|
Tuesday, March 2,
2004
Keynote Address ÝSarah Weddington
"Some Leaders are Born Women"
9:25
a.m. to 10.50 a.m.
McAllister Fine Arts Auditorium (MCFA)
In
1973, at age 26, Sarah Weddington argued the winning side of the landmark
case Roe v. Wade before the United States Supreme Court, the youngest
woman ever to win a case in the Supreme Court. ÝWeddington has
been a long-time advocate for women. Ýin 1972, she was the first
woman from Austin elected to the Texas House of Representatives. ÝShe
served three terms before becoming the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
General Counsel in 1977, the first woman to ever hold that position. Ý
Following
the talk, a reception is planned in the McAllister Auditorium. ÝEveryone
is invited to attend.
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Film Festival
8:00 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.
ÝVATC 120
The Women’s
Bank of Bangladesh
Microeconomics doesn’t seem like
a promising topic for a one-hankie movie, but for the story of the
women’s bank of Bangladesh get out the Kleenex.Ý The Grameen Bank
lends very small amounts of money (sometimes as little as five dollars)
to very poor women, and those loans change their lives.Ý
Widowed or married, bamboo bench makers or banana farmers,
these women work hard, but lack capital.Ý Through Grameen, they
form teams, promise to be responsible for each other’s debt, and (here’s
where the tears come) learn to write their names to sign for the loans,
despite shouts from village leaders that Allah will punish them.
Bank founder and economics professor Muhammad Yunus claims that
world poverty can be eliminated by lending small amounts of money to
women around the world. This film follows women in one village over
the course of a year; their transformations make such a claim seem possible.Ý
Although the design of the Grameen Bank has changed since the film was
made, it still provides an inspiring perspective on eliminating global
poverty.
The film in color runs 47 minutes.
9:00
a.m. to 9:50 a.m. VATC 120
A Reputation: The Rape of Artemisia Gentileschi
As one of the most important artists of seventeenth-century
Italy, the life of painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1652/53) is
a worthy topic for films and books in and of itself.Ý The fact
that she surpassed the artistic achievements of most contemporary male
painters after being raped by a fellow artist and, subsequently, maligned
as a fallen woman, makes Gentileschi a subject of heroic status. Charges
were brought against her accused rapist, Artemisia’s own teacher, Agostino
Tassi, in 1612.Ý This BBC production uses original transcripts from the
highly publicized court trial to explore the deception and betrayal of a
male-dominated art community that attempted to ruin Gentileschi’s personal
and artistic reputation.Ý Forced to leave her native Italy to pursue
her art career, Artemisia Gentileschi became court artist to kings and
queens throughout Europe.Ý More importantly, she countered the trauma
she endured in her early life by transforming religious subject matter
of the day into studies of powerful women who get brutal revenge on male
villains by taking fate into their own (often bloody) hands.
Despite the recognition she received in her own life time,
Artemisia’s life and art fell into obscurity when, for three hundred
years, her works were attributed to her father, Orazio Gentileschi,
or other artists.Ý This film is one of the more accurate examples of
renewed and overdue interest in Artemisia Gentileschi in recent years.
The film in color runs 30 minutes.
10:00
a.m. to 10:50 a.m. VATC 120
Aung San Suu Kyi
By 1988
decades of military rule had turned one of Asia's potentially richest countries
into a decaying ruin. When Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma from exile
in 1988 to tend to her sick mother, she evolved into the leader of Burma's
democratic movement. ÝThis program explores Aung San Suu Kyi's rise
to prominence: daughter of Burma's martyred first president, dissident, political
prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and favored democratic candidate. ÝIn
addition, Burma's independence, volatile political climate, and economic
concerns are discussed.
(review
from "Films for the Humanities and Sciences")
The
film in color runs 24 minutes.
11:00
to 11:50 a.m.Ý VATC 120
Women of Hope: ÝLatinas Abriendo Camino
This
program tells the story of Latinas in the U.S. through portraits of
twelve unusual women who have broken new ground in their lives and achievements.
Among those featured in the program are Miriam Colon, actress and founder
of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater; ÝNydia Velazquez, the first
Puerto Rican Congresswoman; Ýand Sandra Cisneros, Chicana novelist
and poet. ÝDescribing their hopes, their dreams, and the paths they
took which shaped their lives, the twelve women share their stories in the
context of their families, their common histories and their careers. ÝThe
program includes a wealth of historical archival footage, and features
a soundtrack of diverse and important Latin music from the 1940s through
today. Produced by the Bread and Roses Cultural Project, Inc.
(review
from "Films for the Humanities and Sciences")
The film in color runs
29 minutes.
12:00 to
12:50 p.m.
Fly Girls
Drawing on archival
footage, rarely seen home movies, and interviews with the participants
themselves, "Fly Girls" tells the story of the Women's Airforce Service
pilots (WASP). Led by America's most accomplished aviatrix Jacqueline
Cochran, these courageous women logged more than sixty million miles,
ferrying planes throughout the United States, test-piloting experimental
aircraft, and training men to fly. Still, the WASP fought a daily, sometimes
deadly, battle for respect.
