Date: Mar 01, 2012

March Film Series Honors Work of Women Documentarians

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY -- In honor of Women’s History Month, Hofstra University’s School of Communication and the Department of Radio, Television, Film are presenting a month-long film series, “Documentary Perspectives: Moving Pictures, Moving People,” starting today. The series features award-winning female documentary filmmakers showcasing their groundbreaking films about popular democratic movements, from the fight against apartheid in South Africa to the quest for justice in Guatemala, to community organizers here in the United States.

Each screening will be held on a Thursday in March from 7 to 9:30 pm in 211 Breslin Hall, South Campus, and is presented in collaboration with Hofstra’s Center for Civic Engagement. Special support has been provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Fair Play (2010)  

Directed and produced by Connie Field. Part of the seven-part series chronicling the history of the global anti-apartheid movement that took on South Africa’s entrenched apartheid regime and its international supporters, Fair Play: 1958-1981,looks at how athletes and activists around the world hit white South Africa where it hurts: on the playing field. The sports boycott campaign became the anti-apartheid movement's first victory and succeeded in culturally isolating the white minority in an arena of passionate importance. Featuring a Q&A with producer/ director Connie Field.

Thursday, March 8th

Metropolitan Avenue (1985)

Directed and produced by Christine Noschese, associate professor of Radio, Television, Film. Metropolitan Avenue is an inspiring film about community, about the changing role of women and about how powerful ordinary people can be when they join together to fight for something they believe in. The film focuses on a neighborhood, which like many urban areas faces problems such as cutbacks in municipal services and racial tensions. But in this case, a group of working class women from varied ethnic backgrounds rise to the challenge and form coalitions to fight for community survival, “occupying” their own neighborhood through street sit-ins and mass demonstrations to make their voices heard. And 20 years later, the film inspires us as we face a new fiscal crisis. Featuring a Q&A with producer/ director Christine Noschese and women featured in the film.

Thursday, March 15th

GRANITO: How to Nail a Dictator (2011)

Directed by Pamela Yates; Produced by Paco de Onis. The film looks at the former military strongman of Guatemala, General Efraín Ríos Montt, who, in the early 1980s, led a brutal military junta. The “granitos,” or grains of sand -- human-rights advocates in Guatemala and abroad -- worked together and managed to bring him up on genocide charges in a Spanish court. Those charges rely, in part, on evidence from Ms. Yates’s own documentary work. GRANITO is more than just a guide on how to bring a despot to justice; it is also Ms. Yates’s personal reflections on the purpose and craft of documentary filmmaking, the more than 50 years of tumultuous history in Guatemala, and how her own views on both those subjects have evolved. Featuring a Q&A with director Pamela Yates and producer Paco de Onis.

Thursday, March 22nd

Women, War & Peace: Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2010)

Directed by Gini Reticker. This film is part of a bold new five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are male domains. The series shows how the vast majority of present-day conflicts are not fought by nation-states and their armies, but by informal entities: gangs and warlords using small arms and improvised weapons. With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace highlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security, and reframing our understanding of modern warfare. Featuring a Q&A with executive producer Gini Reticker, who directed both Pray the Devil Back to Hell and the third film in the series, Peace Unveiled.

Thursday, March 29th

Paper Tiger Television: 30 Years of the Popular Video Collective

In 1981, Paper Tiger Television pioneered a truly radical public access show, with thoughtful, highly inventive media criticism challenging both the form and content of mainstream media. This film showcases many short videos and documentaries about the role of women in various social movements of the past 30 years, from one of the country’s most productive media activist collectives. Featuring a Q&A with Patricia Gonzalez and Adrienne Silverman, members of the Paper Tiger Television Collective.

All screenings are free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Mario A. Murillo, Chair, RTVF, (516) 463-6062.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from more than 150 undergraduate and 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied health services and honor studies, as well as a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.

###

Related Link: Documentary Perspectives: Moving Pictures, Moving People