan, and we had lined up the producer. We had lined up the director. Director, we had lined up the cinematographer, who happened to live here as as it turned out.
Scott Cowan [00:20:27]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:20:27]:
And we were gonna do a very big, event, at the Mount Baker, theater with the League of Women Voters to celebrate the passage of the 19th amendment and celebrate this film and tell the whole story. And then, 3 weeks before the festival was to open, the country shut down. And we said, okay. Now what? And we have to think about it for a minute, but this is the this is the amazing thing about the people that I’ve been so fortunate to work with here and, the community. We got together as a board. You know, I can’t I can’t even remember how we did it because Zoom wasn’t even there yet, but somehow we we all talked together. Maybe it was a conference call or something or email chain or something. And we decided, let’s let’s figure out what happened.
Cheryl Crooks [00:21:20]:
There had been Wenatchee festival or 2, actually, ahead of us, at least, that had did a quick pivot and put everything online.
Scott Cowan [00:21:31]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:21:32]:
And we got in touch with those festivals right away and said, how did you do this? We need to know because we’re you know? So I I I can’t remember exactly, but I think maybe we had to delay the festival a week in figuring out how we were gonna put this thing online. And at the time, the festivals now use a fairly sophisticated there’s a number of them out there platforms where you can now show your you know, present your your films. But that wasn’t they were around, but nobody was using them and nobody really knew much about them at the time. So we really did we really had to do it all ourselves. Mhmm. We had to set the whole thing up, and I can’t quite remember what the the platform was or how we, you know, the program was that we used, but we managed to get, I think, almost all our films online. And that big gala I told you about that we were planning because we could not, you know, obviously have it anymore. Instead, what we ended up doing was an online panel discussion with 4 of the key people from that film.
Cheryl Crooks [00:22:39]:
It was a fabulous, discussion interview about, you know, the suffrage movement, all this stuff. And we just we just did it, and people, you know, signed up and watched the movies. And so it was it was it was I mean, it’s not something I care to go through again because it was a tremendous amount of work. And I I have to credit 2 of my young assistants who were interns at the time who were much more tech savvy than I Cowan, and, they were, you know, they played a major role in making it all work, which we did. And people had no idea, but they all, you know, came on, supported us. Our sponsors said, no. No. No.
Cheryl Crooks [00:23:24]:
We support you still. I mean, it was it was true it was truly amazing. And so we were online, you know, for those 2 years during the pandemic. Cowan then the 2nd year, there we knew a lot more and there was all you know, since been a lot more developed. So the 2nd year looked much different than the 1st year. But we we went ahead and we did we did online interviews with our directors and recorded them so people could see and hear them. We did, you know, all that sort of thing. And then the 2nd year, we discovered a little program that we used, that we introduced our directors to and invited them to this program where they could actually be in the room together as little it’s like a little, video game almost where they had a little icon and they could walk around in the room with their little person and talk to one another.
Cheryl Crooks [00:24:14]:
So they could interact with each other Okay. And with other people in the room. And I I gotta tell you, that went a long way. Those directors are still talking about that, of how much it meant to them to be able to connect during that time period.
Scott Cowan [00:24:30]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:24:30]:
So there were good things that came out of it, although, yeah, it it it was a it was certainly challenging. Really challenging.
Scott Cowan [00:24:41]:
COVID was I mean, it was awful. I don’t mean what I’m about to say is that here here let me preface my statement. COVID was awful. It was disruptive. At the same time, there’s been a lot of interesting changes. Yeah. There’s been really not great changes too. Like, the school system, I think, is kind of suffering from it, but there’s been a lot of changes, a lot of businesses, a lot of organizations were forced.
Scott Cowan [00:25:07]:
You you didn’t you didn’t get to drag your feet. It was either you change or you stop. Right. And a lot of people forced themselves were forced into doing this, and I think, like like, your example, you you you I I overused word pivoted. Hate that word, but it’s it’s applicable. You know, you pit the the festival pivoted. You went online. You you tried this technology that you probably would not have wanted to try had you had any other choice.
Scott Cowan [00:25:37]:
Yet it worked out that your your your audience was served, your your directors, the film industry was served. You continue on, and now we’re now we’re here getting ready for the 2024 festival. And what I wanna talk about, and I’m gonna bounce around so interviews are never straight line with me. Sorry. I warned you about that. You listen to an episode. You know this. But I’d like to talk about the 2024 because you’re gonna have live films, I mean, in the theater, but you’re also doing it online as well.
Scott Cowan [00:26:09]:
So you’ve gone to this hybrid. Is that because of COVID?
Cheryl Crooks [00:26:14]:
Well, yes. It it certainly came out of COVID. I mean, it it’s interesting what’s happening, to the whole most festivals, not I would say most, but a lot of festivals still have the hybrid, you know, festival. And it’s it’s gonna be interesting what happens here in the next year or 2 because I am finding it’s getting more difficult for us in particular to, do an online version. Now the feature film distributors are not wanting their films online, understandably. They want them in the theaters, so they’re not always giving us, granting us licensing to put them online. But this is the thing. I’m try trying to make them understand, and I’m also, I’m going to a a big conference at the end of June with the film festivals and the art houses and whatnot.
Cheryl Crooks [00:27:08]:
I mean, there it’s certainly it’s really so important that people go back to the theaters, that they experience that sense of community because, you know, as you know, when you’re sitting watching something off by yourself, it’s a whole different experience than when you’re watching it with a group of people.
Scott Cowan [00:27:25]:
Correct. Yes.
Cheryl Crooks [00:27:25]:
Especially comedies. But, you know, the dishwasher starts and you get up and you do that. So, you know, I I I would much rather have people in the theater. But one thing about the online experience, which we have discovered, and one reason I would like to think seriously about continuing it at least in some version is it provides an accessibility to people who otherwise cannot get to the theater for, you know, accessibility reasons.
Scott Cowan [00:27:55]:
Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:27:56]:
And that’s an audience that’s often forgotten and overlooked.
