UK Gender and Women’s Studies Fall 2006 Film Series

UK Gender and Women’s Studies Fall 2006 Film Series
Family Familia Mag-anak Umndeni

Family Name (Macky Alston; 1997; 89 min.)
Tuesday, September 19, 7:00 p.m.
Gaines Center’s Bingham-Davis House, 218 E. Maxwell Street

As a child growing up in Durham, North Carolina, Macky Alston never questioned why all the other Alstons in his elementary school were black. But in his early 30’s Alston went back to unravel the mystery. “Above all, Family Name is a genealogical detective story [that] reminds viewers that the era of slavery and its horrors wasn’t that long ago. But it also suggests that forgiveness for those crimes is possible and that acknowledging the past, then moving on, is a far healthier approach to painful historical truths than slamming the book shut and pretending to forget.”—Stephen Holden, New York Times
Commentary and discussion led by Nikky Finney, poet and Professor of English, and Kathi Kern, Associate Professor of History.

Chain of Love (Marije Meerman; 2001; 50 min.)
Wednesday, October 4, 7:00 p.m.
Gaines Center’s Bingham-Davis House, 218 E. Maxwell Street

The demand for domestic help is increasing in the West because in many families both parents work outside the home. In turn, escalating numbers of women in the Third World are leaving their own children to take care of kids in the West. Chain of Love is a film about the Philippines' second largest export product – maternal care - and how this export affects the women involved, their families in the Philippines, and families in the West.

Commentary and discussion led by Deborah Crooks, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, whose research in Belize, the Philippines and, most recently, Zambia, focuses on the relationship between complex household livelihood strategies and child well-being.

My American Girls: A Dominican Story (Aaron Matthews; 2001; 63 min.)
Wednesday, November 1, 7:00 p.m.
Gaines Center’s Bingham-Davis House, 218 E. Maxwell Street

In vivid vérité detail, Matthews’ documentary captures the joys and struggles over a year in the lives of the Ortiz family, first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. From hard-working parents who imagine retiring to their rural homeland to fast-tracking American-born daughters, caught between their parents’ values and their own, the film encompasses the contradictions of contemporary immigrant life. "Intense and beautiful portrait"-- La Raza "Aaron Matthews captura la dicotomía de las vedas de la familia Ortíz y la historia del inmigrante en los Estados Unidos…”-- Tatiana Pina, Providence Journal
Commentary and discussion led by by Francie Chassen-Lopez, Professor of Latin American history whose research focuses on Mexico and gender in Latin America.

Shouting Silent (Renee Rosen and Xoliswa Sithole; 2002; 50 min.)
Tuesday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
Gaines Center’s Bingham-Davis House, 218 E. Maxwell Street

Exploring the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic, Xoliswa Sithole, an adult orphan who lost her mother to HIV/AIDS in 1996, journeys back home in search of other young women who have also lost their mothers to HIV/AIDS and are now struggling to raise themselves (and, in many cases, their siblings) on their own. Sithole lyrically interweaves their unsettling stories with highly stylized imagery to help convey her own painful memories and document the grim statistics of HIV infection in Africa. “Grand Jury Prize”--Washington D. C. Independent Film Festival
Commentary and discussion led by Marie-Antoinette Sossou, Assistant Professor in Social Work, whose research interests include international social work, immigration and refugee issues, and human rights. She is currently developing a research project about HIV/AIDS orphans/women project in Africa.

All films free and open to the public