University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 19, Feb. 13, 1997
Annual Women's Film Series opens
                                   
     Women's History/Women's Lives" is the theme of the 11th
annual Women's History Month Film Series, being sponsored by UD
on Tuesdays from Feb. 25 to March 25. The films can be seen at 7
p.m. in Room 100, Kirkbride Hall. Each film will be followed by a
discussion led by a UD faculty member, or someone with a
perspective related to the film.
     The free, public series opens Feb. 25 with Ida B. Wells: A
Passion for Justice. Between the 1890s and her death in 1931,
Wells was a towering figure in the struggle for equal rights.
Born to slave parents, she became a journalist, anti-lynching
crusader, civil rights activist, suffragist and feminist and a
controversial political thinker. The film offers a stirring
portrait of the woman and her era. Following the film, Reba
Hollingsworth of the Delaware Heritage Commission will speak.
     Scheduled March 4 is Dream Girls, the story of young women
who flock to the Takarazuka Music School to learn to perform
Western-style musicals while absorbing lessons in Japanese-style
femininity. Female fans rush to the school's annual musical revue
to shower their cross-dressing idols with gifts and adulation.
This fascinating film is both a slice of modern Japanese life and
a meditation on how one country constructs masculinity and
femininity. Following the film, Gerald Figal, history, will
present comments.
     Leona's Sister Gerri is scheduled for March 11. In 1964,
Gerri Santoro died in a motel room from an illegal abortion.
After her death, a graphic police photograph of her body became
an emotionally contested symbol in the struggle over reproductive
rights. The film, which presents a moving portrait of Gerri
Santoro's life and society's response to her death, inspires
reflection and discussion, regardless of one's point of view.
Kathleen Turkel, women's studies, will speak after the film.
     Gods of Our Fathers, a film that examines when and how
patriarchal societies came into being, is scheduled for March 18.
In the film, philosopher Gwynne Dyer outlines his theories, in
the process traveling around the world and across time. Alan Fox,
philosophy, will present comments after the film.
     The Women Outside is scheduled on March 25. Called bar
women, hostesses or sex workers, the women of this film are
"outside" U.S. military bases in South Korea and "outside" the
norms of Korean society. Struggling to earn decent wages, they
are often forced into prostitution. Through portraits of several
women "outside," this film raises provocative questions about
military policy, economic survival and the role of women in
global geopolitics. Filmmakers J. T. Takagi and Hye Jung Park
will speak after the film.
     The series is sponsored by the Black American Studies
Program, the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and
Public Events, the departments of History and Sociology, the
Office of Women's Affairs, the Visiting Minority Scholars and the
Visiting Women Scholars funds and the Women's Studies
Interdisciplinary Program.
     For more information, call 831-8474 or 831-8063.