Scott Cowan [00:28:00]:
Well, and definitely underserved. Definitely underserved.
Cheryl Crooks [00:28:03]:
Yeah. Right. Definitely underserved. And because, you know, a lot of the films we show in our festival, for example, you can’t find them on streaming. Or if you can, you have to dig pretty deep to find them. Mhmm. So, you know, for them to have that that opportunity to, you know, experience that, see see those films and feel part of something outside of just the usual streamers, that’s valuable. I mean, and that’s a that’s a that’s a true service, I think.
Cheryl Crooks [00:28:35]:
And the other thing for us too that we just we discovered during the 2 years that we were online, it turned out to be a pretty good marketing tool for us in that there were a lot of people across the country that became aware of our festival very quickly, who probably would not have known about us, I mean, you know, right, for for some time. And now we’ve got I’ve got people, I know for sure, just people that I’ve told me personally coming from Nashville this year, coming from San Diego, coming from San Francisco, but not to be here for our festival. And these are not filmmakers. These are audience members. Audience members. And I think some of that is due because they, you know, they saw what we were doing online. I I don’t say it’s exclusively, but, you know, so so it’s a it’s a it’s a valuable component, but it certainly is one that a lot of, festivals besides ourselves are are now trying to think how how’s this gonna look in the future. You know? But
Scott Cowan [00:29:38]:
So I’d like to ask you this question now, and and I’d like you to walk me through, I’m gonna say everything, and I don’t really mean that. But okay. So for the 2024 festival, how many films will be presented?
Cheryl Crooks [00:29:56]:
This year, we have I think it’s 26, 27 films altogether, which is actually fewer than we had in the past. The reason for that is is we have fewer shorts and more features this year.
Scott Cowan [00:30:08]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:30:08]:
We we have a limited amount of screen time at our theater currently. That’s changing. And so we can only accept as many movies as we have times to show them, obviously. And it was difficult decision for us this year because we had a lot of really good shorts, but we have been getting more features. Last year, we had, like, 2 or 3 that we really wanted to show. Actually, we have couple this year too that we can’t get into the festival even with the expanded, you know, because we just don’t have the screen time. So we’re putting them in other places that we we also show, you know, during the year. K.
Cheryl Crooks [00:30:49]:
So that’s so we’re so the the short answer is this year we’ve got 27 films, 10 countries represented.
Scott Cowan [00:30:55]:
K.
Cheryl Crooks [00:30:56]:
But within the the directors themselves, the the the directors I I like to tell people, even though a number of these films are US films and the directors are based in Los Angeles, when you look at their bios, they’re, like, from everywhere. Spain, Brazil. I mean, they’ve come and they’ve ended up in LA, obviously, because that’s, you know, the filmmaking center. So there’s still good representation Okay. Worldwide.
Scott Cowan [00:31:23]:
Can you walk me through the selection process? Besides time, what other criterias are used to, when you when when your group it’s not there’s not just one decision maker who goes, oh, I like this film. Are we gonna put it in? I’m sure there’s a group. So what are the criteria that are used to, for film selections?
Cheryl Crooks [00:31:45]:
Yeah. So we have 2 different processes. We have one for features. K. The features, films are what we call curated. We have a woman that is our program director in Los Angeles named Claudia Puig. We’re so fortunate to be working with Claudia. This is her 3rd year.
Cheryl Crooks [00:32:07]:
She is also the program director for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and, she’s got a lot of experience, with other festivals. She was, don’t tell just last year, the president of the LA Film Critics Association. Okay. Because she’s also passed film critic for the USA Cowan. And, oh, she has a talk show, in fact, on NPR called Film Talk. And, anyway, so Claudia works with us to help us find our feature films. And we’re now to the point where we’re getting distributors and filmmakers sending them to us and saying, we don’t we don’t solicit necessarily. What I mean is we don’t, like, open for submissions for features, so we’re out there looking for features.
Cheryl Crooks [00:32:55]:
So if a distributor or a filmmaker says, hey. Would you take a look at our film? You know, we’ll take a look. Primarily, you know, it starts with Claudia, and she’s, combing through she I I I can’t tell you how many films she sees a year. I think something like 4,000 or something. She she gave a number, and it was like,
Scott Cowan [00:33:15]:
How do you there’s 365 days in the year. That’s over 10 films a day.
Cheryl Crooks [00:33:20]:
I I know. Well, you know, when she’s gearing up for one of these festivals, she’s watching I mean, she’s watching a lot a lot a lot of films, and I think sometimes, you know, if you’re really good, you’ve done it long enough, and you can the first 20 minutes will tell you a lot about a movie.
Scott Cowan [00:33:35]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:33:36]:
If you know anything about film structure and stuff. Okay. You’ve got first 20 minutes and, you know, if the sound is not good, you know, there’s just things you just look and you just go, no. This is not gonna work. You you don’t have to sit through I mean, as a critic, you have to sit through the whole thing because you gotta be able to write about it. Right?
Scott Cowan [00:33:55]:
Wow.
Cheryl Crooks [00:33:55]:
So, but, you know, as a curator, if, you know, if it’s not looking I can’t explain exactly her process, but, you know, you you can kinda get a sense pretty pretty quick. And if it if it doesn’t grab you, it’s not grabbing you. It’s not likely to grab the audience, you know, make the audience stick with you. So, you know, because we really work very hard. We we call ourselves a festival of exceptional films by women.
Scott Cowan [00:34:21]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:34:21]:
So we’re really looking for the exceptional films, and there’s a lot of ways we define that. But Claudia, basically, she starts it out with that and then we have a a film selection committee, a final selection committee here in in Bellingham, of of 5 individuals, all who have been, work working in the film industry. Some of pretty high note. I mean, we’ve got one woman who’s a member of the of the of the committee was, until recently head of post production for HBO. And, one woman is an actress, who was on the x files, for example. She’s got credits a mile long, you know, and she’s been in the business forever. So these people have a really good eye. And because they live here, we’re not just programming for the Bellingham community.
