In celebration of Women’s History Month 2016, please join the Rights and Justice Research Priority Area, the Centre for Research in Race and Rights and the Department of American and Canadian Studies for a screening of the award-winning documentary Feminist: Stories From Women’s Liberation, 1963-1970. Filmmaker Jennifer Lee will introduce the film, and afterwards take questions from the audience.

Feminist tells the stories of grassroots members of the women’s liberation movement which transformed the US in the 1960s. As Lee remarks: “You may not have heard of the Statue of Liberty takeover or the “memo” that ignited young women across the country to demand liberation. Names like Vivian Rothstein, Aileen Hernandez, Sonia Pressman Fuentes are not names we learn in school.” Feminist introduces a previously unseen visual history of the movement through a combination of archival footage and a series of interviews with its members, including Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem as well as a plethora of unknown activists who worked tirelessly in support of women’s rights.

Selected praise for Feminist:

“Remembering and studying the women who broke the barriers before us is not just the right thing to do; we ignore their hard-won lessons at our own peril. For American women, our careless amnesia is plain poison and Lee’s film is a healthy portion of the antidote.” – Huffington Post

“Being afforded the opportunity to watch women wake up to the realities of their lives, and to see them stepping into their power in order to transform their realities and to change the world, is a wondrous sight to behold. Watching Jennifer Lee’s Feminist Stories from Women’s Liberation 1963-1970 is one such opportunity. If you weren’t a feminist before seeing the film, you will be by the end of it.” – Yula Burin, UK Feminist Library screening 2015

“Being behind the camera is different than being in front of it,” Lee said. “It is important [for females] to take the position of the narrator and tell stories from their point of view.” Lee’s lecture, which followed the screening of the film, addressed the dangers of allowing the women’s movement to slip from our collective cultural memory.” – Manuel Poch

Free, open to all. Please register online.

There are a number of events taking place across the University for International Women’s Day 2016 – find a list here.