The 31st Annual Women’s History Month Film Series Schedule

Mondays, Feb. 20 – March 20, 2017 ~ 7:00-9:00pm ~ 206 Kirkbride Hall

February 20: Standing on My Sisters’ Shoulders

This film approaches the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it—women such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Mae Bertha Carter. In the name of freedom and equal rights, they risked their physical safety, their jobs, and even their lives to emerge as the Movement’s grassroots leaders. They not only brought about change in Mississippi, they altered the course of American history.

Speaker: Emerald Christopher-Byrd, Women and Gender Studies Department

February 27: No Más Bebés (No More Babies)

They came to have their babies. They left sterilized. This film recounts the stories of immigrant mothers who between 1971 and 1974 were sterilized, often without giving informed consent, after giving birth. Led by an intrepid, 26-year-old Chicana lawyer, and armed with hospital records secretly gathered by a whistle-blowing young doctor, the mothers brought a lawsuit against a Los Angeles County hospital. In the name of justice, they stood up to powerful institutions and braved public exposure of their private pain. The film raises questions about reproductive rights that remain all too relevant in 2017.

Speaker: Eve Buckley, History Department

March 6: The Trials of Spring

The Trials of Spring follows the journeys of three Egyptian women from the heady early days of the 2011 Arab Spring until today: Hend, from a rural military family, awaiting a harsh prison sentence for protesting against military rule; Miriam, an activist fighting to end sexual assault; and Mama Khadiga, a formerly veiled widow who became a caretaker of the revolutionaries. Their intersecting stories reveal the vital and underreported role women play in shaping the region’s future.

Speaker: TBA

March 13: Three to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders

The first feature documentary about people who are neither male nor female. Agender, gender queer and more, they’re redefining gender, challenging masculinity and femininity. In increasing numbers, of all ages and ethnicities, people are referring to themselves as agender, gender neutral, gender queer, and more. This documentary that immerses the viewer in a world where gender is a spectrum of possibilities, where stereotypes fall, and where the future is the present.

Speaker: Adam Foley, Office of Equity and Inclusion

March 20: The Pad Piper

The Pad Piper is the incredible story of a school dropout and grassroots innovator from India, Arunachalam Muruganantham. His innovative, low-cost, sanitary-pad making machine is changing the face of menstrual hygiene for thousands of women across India. Indeed, this simple machine has the potential to change lives of women across the world. He sells his machines to women’s self-help groups. These women then educate others about the perils of using crude and unsafe methods, while challenging ancient taboos about menstruation. He is the modern day pied piper. A Pad Piper.

Speaker: Katie Katz, University of Delaware 2017, Founder & President, Gift of Life at UD