Cheryl Crooks [00:35:14]:
I mean, we’re looking kind of like, you know, what what what are these films represent? And that process is great. They go through the films that Claudia has has forwarded to us and they see all these films and then we’ll talk about, you know, which ones will work for us and and try to balance the programming. And what films are important? Why and why? And there’s a lot of great discussion that goes on in those committees. Oh my gosh. It was, like, crazy. But, that’s how the features work. This the short films, we have a little bit different process. Oh, well, it is a different process.
Cheryl Crooks [00:35:50]:
So the short films, we do ask for submissions, and those films are submitted to us online through a, a platform that all the filmmakers are aware of called Film Freeway. And we have set up, I have about around 50, maybe it’s up to 60 now, individuals who I call our this sounds terrible way to phrase this, but a stable screeners. I mean, you know, stable writers, stable screeners. And all of these people with maybe just 2 or 3 exceptions are people who are working film industry professionals. They’re writers, directors, producers, casting directors, actors, editors, cinematographers, film scholars, archivists, and they’re located all over the world. So a good chunk of them, about 1 third, are located in the United States elsewhere from here, primarily Los Angeles and New York. Another third are, located in our region, beyond Bellingham, I mean, Washington somewhere. And then, maybe not quite a third are located internationally.
Cheryl Crooks [00:37:09]:
So when the filmmakers submit their films to us online, I have a wonderful young submissions coordinator named Scout who started as an intern and is now our submissions coordinator. She’s so great. And she assigns every film we get is assigned to 3 of our jurors. And we attempt to make each assignment, one person that’s quote, unquote local, one person that is national, one person that’s international.
Scott Cowan [00:37:39]:
Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:37:39]:
Doesn’t always work out the way. And I should tell you, it’s men and Cowan, not not just
Scott Cowan [00:37:44]:
women. Women. Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:37:45]:
So we have a real mix and mix of ages. I mean, we’ve got people who are, you know, just finishing their doctorate to or whatever, you know, to being, you know, seasoned pros. So it’s a real mix of points of view and those 3, people each individually screen the films and they score them based on a set of criteria that we provide to them in 5 primary areas. And the ones that that on the average score the highest at a certain level, they’re then advanced to this final selection committee I was mentioning before, and then they get to go through. So we had about, 30 some films that were advanced to the finals this year out of, like, a 150 films or something like that, I think.
Scott Cowan [00:38:34]:
So about a 100 I was gonna ask that question. This for the 24 festival, you had approximately a 150 short film submissions.
Cheryl Crooks [00:38:44]:
Yeah. And that’s that’s still down a little bit from what Wenatchee were pre COVID. I was I thought we maybe have more this year, but I think, you know, the strike, COVID, filmmakers are still recovering from that some. So and we get submissions from all over the world. I mean, not just you know, not just the United States. So that’s that’s how that go that’s how that goes and and, then that programming committee, you know, narrows it down and and as again, it’s, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a really thoughtful I’m I’m so proud of that process. It’s a really thoughtful process. It has a kind of an international perspective, not just the Bellingham perspective.
Scott Cowan [00:39:21]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:39:22]:
So when you see the films, you know, we’d like to think it reflects back on that. And, I couldn’t do without those people.
Scott Cowan [00:39:29]:
So for 2024, how many shorts are gonna be in the festival?
Cheryl Crooks [00:39:35]:
20, I think it is.
Scott Cowan [00:39:36]:
Twenty shorts. Okay. So you started with about a 150, and, ultimately, we’re gonna the public is gonna see 20 approximately 20.
Cheryl Crooks [00:39:43]:
Okay. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And and we, you know, that makes us a pretty selective film festival. Mhmm. You know, and and the filmmakers know that, because, you know, when you only have a much screen time, if we’re not a big festival that can have, you know, we’ve Scott fill a a hole because we’ve got time to to fill.
Cheryl Crooks [00:40:06]:
We’re not that. We’re, you know, we’re limited. So when they look at these movies and and oh my gosh. We I mean, we we reject films that are in other festivals that are, like, major festivals because we just don’t think they major up to something, you know, or they don’t fit the programming or whatever it is. So we’ve we’ve kind of emerged, within the film industry and the filmmakers as being a fairly selective well, not a fairly, a a very selective film festival. If you get into the festival, we like to think that’s the award.
Scott Cowan [00:40:44]:
That’s the award. So walk me through the the now we’re we’re gonna be the festival’s taking place. Yeah. And it’s at the Pickford. Right?
Cheryl Crooks [00:40:53]:
That’s right. Most of it.
Scott Cowan [00:40:54]:
Most of it. And I’ve never been to a film festival. Never never attended anything. I I don’t even go to the movies very often, period. In fact, I hate to say I will share this. Just the last movie I saw in the theater was the 3 d version of Trolls with my grandkids. And before that, it was Jumanji, And I don’t know that which one is more insulting to my intelligence, but the Trolls movie was actually kind of humorous. My grandkids loved it, so it was worth it.
Scott Cowan [00:41:26]:
But I don’t go to the theater very often.
Cheryl Crooks [00:41:30]:
Right.
Scott Cowan [00:41:30]:
So I so walk me through if I were in Bellingham for the festival, what what would this look like for me as a as an attendee?
Cheryl Crooks [00:41:39]:
Yeah. Well, you’re one of those people, you know, that that we we wanna get back into the theater, you know, that we’re wanna bring you back in because, I mean, especially during COVID, you know, everybody, well, I Cowan see everything online and and all the big and everybody’s got a big screen TV right now, so they think they’re seeing, you know, they’re seeing the movies. But, you know, the truth of the matter is, seeing a film in a theater, in a darkened theater with a group of people, usually people you don’t know, it’s a it’s a different experience. I mean, it’s a community experience. And there’s something that happens, chemistry and energy. I went to see the other night, for example, at the at the Pickford, which is our art house in town. I went to see Ava DuVernay’s new film Origins.
Scott Cowan [00:42:32]:
K.
