In honor of Women’s History Month, the UW-Whitewater Women’s Issues Committee, Women’s Studies Department, and the Women’s Resource Center are sponsoring a free film festival of documentaries by and about women.
All films will be shown on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., in the Summers Auditorium of the James R. Connor University Center. The schedule is:
* March 4: “The Education of Shelby Knox” : A self-described “good Southern Baptist girl,” 15-year-old Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas has pledged abstinence until marriage. But she becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education when she finds that Lubbock, where high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the state.
* March 11: “Desire” : In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, DESIRE offers a poignant perspective on the complicated dynamics of race and class in New Orleans. The film documents the lives of a group of young women from the city–-two teenagers from the Desire housing projects in the Ninth Ward, a working class single mother, and two girls from a prestigious private school–-by letting them film their own stories. Masterfully interwoven throughout the film, these vibrant and candid shorts record the intimate dramas of the girls’ changing lives, and stand in stark contrast to mass media images of hopeless Katrina victims.
* March 18: “Girl Inside” : Following 26-year-old Madison during a crucial three years of her transition from male to female, GIRL INSIDE is a beautiful film that tracks her emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey of self-discovery that is as important as the physical journey of hormones and surgery. Sharing the spotlight is Vivien, Madison’s glamorous 80-year-old grandmother, who has taken on the job of advising her on all things feminine. While Vivien’s attempts to school Madison in old-fashioned codes of fashion and behavior are often hilarious, the juxtaposition of two vastly different experiences of womanhood, from different generations, raises profound issues about the nature of gender, femininity and sexuality.
For more information, see this article from University Marketing & Media Relations.