Vol. 18, No. 19Feb. 11, 1999

Film series to highlight Women's History Month

The University's 13th annual Women's History Month film series, "Women's History/ Women's Lives," will be held on Tuesdays from Feb. 23 through March 23.

All films will be shown at 7 p.m. in Room 204 of Kirkbride Hall. A special guest speaker, with expertise in the film's subject area, will lead a discussion after each documentary film. The film series is free and open to the public

The series opens on Feb. 23 with International Sweethearts of Rhythm and Tiny & Ruby: Hell Divin' Women. These two films offer an affectionate portrait of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a multi-racial, all-women's jazz band from the 1940s, and of Tiny Davis, the band's fabulous trumpeter, and her partner Ruby Lucas.

Guest speaker, following the film, will be Donald Byrd, Black American Studies Program.

On March 2 the film, I, Doll: The Unauthorized Biography of America's 11-1/2-Inch Sweetheart, will be shown. More than just a doll, Barbie is an idol, an icon and a collector's item. The film details the icon's history, introduces her creator and includes encounters with Barbie impersonators, collectors and worshippers.

Leading the discussion after the film will be Emily Carter and Mary Anne Lacour, Center for Counseling and Student Development.

50 Years of Silence is the title of the film scheduled for March 9. It tells the story of Jan Ruff-O'Herne, now an Australian grandmother, who broke her silence to reveal the terrible secret of her World War II experience. Taken prisoner in Java and reduced to sexual slavery by the Japanese army, she began to speak out publicly 50 years later, only after seeing television reports of Korean women demanding justice. By recounting the harrowing story of one woman's life, the film calls attention to the fate of over 200,000 other women and girls, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war.

Gerald Figal, history, will speak after the film.

Ringl and Pit is the name of the film to be shown on March 16. It tells the story of Grete Stern ("Ringl") and Ellen Auerbach ("Pit") who met during the heady days when the Bauhaus was a center of artistic experimentation in Germany. Forming their own advertising partnership in Berlin, the "ringl + pit" studio, they challenged their culture's expectations and sought satisfying lives as independent women and as creative artists. This elegiac film chronicles their short-lived artistic triumph, their flight from Germany as the Nazis came to power, and the lifelong friendship that spanned both years and miles.

Martha Carothers, art, will lead discussion after the film.

The series concludes on March 23 with a showing of Mitsuye & Nellie: Asian-American Poets. This absorbing film documents the lives of Asian-American women through the poetry of Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong. In interviews, film clips, intimate family conversations and lively dialog between the two women, viewers encounter the different histories of Japanese- and Chinese-Americans as well as their shared experiences of biculturalism and generational conflict in 20th-century America.

Peter Feng, English, will lead discussion after the film.

For more information, call 831-8474 or 831-8063. Kirkbride Hall is wheelchair accessible.

The series is sponsored by the Black American Studies and Women's Studies Interdisciplinary programs, the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the departments of History and Sociology and Office of Women's Affairs.