Cheryl Crooks [00:42:33]:
And, it was sold out. And I’m I’m still I, you know, I I’m being very careful because I I can’t get sick prior to the festival, and so it makes me a little nervous sometimes being in enclosed spaces like that with a lot of people. But I went and I have a favorite spot I sit so, you know, I’m I’m not usually not too worried. Most people are behind me. But, it was it was an amazing experience because that film, you could people did not move. I mean, people were like it was such a you were almost like you were breathing in unison. You know?
Scott Cowan [00:43:08]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:43:09]:
So captured you. The the subject of what she’s talking about and the way she presents it and the performances, everybody was just, like, they’re with you. You know? You were all there together experiencing this thing. Even though you’re bringing each each one is bringing a different, life perspective to it. You know? And then afterwards, she did a talk back that she recorded. And, you know, a lot of people you can always tell at least I can tell a lot of times how how not how good the film was, but how much the film captured your audience by who stays for the talk back, you know.
Scott Cowan [00:43:50]:
And
Cheryl Crooks [00:43:51]:
I maybe a handful of people left. They wanted to hear more about that whole thing. So it’s it’s more of a community shared experience, and and the Pickford actually is seeing an uptick in in some of the people returning, especially the younger generation, which I younger generation. I mean, people in their forties, I guess, thirties and forties in particular. Because there seems to be something happening and and festivals across the country are telling me this year, they’ve their numbers
Scott Cowan [00:44:19]:
are up.
Cheryl Crooks [00:44:20]:
Because I think people are, like, they’re needing now they wanna get out of that isolation. They wanna be together. I mean, there’s a need of humans to have, you know, the collective experience. Not everybody feels that way, but, you know, a lot of people do.
Scott Cowan [00:44:38]:
More of us more of us feel that way than don’t, and I think Right. Since as we continue to distance ourselves from the pandemic, I think even the very cautious folks are becoming, I don’t wanna say they’re becoming less cautious, but I think we all feel a little more
Cheryl Crooks [00:44:57]:
comfortable. Well, you wanna
Scott Cowan [00:44:59]:
you wanna have that gonna get. Yeah.
Cheryl Crooks [00:45:01]:
Yeah. That interaction and and, you know, I mean and it’s important. Right? It’s important for social skills, especially, you know, young I hear this a lot from I hear from teacher friends about, you know, chill kids and students, you know, and their social skills and and, the way you interact online with people or through social media, is not the same as when you interact with people in person. My my actually, my my 30 some year old son was just saying this yesterday in a conversation we were having. He says, you know, I could do a Zoom meeting and I could do this and I can that. But when I go and I have coffee or I sit down and I talk with somebody in person Mhmm. There’s a real connection there that you make
Scott Cowan [00:45:43]:
Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:45:43]:
That you don’t make otherwise. And that’s what happens at the festival when our directors come and, you know, people go see the film that it’s back to back. I mean, it’s it’s a full day. People say, we need time to eat. But,
Scott Cowan [00:45:57]:
That’s what the snack bar is for.
Cheryl Crooks [00:46:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s what the snack bar is for. You run out and you get something and you, you know, eat it real fast from the food truck or whatever and, bring it back or or something. But, you know, it’s it’s all it’s all you know, it really is festive. I mean, it’s like, okay. Let’s go. And and, but but the connections you make with those people talking in the lobby, you know, or out on the street as you’re taking a break or after the movie or whatever.
Cheryl Crooks [00:46:27]:
It goes it goes beyond just watching the films. I mean, it’s it’s about interacting and making connections, making friends. Our directors all say that especially. They they leave here they they leave here and they don’t it’s it’s just not a one time experience. They’re in touch with one another long after the festival and work with each other. And and same thing with our community members, you know, they’re they’re back. They’re, you know, they’re connecting with one another. We’re we’re not only we’re supporting women filmmakers, but we’re we’re building community
Scott Cowan [00:47:00]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:47:00]:
Within the the the people who come to the festival, but also within the filmmakers themselves. You know what I’m saying?
Scott Cowan [00:47:07]:
No. That’s that’s wonderful.
Cheryl Crooks [00:47:09]:
So we want you to come and do that, Scott.
Scott Cowan [00:47:15]:
So the festival this year is from April 25th through 28th. Right? Did I get that right? Did I write that bad better? This isn’t live, but I could edit it out, but we got it right. Okay. So then then it’s and I don’t have the dates in front of me on the online version, but we’ll we’ll come to
Cheryl Crooks [00:47:32]:
that in a second. It’s gonna be online, May 2nd to 12th. And and it’ll be some version of the festival, not all the films, as I said earlier. Okay. Especially the features. We’re not getting permission to to put them up, you know. But So lot Scott of the other films that you can’t well, especially the shorts, which are just wonderful, and you can’t see those a lot of places. So you know?
Scott Cowan [00:47:55]:
So this year for for 2024, can you share with us a couple examples of what is being displayed at the festival?
Cheryl Crooks [00:48:05]:
Yeah. I can. I could, we don’t well, we are we yeah. Sure. I can. But we are we I know we’re recording this earlier, but we publicly announced the films on the 22nd March. So we’re going to open with a wonderful movie wonderful movie from, Switzerland and Belgium. I guess she shot it in 2 places or whatever, the director’s from there, called Last Dance.
Cheryl Crooks [00:48:33]:
And it it’s a it’s a wonderful film about, an older guy who, his wife has passed on, and, he kind of oh, I say this exactly. He completes her he feels like well, when she dies, she’s in the middle of rehearsing, for a performance with a dance company. And and he’s, like, 75, so she’s in her seventies. And so for some reason, he decides that he’s going to complete this task for her, not being a dancer or anything, and gets involved with this. It’s it’s a charming, and it’s very cathartic for him. And it’s just if you don’t love this guy, I’m telling you his he doesn’t tell his family he’s doing this, and they walk in on some kind of questionable things that he’s like they’re going, dad is going crazy or
Scott Cowan [00:49:29]:
dad lost it. Yeah. Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [00:49:31]:
Yeah. And and it’s so it’s so wonderful. We all saw this movie, oh my gosh. And, you know, it’s it almost takes exactly a feel good movie, although it is. But it’s the kind of thing what people kinda need that now. You know? I think people kinda need that element of hope and and, that kind of experience, right now to, you know, make them we’ve got a lot of stuff we can think about. I mean, we’ve got some heavy films in this festival. That’s for sure.
