A new film series built around women filmmakers and women's stories sold out its first night Sunday, drawing a packed house to the Terrace Theater for three screenings and a conversation about what it still takes for women to get their work on screen. Holy City Cinema, founded by Rebecca Finley, opened with a lineup pairing independent film with discussion about the industry that makes it.
A Sold-Out First Night for a New Local Series
According to the Post and Courier, the inaugural showcase centered on women filmmakers and women's stories and featured a three-film lineup. The event, billed on its event listing as “Celebrating Women Creatives,” was scheduled for the afternoon of Nov. 1 at the Terrace, and both the screenings-and-discussion program and a separately reserved filmmaker dinner were marked full, per event listings on thisisnoteworthy.org. As reported by Live 5 News, the night included independent film screenings, conversations about the film industry, and a five-course dinner where moviegoers sat down alongside the artists themselves. That dinner served 16 guests, Live 5 News reported, and guests were asked to put away their phones so they could stay engaged with the stories on screen.
Finley, who serves as Holy City Cinema's founder and artistic director, told Live 5 News she built the platform to connect women in creative fields with the community and to share the challenges and triumphs of bringing their work to the screen. The project grew out of her own experience as a filmmaker, she said, and she pointed to a long-standing imbalance in the industry: historically, she said, men have had more representation and influence than women in film.
Three Films, Two Women Directors, Stories About Women
The opening lineup featured two women filmmakers and one man filmmaker, with the films themselves centered on stories about women, Live 5 News reported. Anchoring the program was “Seeing Is Believing,” a 57-minute documentary directed by actress and three-time Daytime Emmy winner Cady McClain, as described by the Post and Courier. The film is drawn from a larger project for which McClain interviewed more than 50 women directors, according to Directed by Women. The 57-minute cut previously won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2017 SOHO International Film Festival, per Broadway World.
Rounding out the bill were the experimental short “Are We Just Flowers,” written, directed, edited and scored by Eugene Roccoutlui and centered on themes of motherhood, daughterhood and the cycles between them, and the teen mystery pilot “Marshlight Girls,” the Post and Courier reported. After the screenings, McClain joined Li Lu, Zandrina Dunning, Bonnie Ryerson and Finley for a discussion about women in creative industries, with a separate dinner offering a five-course meal from chef Mari Jo Ramie and time with the filmmakers and panelists.
Panelists Talk Representation Behind and In Front of the Camera
Zandrina Dunning, who hosted the event, said the series gives women space to amplify and share their stories, according to Live 5 News. Li Lu, a writer and director on the panel, said female directors and cinematographers — particularly BIPOC women — remain underrepresented, and said the event creates space for critical discussion of that representation while encouraging audiences to seek out films by women of color.
Director and producer Bonnie Ryerson, who attended the premiere with her own group, said the project she wrote was intended to inspire young girls to become filmmakers and writers and to consider careers in the industry. The gatherings themselves are designed to stay small — shared screenings followed by discussion rather than a traditional multiplex crowd, Live 5 News reported.
Industry Numbers Behind the Series' Mission
The data underlying that mission has moved in different directions depending on the metric and the year. Women's share of leading roles in top theatrical films jumped from 32.1% in 2023 to 47.6% in 2024, according to a UCLA report. But behind the camera, the same report found women directed just 15.4% of the top 200 English-language theatrical films in 2024 — 16 films directed by women, including five by women of color — while women writers' representation fell to 22.1% of films that year, nearly five points below its 2022 peak.
More recent figures from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film show further decline: women created 24% of original U.S. streaming series in 2025-26, down from 36% the prior season, and directed 22% of streaming programs, down from 32%. Female protagonists appeared in just 29% of top-grossing U.S. films in 2025, the center found, down from 42% in 2024, even as women made up the majority of opening-weekend ticket buyers for eight of 2024's top 20 movies, per UCLA's research.
What's Next for Holy City Cinema
Finley has already mapped out an expansion. Four quarterly Holy City Cinema events are planned for 2027 in Charleston, Summerville, Awendaw and North Charleston, the Post and Courier reported, with themes and films for those events to be announced during the first week of January. Live 5 News reported that the next event is scheduled for February 2027 and will feature a comedy.
