Opening night of the second Athena Film Festival sparkled with an array of film lovers and professionals whose contributions to the medium have helped to illuminate the stories of courageous women across the world. The Athena Center for Leadership Studies and Women in Hollywood jointly produced the festival, which this year was marked by the inception of the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award named for a noted Hollywood producer and founder of Stand Up to Cancer. Ziskin died in 2011; her daughter, Julia Barry, accepted the award on her mother’s behalf. Another festival highlight was a screening of Gloria: In Her Own Words, a documentary about activist Gloria Steinem who appeared afterward in a Q&A session conducted by writer-activist Amy Richards ’92.