Cheryl Crooks [00:49:58]:
But, you know, that’s we’re so excited about that for for opening night. And our closing night is is one that’s similar. It’s a film from France, this one, and, everybody on the committee and our Claudia saw this movie. It it was at Sundance. It premiered at Sundance. We found it actually before then, but, we weren’t aware it was at Sundance. It’s this little girl. It’s about a little girl and her nanny.
Cheryl Crooks [00:50:31]:
And this little girl who’s, like, 6, I mean to tell you, she everybody’s saying, where did they find this little girl? She is amazing, and it’s heartwarming and and heart tugging and and all sorts of stuff. And it’s just like, woah. And it’s it’s gonna be a super film to to close with too.
Scott Cowan [00:50:56]:
And what’s that one called?
Cheryl Crooks [00:50:58]:
It’s called Ama Gloria, a m a Gloria. And, unfortunately, the directors from either one of those because they’re, you know, over in France aren’t gonna be here. We have directors who are coming for some other films. Those 2 don’t happen to be coming, but, they’re they’re wonderful. Oh gosh. They’re they’re such good movies. We’re we’re proud of them. I Last Dance, I don’t know yet.
Cheryl Crooks [00:51:20]:
I’ve Scott really verify this with the distributor, but I I think we’re gonna be, like, the West Coast premiere for that film. And, Alma Gloria, we may be the same. Certainly, the Pacific Northwest premieres for both of those movies.
Scott Cowan [00:51:34]:
For 2024, are there any films or shorts from directors and filmmakers in the Northwest?
Cheryl Crooks [00:51:41]:
Yeah. We have, we have a couple. And and we have actually, we have several I was looking last night at the lineup. We have a few directors that are in the festival this year who are returning directors, who’ve submitted to us before and are coming back and, we have some that submitted and we were returning but weren’t accepted. One of those is in fact, a woman from, lives on the Olympic Peninsula and is an environmental filmmaker named Jessica Plume. And she made this beautifully shot film. It’s a documentary called Call of the Orcus. It’s so beautiful.
Cheryl Crooks [00:52:20]:
It’s, you know, being so close to the water as we are, we have that relationship with, you know, those animals and, the majesty of them. And you’re so sensitive to preserving those animals, you know, and and the magnificence of them. And this movie, is about that. It’s it’s about, it’s kind of, focuses on a couple of people who were have been very instrumental in trying to, recover the numbers of of those whales. And so and she’ll be here. She’ll be here for the festival. So so she she’s Wenatchee she’s one of those. And then we have another woman, quite the opposite, who’s has a very experimental artsy film.
Cheryl Crooks [00:53:16]:
She this woman who, taught and I think she lives in Olympia, and she was a former Evergreen College professor.
Scott Cowan [00:53:24]:
Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [00:53:25]:
And, her her work is focused. This particular film is about the end of Roe v Roe v Wade and, her concern about women’s rights in in the abortion issue. And it’s a pretty, it’s it’s animated, but it’s it’s a it’s a pretty powerful, powerful film on a different end of the spectrum, you
Scott Cowan [00:53:50]:
know. Right.
Cheryl Crooks [00:53:51]:
So those 2 those 2 individuals I know for sure are from, our area. We got a couple people who are from that even that other city further south. Well, I forget the name of it in that other Scott, southwest. Portland. It gets with an o. Remember?
Scott Cowan [00:54:07]:
Oh, Oregon. Yeah. So I gotta ask early early on. I was I meant to ask this. You you you you you kind of disclosed that your husband went to school in Oregon. What’s what Scott did he go to? I was afraid to ask this actually, but what school did he go to?
Cheryl Crooks [00:54:22]:
He’s a duck. I have 2 sons that are ducks.
Scott Cowan [00:54:25]:
Oh, really? I and I liked you so much.
Cheryl Crooks [00:54:29]:
Yeah. I know. Isn’t isn’t it a shame? I mean, I live literally next door to the university here.
Scott Cowan [00:54:35]:
Okay. Because
Cheryl Crooks [00:54:37]:
that was not gonna happen. No. I mean, they were not gonna wanna do that.
Scott Cowan [00:54:41]:
They didn’t want yeah. I get that. I when I when when I went to college, I didn’t want I could’ve gone to PLU and and and and I no. I I wanted to get out of the house and
Cheryl Crooks [00:54:50]:
No. I would’ve been fine. I mean, this university, you know, we we’ve we’ve got a good relationship with the festival with this university. We just had a big, big event there for International Women’s Day. But, you know, they have a outstanding environmental college, and and they’ve got and one of my sons is an environmental activist, and he still didn’t go there.
Scott Cowan [00:55:10]:
It it Western Western’s a good good school. University of Oregon’s a good school.
Cheryl Crooks [00:55:15]:
Yes. It is.
Scott Cowan [00:55:16]:
It it’s a good school. I that’s I can’t say more than that. I just can’t Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I said too much. Well, I’m gonna ask you a question. We’re gonna because I I know we could go on and on and on about this.
Scott Cowan [00:55:28]:
So couple of things. But if I were to go to the film festival and I got to Bellingham in the morning because I’m gonna sit in for a a day of watching film. I need breakfast. Where’s a great place in Bellingham for me to grab breakfast?
Cheryl Crooks [00:55:45]:
As a film festival goer or just as
Scott Cowan [00:55:47]:
a In
Cheryl Crooks [00:55:48]:
in coming into Bellingham?
Scott Cowan [00:55:49]:
Some somebody coming in. Let’s let’s just let’s open it up a little bit more than that.