Thursday, March 4, 2004
9:25
a.m. to 10:40 a.m. VATC 120
Some Real Heat
Women comprise 13% of the San Francisco Fire Department force.
This is the largest percentage of women fire fighters in a single department
in the country and in the world. The six women profiled in this documentary
share their experiences of working in this physically and mentally
demanding environment that until 1974 refused entry to females.
These women are passionate about the excitement and physicality
of their jobs. They also appreciate benefits such as equal pay for men
and women, a work load of nine days per month, and the satisfaction of
knowing they are making an important contribution to their community and
serving as positive role models for children.
Entry and acceptance into this field has not been easy for
females. Despite being faced with resistance and hostility from some
fellow fire fighters and members of the public, these women have persevered
and learned to prosper in varied ways in a stressful job environment
that remains predominantly male, white, conservative, and heterosexual.Ý
Ý
This 2001 film in color runs 54 minutes and contains strong
language.
10:50 a.m. to 12:05
p.m. ÝVATC 120
The Lady from Chungking
Although
lacking any formal training in the art of acting, Anna May Wong graced
the silver screen for over forty years. ÝBorn Wong Liu Tsong on Januaery
3, 1905 to parents who ran a laundry in the Chinatown section of Los
Angeles, she went against the wishes of her tradition-bound father, who
said her preoccupation with the movies kept her from her studies. ÝBut
her contribution to show business ended up being a unique one. ÝShe
was the first Asian-American female to become a star, achieving that stardom
at a time when bias against her race was crushing, and she remained the
only Asian female star throughout those forty years.
In short,
she is a woman who dared. ÝShe successfully made the transition from
silent films to talkies, even to television. ÝIn her struggle to
break through the glass ceiling of Hollywood, she showed, according to
one critic, that an Asian American could carry the stage and screen, that
ideal beauty would have remained sadly homogenous without her.Ý Contemporary
fashion designers such as Vivian Tam have been influenced by her.
The
Lady from Chungking premiered in 1943 and stars Anna May Wong as Kwan
Mei, the aristocratic leader of a band of Chinese partisans fighting against
the Japanese occupation. ÝThe film will be viewed
following a presentation on Anna Mae Wong's life by Associate Professor
of English James Rossignol.
12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. VATC 120
Gabriela
Like all developing countries, the Philippines, a country comprised
of 7000 islands in South East Asia, is a country of inequalities. In
the late eighties, seventy-five percent of the land and capital of this
country was owned by two percent of the population. Eighty percent of
the population lived below the poverty line, and Filipina received the
lowest wages in the world.
This documentary examines the work of Gabriela, an umbrella
organization for diverse women’s groups in the Philippines. Named after
colonial nationalist Gabriela Silans, it brought together workers, nuns,
prostitutes and housewives to educate them on how to achieve better working
and living conditions and to help them liberate themselves from social
and sexual exploitation.
Gabriela has helped many women make small but important changes
in their lives such as teaching them how to solve marital issues (without
violence) and teaching them how to explain problems to and get results
from local authorities. Gabriela has also been instrumental in helping
Filipina gain a voice in the work force and in national politics.Ý
Ý
This film in color runs 67 minutes.
Friday, March 5, 2004
8:00 – 8:50
“Rich she is”: Penelope Devereux as Muse
and Myth
Dr. Ned
Bailey
Penelope Devereux Rich
was idealized in Elizabethan poetry and admired by the court, but condemned
as immoral after her death.Ý The facts of her life and her correspondence
reveal the courage, intelligence, and resilience of this amazing early modern
woman.
9:00 – 9:50
Heloise:Ý Romantic Heroine, Twelfth
Century Scholar, and Curator of a Prestigious Non-Profit
Judith
Infante
Heloise
is best known for her dramatic twelfth-century romance with the philosopher
Peter Abelard.Ý However, she also stands as a phenomenon in European cultural
historyÝ for her own intellectual and artistic accomplishments. Far from
being a one-dimensional character in a famous love story, she was a multi-talented
woman who shone with a light entirely her own.
10:00 – 10:50
Nancy Brinker:Ý Founder of the Susan
G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Louise BurtonÝ RNC MSN WHNP
Susan
G. Komen died at the age of 36 of breast cancer in 1980 leaving behind
a husband,Ý children and a loving sister, Nancy Brinker, who in the last
months of Susan’s life, made a promise that she would dedicate the rest
of her own life to promoting breast cancer research, education, screening,
and treatment. Thus was born the Komen Foundation which has raised in excess
of $450 million in its fight to eradicate breast cancer.
11:00 – 11:50
Daring Women of Science
G. Roger
Stanley
Hypatia headed the
last vestiges of the library of Alexandria, Egypt in the fifth century A.D.
Nineteenth century American Maria Mitchell was the first person to record
a comet sighting through a telescope.Ý Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart
was lost at sea attempting to circumnavigate the world. Russian Valentina
Tereshkova was the first woman in space.
|
