Film Festival: Portraits of International Women
Mar 22
Vander Vennet Theatre& Online
Mar 22
Vander Vennet Theatre| Tuesday, Mar. 22 - Tuesday, Apr. 12 | Register |
Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
This film series portrays international women’s experiences related to culture and identity, highlighting stories of resilience. It is free and open to the public!
All movies, except for "The Life Ahead" (March 29th), will be streamed in a hybrid format, in-person and online, with previous registration. Each film will have an introduction, screening, and a discussion on the assigned date. Please join us at 7:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, March 22, 29, and on April 5 and 12.
This film series has been made possible through the generosity of our co-host, The Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership, in addition to our co-sponsors that include the following departments at Saint Mary’s College: English, Gender and Women’s Studies, Global Studies, and History.
For questions please contact susuga@saintmarys.edu
Mame-Fatou and Kaytie Nielsen| 2017 | 1h 23m |
SYNOPSIS
Recent violence and growing nationalism in France have brought fierce debates about the country’s identity to the forefront. In Mariannes Noires, seven French-born women of African and Caribbean descent unravel what it means to be Black and French; to be Black in France. They are entrepreneurs, scholars, filmmakers, dancers, and artists, whose Frenchness is rooted in a cultural space stretching from metropolitan France to Africa and its many diasporas. This documentary is a mosaic of seven narratives that raise the veil on a multicultural France.
About the Film on March 29:Edoardo Ponti| 2020 | 1h 35m |
SYNOPSIS
Based on the novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. As reported by USA Today and FANSIDED, this movie is set in seaside Italy and focuses on a spirited Holocaust survivor named Madame Rosa. Madame Rosa provides refuge for the children of sex workers. When a streetwise newcomer, a 12-year-old named Momo, challenges Madame Rosa’s rules, the two of them must overcome their differences. Along the way, Madame Rosa and Momo form an unexpected bond.
About the Film on April 5:Xavi Sala| 2018 | 1h 59m |
SYNOPSIS
In a star-making performance, Sótera Cruz brings razor-sharp intensity to her portrayal of Guie’dani, a Zapotec girl determined to fight for her dignity. Guie’dani is dragged to Mexico City by her mother to help in her work as a housekeeper for an upper-middle-class family. There, the subtle psychological subjugation inflicted by the white family functions as a metaphor for the oppression of the old world by the new. Yet, Guie’dani rejects the life of servitude and seeks her own identity through a friendship with another rebellious teen. A striking contrast to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Guie’dani’s Navel is a unique coming-of-age narrative exploring the racism inflicted on indigenous people in Mexico and the empowerment of a new generation that refuses to accept it silently.
About the Film on April 12:Yue-Qing Yang | 1999 | 59m|
SYNOPSIS
In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation. But in Jian-yong county in Hunan province, peasant women miraculously developed a separate written language, called Nu Shu, meaning "female writing." Believing women to be inferior, men disregarded this new script, and it remained unknown for centuries. It wasn't until the 1960s that Nu Shu caught the attention of Chinese authorities, who suspected that this peculiar writing was a secret code for international espionage. Today, interest in this secret script continues to grow, as evidenced by the wide critical acclaim of Lisa See’s recent novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, about Nu Shu.
NU SHU: A HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF WOMEN IN CHINA is a thoroughly engrossing documentary that revolves around the filmmaker's discovery of eighty-six-year-old Huan-yi Yang, the only living resident of the Nu Shu area still able to read and write Nu Shu. Exploring Nu Shu customs and their role in women's lives, the film uncovers a women's subculture born of resistance to male dominance, finds a parallel struggle in the resistance of Yao minorities to Confucian Han Chinese culture, and traces Nu Shu's origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered women's creativity.