Cheryl Crooks [00:55:53]:
Yeah. Okay. Because I mean, Bellingham, I don’t know people know this. It’s such a real breakfast place. I mean, it’s there’s so many good places in town for breakfast. And depending on when you go, you could be waiting for 30 minutes for a table. I personally don’t like to do that for breakfast. So I time where I go, when I go, and why I go.
Cheryl Crooks [00:56:14]:
Right. Right. Kind of, I’d say probably this I I almost hate to mention this in a way because it’s kind of, like, tucked away. But I I have a lot of my breakfast meetings, that I like to go to. There’s a little place in a section of Bellingham called the York neighborhood, which is full of lots of little, you know, old old homes, old, you know, smaller homes and right off the freeway actually before you get into downtown. Very vibrant neighborhood. And they have a place there in that neighborhood. It’s called Nelson’s Market.
Scott Cowan [00:56:53]:
Nelson’s Market.
Cheryl Crooks [00:56:54]:
Within Nelson’s Market, it’s like a little corner market, but it’s bigger than that. And they have, you know, a a little restaurant in there, which actually boy. You know, I call it Nelson’s Market all the time, and it’s the the the name of the little restaurant section. They give it a different name, and I can’t I can’t remember what it is. But it is a real community place. That little place and that that restaurant area of their of their market is like a hub for that neighborhood. And, they serve all day, and they serve I didn’t even know this. They served until, like, 8 or 9 o’clock at night.
Cheryl Crooks [00:57:31]:
They have wood fire I don’t know if they have wood fire pizza, but they have apparently really good pizza. But I go there for breakfast. That’s kind of my my breakfast spot, for a lot of different reasons, and I never get tired of it. It it’s just, you know, you get to know the people that are there. It really has a sense of, oh, hey. How you doing? You want the usual? Yeah. Or I really throw them sometimes, and I don’t order the usual.
Scott Cowan [00:57:54]:
What is your usual?
Cheryl Crooks [00:57:56]:
Oh, my usual. My usual is, well, usually, it’s 2 eggs basted easy. Mhmm. With a side of ham usually and English muffin. I don’t I don’t like hash browns. I don’t like potatoes in the morning, so I always ask them, can you, like, saute me some spinach? And they’ll do it.
Scott Cowan [00:58:20]:
Okay. Alright. That sounds good. That sounds really good. Now I know you’re not a coffee drinker, but I gotta put you on the spot. Bellingham’s got coffee shops. You gotta give me Yeah. You’re going to meet somebody.
Scott Cowan [00:58:29]:
You’re going to have a meeting with somebody in there. They’re they’re they’re just saying, Hey, let’s just grab coffee. We don’t want to sit down for food. Where where where can we where are you gonna drag me to?
Cheryl Crooks [00:58:40]:
Where can we go? Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. I mean, it’s like Seattle or a lot of places in Washington, but, yep, there’s no shortage of coffee here. I mean and we just lost I think I told you the other day, one of the great coffee places in our city. It was a historic it was a landmark Scott in in Fairhaven. And that’s too bad because that was a that was a great meeting place Cowan to, in Fairhaven. But I tend to go and, again, as you said, I am not the coffee drinker.
Cheryl Crooks [00:59:06]:
So, I haven’t had a complaint from anybody who’s a coffee drinker, but, I like to meet people for coffee at a at a little place called the Firehouse, Performing Arts Center. And it’s it’s it’s a converted old firehouse, in a the historic section known of Bellingham known as Fairhaven, and it has, like, a 75 seat, theater where the fire engines used to be the fire trucks used to park. It’s been converted, and a woman named Teresa, owns it. And, I meant and it’s it’s, you know, dance performances, we’ve shown films there. All sorts of stuff take place. But on the side, they have a little firehouse cafe.
Scott Cowan [00:59:50]:
Okay. And
Cheryl Crooks [00:59:51]:
you can get coffee, all kinds of really good baked goods, and, I can get teas. And they they serve, you know, a small selection of food. Every time I’ve had food there, it’s been it’s been super good. And it’s a small little place, and you can just sit there or you can sit outside. What I love to do when it’s warmer in the spring or summer, they’ve got a whole big area outside with this enormous historic tree that can’t be torn down because it’s so old. It just branches out. I forgot what kind of tree it is, but it’s it’s not a it’s not a Douglas fir, but it’s got low hanging branches that are just amazing and, meet people there. And there’s a lot of regulars, including myself, who, who go there.
Cheryl Crooks [01:00:33]:
And, that’s a great place to have a conversation.
Scott Cowan [01:00:35]:
And talk. So my biggest question about that place is does it still have the fireman’s pole? Can that can we slide down the fireman’s pole?
Cheryl Crooks [01:00:41]:
You know
Scott Cowan [01:00:42]:
Not that I would do. Well, I might do. I might try it.
Cheryl Crooks [01:00:45]:
Yeah. I don’t know. I’ve never seen it. If it if it is, it’s often maybe in the back part of the
Scott Cowan [01:00:50]:
See, that’d be kinda, you know, that’d be kinda
Cheryl Crooks [01:00:52]:
Good question.
Scott Cowan [01:00:53]:
That’s probably an insurance nightmare for him, but it’s still the kind of Yeah.
Cheryl Crooks [01:00:56]:
I’ve never seen anybody Cowan down the phone.
Scott Cowan [01:01:00]:
With, like, with a hot cup of coffee in their hand, you know, nothing could go wrong. Nothing could go wrong there at
Cheryl Crooks [01:01:04]:
all. Yeah. Hey. I’ll I’ll meet you there when he comes down,
Scott Cowan [01:01:07]:
and you can ask. Exactly. Exactly. Alright. So we’re gonna we’re gonna wrap this up with a little bit different ending than I normally do. So I’m gonna ask you the my go to question, and and you have to answer it. You can’t you can’t skip this one. This is putting you on the side.
Scott Cowan [01:01:20]:
I know you’re a journalist, and I promise you no hard hitting questions. I kinda lied to you. Alright. Here it is. Cake or pie and why?
