Meet Kim Huenecke of Worldwide Women’s Film Festival

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Huenecke.

Kim, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was part of a committee back 2011 that was going to plan a women’s film festival. Unfortunately, the committee disbanded and the idea was forgotten. I did not forget about it. In 2016, I was in a film called “Dark Dignity” and we were doing a radio interview to promote the film. One of my co-stars told me to talk to Eva Louis about it. At this point, I did know Eva Louis very well. My co-star stated that I had something to say and I said that I was going to put on a women’s film festival. Eva Louis said that was easy. That a different co-star stated she might have a sponsor for it. After we were done with the interview I told Eva I was serious about the women’s film festival. She told okay, let’s meet up and talk about it. A few weeks later we meet and I showed my notes from the first committee and she told that a lot of the planning was done for us. We decided 2018 was the year for the festival. Then I started to call movie theatres to get quotes about renting their theatres for the festival. We decided on Harkings Theatres. Then we put the film festival on FilmFreeway. That was unbelievable! Our first entry for the film festival was a music video from Milan. We had films being submitted every day! We hosted a networking event and met a lot of people interested in volunteering at the festival. We programmed 96 films in a day and a half. That was crazy! Everyone loved the festival. Many of the filmmakers thanked us for having the festival. Next year, the festival will be February 8 – 10, 2019 at Harkins Shea 14.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Smooth road? No. Eva and I had health challenges (not at the same time) in the planning of the film festival. When one person was sick, the planning had to stop for a while. Another challenge we had was asking for sponsorships from companies. It was our first year and did not have enough demographic information for them to grant us sponsorship.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Worldwide Women’s Film Festival educates, supports and empowers women in the collaborative endeavor of filmmaking while we shine a light on women’s stories and diverse experiences. Proud – we have a film festival for women who may not be able to show their films in their country because of the subject matter.

Sets us apart – we attend film festivals and talk to the filmmakers about submitting their films to our film festival. At the film festival, we talked to all the filmmakers individually and got to know them personally.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up I liked movies. My mom would take my brothers and me to the movies all the time. Growing up I was a shy kid.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wwfilmfestival.com
• Phone: 602-525-3012
• Email: worldwidewomensfilmfestival@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worldwidewomensfilmfestival/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideWomensFilmFest/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WWFilmFestival

Image Credit:
First photo – Michelle Allen to the left, Me in the middle and Eva Louis to the right. Photo by Shannon Dia Photography.
Headshot of me – Terri Whitehurst Photography

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