The 32nd Annual Women’s History Month Film Series Schedule
Mondays, Feb. 19 – March 19, 2018 ~ 7:00-9:00pm ~ 206 Kirkbride Hall
February 19: Birthright: A War Story
Birthright: A War Story chronicles how women have become collateral damage in the aggressive campaign to allow states, courts and particular religious doctrines to govern whether, when, and how women will bear children. The documentary explores the accelerating gains of the crusade to control pregnant women and the fallout that is creating a public health crisis, turning pregnant women into criminals and challenging the constitutional protections of every woman in America. It asks a fundamental question: who should control women’s reproductive health care?
Speaker: Mieke Eeckhaut, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware
February 26: Out in the Night
Out in the Night tells the story of a group of young friends in their late teens and early twenties, African American lesbians who are out one hot August night in 2006, in the gay friendly neighborhood of New York City. After a violent attack, in which they defend themselves, the women are rounded up, charged with gang assault, assault, and attempted murder. Three of the women plead guilty. But Renata, Patreese, Venice and Terrain claim their innocence. They are called a “Gang of Killer Lesbians” by the media. In activist circles they become known as The New Jersey 4 (NJ4). Through the lives of these four young women, Out in the Night reveals how their race, gender identity and sexuality became criminalized in the mainstream news media and criminal legal system.
Speaker: Brooklynn Hitchens, Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
March 5: To Be a Miss
To Be A Miss takes the viewer through the inner workings of Venezuela’s beauty factory, exploring the hopes and dreams of young models as they strive to become the next Miss Venezuela. Following three central protagonists, the film exposes the risks and rewards associated with this multi-billion dollar industry while showing how nationalism, personal ambition, and the influence of mass media have transformed the lives of ordinary women in the country.
Speaker: Monica Dominguez Torres, Department of Art History, University of Delaware
March 12: Vegas Baby
An in-vitro fertilization contest? Sounds crazy, but countless Americans struggling with infertility enter a Vegas-style lottery,, seeing it as their only hope. This provocative documentary follows several aspiring parents who desperately want to have a baby but cannot afford the high cost of IVF treatments. When a Las Vegas doctor sponsors a controversial annual contest, offering a free round of in-vitro fertilization—with no guarantee of success—theypost their video entries on YouTube, counting on the votes of strangers to make their dreams of parenthood come true. Vegas Baby navigates the complexities of America’s burgeoning fertility industry and unveils the class disparity within a topic that is often clouded by judgment and stereotypes.
Speaker: Ann Bell, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware
March 19: Anita: Speaking Truth to Power
In 1991, law professor Anita Hill testified before a Senate committee considering Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. By recounting the sexual harassment she had endured from Thomas, she highlighted issues of power and sexual misconduct in the workplace that remain relevant in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp. In the years since her testimony, she has become an icon as a woman willing to stand up for racial and gender justice and equality—to “speak truth to power.”
Speaker: Tara Richards, School of Criminal Justice, University of Baltimore
This year’s series is sponsored by the University of Delaware departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Art History, History, Human Development and Family Sciences, Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Women and Gender Studies, the Center for Global and Area Studies (CGAS), and the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events (CAPE).