Cheryl Crooks [01:01:29]:
No. I have I don’t even have to think about this pie. Okay. Why pie? Why pie?
Scott Cowan [01:01:35]:
Why pie?
Cheryl Crooks [01:01:36]:
Why pie? Well, this I hope this doesn’t offend all the cake and bakers because I love to bake. But pies have so much variety. I mean, you could do fruit. My favorite pie is rhubarb pie, which is actually, of course, not a fruit, vegetable. And I don’t and I’m a purist. I don’t wanna mix the strawberries or any of that stuff. Straight rhubarb
Scott Cowan [01:02:01]:
So you kinda like the tart?
Cheryl Crooks [01:02:02]:
On the sour side.
Scott Cowan [01:02:04]:
You know? Mhmm. Mhmm.
Cheryl Crooks [01:02:05]:
The crust is the key. Right? You have to make a really good crust or a really good meringue. None of this with cream stuff on the top of it for lemon meringue. It’s gotta be real meringue, not lemon
Scott Cowan [01:02:18]:
Yeah.
Cheryl Crooks [01:02:18]:
Cream work.
Scott Cowan [01:02:19]:
Yeah.
Cheryl Crooks [01:02:20]:
Oh, I love I love pie. But let me tell you something. Try to find a place where you can get really good homemade pie. There’s, like, I know 2 in Bellingham, I haven’t been since COVID. Right?
Scott Cowan [01:02:32]:
Yeah. I was gonna say that’s more than I thought. Pie is pie doesn’t I don’t tend to find good pie in restaurants. I mean, it’s just just very few people.
Cheryl Crooks [01:02:42]:
You know why? I found out from a friend of mine who used to have a a pie stand here at Farmer’s Market, and she made homemade pies that were fantastic. It’s because it Scott so much more.
Scott Cowan [01:02:54]:
Yeah. Oh, okay. That’s okay. That’s, yeah, costing. But it so it’s interesting, and and I keep saying this every episode, and I still haven’t done it. And I’m gonna say it this episode again, and I’m going to go back through all my questions of people, and I’m going to start keeping a running tally of the the cake versus pie, debate.
Cheryl Crooks [01:03:13]:
That that’s a good one.
Scott Cowan [01:03:14]:
Because I think it’s important, and and the people need to know. But I do think it’s funny, how people are, Most people, when they answer the question are firmly in camp cake or firmly in camp pie, they there’s very, some people go, well, I can’t decide. There’s There’s very few, and I do and I’m positioning it. You have to I want you to pick a side, but most people are very happy to to pick a side and defend that side at the expense of the other. And it I’d love
Cheryl Crooks [01:03:44]:
to see I’d love to see the stats on that.
Scott Cowan [01:03:46]:
Yeah. And I and and then the sub the subcategory to this is I wanna know, like, you just said, rhubarb. That’s not a popular choice. K. Apple, I think is apple. Not and I love I love Rhubarb pie. I’m not saying that. I don’t mean that in a in a negative way.
Cheryl Crooks [01:04:04]:
Right.
Scott Cowan [01:04:04]:
Most people are saying apple.
Cheryl Crooks [01:04:07]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [01:04:08]:
There’s been there’s been some outliers that are saying, you know, rhubarb or or peach. That’s another one that every
Cheryl Crooks [01:04:15]:
now and then pops. Cherry is a big one. Right?
Scott Cowan [01:04:17]:
No. Cherry is not either. I mean, they’re there, but it’s Apple is I this is this is me thinking about the data. I haven’t looked at it. But me thinking is that pie is in the lead by a large amount.
Cheryl Crooks [01:04:31]:
Oh, wow. Yeah. And
Scott Cowan [01:04:32]:
apple pie is in. Yeah. Yeah. Pie pie is I, I will go on record saying, I think it’s probably 70, 30 pie. I really, I really think it’s that, you know, 70, 30. I w yeah. And I’m surprised that it’s not a little bit more, balanced. The other thing that surprises me is the reaction of people who are pro pie that are, like, anti cake.
Scott Cowan [01:05:01]:
Like, oh, cake. I don’t want cake. Oh, too sweet. Oh, too much. Oh, I’m like, really? You
Cheryl Crooks [01:05:08]:
Yeah. I love cake. I Yeah. You know, we have some fabulous bakeries in town. If we did a showdown here, we’ve got a place in town that makes the I mean, the most unbelievable cakes. We have a place in Cowan, one of the bakeries that makes, they don’t make the pies, but they make the most unbelievable pastries. I mean, so you could put them together, but, yeah. Pie is just, yeah, for me, that’s that’s the that’s the root.
Scott Cowan [01:05:37]:
Alright. So we’re gonna wrap this up with this last question. What didn’t I ask you that I should’ve regarding the the film festival?
Cheryl Crooks [01:05:46]:
We covered a lot of territory. You know? Thank thankfully, you didn’t ask me what my favorite film is.
Scott Cowan [01:05:52]:
No. I wouldn’t be able to.
Cheryl Crooks [01:05:53]:
What my favorite film in the festival is because I I wouldn’t say that anyway even if I had one.
Scott Cowan [01:05:58]:
That’s like asking you what your favorite kid is. I mean, you just you just I ask that question to a lot of people, but it’s just I wasn’t even gonna do that.
Cheryl Crooks [01:06:04]:
The one thing I one thing I’ll tell you, Scott, is, one thing we didn’t cover is, what we’re doing differently this year.
Scott Cowan [01:06:12]:
Okay.
Cheryl Crooks [01:06:12]:
And I just would like to mention that because we are doing something that we think is really special and really shows our maturation as a festival. And that’s this year every year up to this year, we selected, an honored guest to come to the festival. Someone in the film industry who’s has been at the pinnacle of their career, and we honor them for their life achievements and their what they have done, to, advocate for women in the film industry. This year, instead of doing that, we are doing we’re honoring one of our own. We have a director who’s coming to the festival, who, has been in the festival, like, 4 or 5 years with with short films previously because they’re really good. And we we have decided to honor her this year, in celebration of the work she has done and the work she is doing. We had a we had a woman that was on our advisory board, a nationally known, director who passed away this last fall. And, she was nationally known for her work of of, chaplaining, playwrights great playwrights of color in particular.
Cheryl Crooks [01:07:30]:
And so we thought a way of of honoring her legacy, we created something called because she she was a major contributor to us in selecting films and being on our script studio panels and and a lot of stuff. We decided we created something called the Shirley Joe Fenny featured filmmaker. And we selected this filmmaker this year for the first one. Her name is Jules Kustachian. She is from Vancouver, BC. She has a feature film out this year that is, in the words of one of my selection committee people, exquisite. And it’s a documentary. It’s powerful.
Cheryl Crooks [01:08:15]:
It’s impactful. It it explores an issue that, frankly, this country, still really hasn’t fully addressed. She’s indigenous. She’s Cree. About the removal of native children from their families into residential schools, and the impact that that has that had on that generation in raising their own children and the stories and it’s it’s beautifully done. I mean, it’s not it’s not horrible. I mean, it’s Scott, like, horror stories and all of that. I mean, certainly, it touches on, you know, the the tragedy that of this whole practice.
Cheryl Crooks [01:08:56]:
But it’s the name of the film is called Cowan, and that means tomorrow in her language, in the Cree language. And and I’ve heard Jules talk about it, and she says, it’s it’s hopeful. It means hope. Jules is a very positive, forward thinking person. And so we have decided that this year, we would honor her, celebrate her with the screening of this film, which by the way will be the US premiere. K. And we’re very proud of that because as part of our mission is is not only to support women filmmakers, but to help develop them. So that’s one thing that we’re doing differently this year that, will be, it’s gonna be in in the bigger, theater at the Mal Baker Theatre, and we’ll have a a beautiful reception, a big discussion following the film.
Cheryl Crooks [01:09:52]:
Just just to, you know, kind of honor honor both Shirley Joe and, to celebrate the work that Jules is doing as as a as a filmmaker.
Scott Cowan [01:10:05]:
Okay. Where if people wanna go online, and we’ll put this in the show notes too, but where can people find out more about the film festival and anything else that around it that you think is worth?
Cheryl Crooks [01:10:16]:
Just go to our website, cascadiatimelfest.org, and, the links are all there by tickets. You can see the trailers to the films. You can link to our online program, which is wonderful. I’ve People tell us about the bios of the directors and a little bit about some of the things gonna happen and, you know, things of that sort. So they could get all that information, on on the website.
Scott Cowan [01:10:42]:
And we’ll link that to the show. So, Cheryl, thank you for sitting down with me today. I appreciate it. I hope that you still
Cheryl Crooks [01:10:48]:
have it.
Scott Cowan [01:10:49]:
I hope you’re having a nice day up in Bellingham today. It’s like we talked before we hit the record button, you were saying it was nice, but cold through the window behind you. I see, I see blue sky. I’ve I’ve got blue sky out here. So I’m gonna go outside for a little while and I don’t know, play with the dog probably for a while and get this over to my producer for him to get it ready. We’ll get it published, and, I encourage everybody to go out and and see the film festival this year and follow-up, and I wish you all the best.
Cheryl Crooks [01:11:16]:
Thank you, Scott. And, hey, I look forward to seeing you in
Scott Cowan [01:11:20]:
that theater. I’m gonna try to get there this year. I I’ve Scott I’m not trying to be wishy washy. I I don’t have my calendar up. So that’s that’s the the vagueness. But my big excuse about not going across the mountains in winter and it’s April’s not winter. So I should be able to get across Stevens path. Bellingham’s beautiful thing about Wenatchee.
Scott Cowan [01:11:39]:
We’re in the center of the state. There’s nothing that’s really close to us or too far Cowan. And Bellingham is an awesome place, and I need to get back up there. And this might be the
Cheryl Crooks [01:11:50]:
Epitize?
Scott Cowan [01:11:52]:
Well, I will say this. So we have had well, we, me, I have had a lot of podcast guests from Bellingham. I I Once again, I don’t keep stats. I will say that it’s really obvious that the west side I have had more guests from the west side than I have from the east side of the state. Okay. That’s just kind of the law of numbers. Yeah. But I’m gonna guess that Bellingham is in the top 5 cities, and I might even make it it might make it to the top 3.
Cheryl Crooks [01:12:28]:
Wow. Okay.
Scott Cowan [01:12:29]:
Of of of number of guests that we’ve had on at at this point, and this will be your episode will be, like, in the 288 7, 285, somewhere in that range. So Right. You know, we’ve had we’ve had a, you know, a large number of conversations, and I’m gonna guess Bellingham’s in the top oh, I’m gonna go be conservative and say top 5 of of cities. And Doesn’t, Yeah.
Cheryl Crooks [01:12:53]:
It doesn’t surprise me too much because, I mean, we’ve never lived in a I’ve never lived in a place this size that has all the kinds of things it has to offer. Not just, you know, culturally, but recreationally, all sorts of stuff. Absolutely. It’s crazy.
Scott Cowan [01:13:07]:
Yeah. No. It’s a it’s a it’s a great it’s a great I’ll call it it’s a great little city. I mean, it’s not Birmingham is about a 100,000 people now. It’s not as small as it No. As I think. But it’s, it’s not it’s not that big either. I mean, it’s it’s still it’s got a good deal.
Cheryl Crooks [01:13:23]:
Live here. It’s certainly worth coming up for a long weekend if you’re coming from, you you know, somewhere else in the state because we’re pretty much out of the state close to the, you know, the border here. But Alright. You know, I said we’re we’re almost Canadian,
Scott Cowan [01:13:36]:
You’re almost well, okay. Well, we’re not gonna go back to the Vancouver Connects thing. We’re just gonna skip that. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
Cheryl Crooks [01:13:45]:
Alright. Thanks, Scott. Good to talk to you.
