Film Festival Planned in Celebration of International Women’s Day

The Jane Kopas Women’s Center at The University of Scranton will celebrate International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8, with a film festival celebrating and creating awareness about women’s experiences both in the United States and worldwide.

Three films will be shown at the event, which runs from noon to 7 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall. The festival is open to the public free of charge.

The documentary series “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” will begin the festival at noon. Filmed in 10 countries, the series features celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union and Olivia Wilde who introduce the stories of courageous women and girls and the difficult and oppressive circumstances in which they live. A team of veteran filmmakers collaborated to create the documentary series, which was inspired by the acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Award-winning filmmaker, producer, director and author Maro Chermayeff is executive producer and director of the series, broadcast by PBS in the United States.

“In the Name of the Family,” a film by Emmy Award-winning Shelley Saywell, will be shown at 3:30 p.m. The award-winning Canadian film examines the “honor killings” of Muslim schoolgirl Aqsa Parvez, sisters Amina and Sarah Said, and college student Fauzia Muhammad, who was the only North American teenager to survive.  

The film festival concludes with “Apache 8,” a film by Sande Zeig, at 5:30 p.m. The film focuses on the all-female Apache 8 unit, which protected their reservation from fire and also responded to wildfires around the nation. The unit is considered to be among the nation’s most elite group of firefighters, earning the reputation for being fierce, loyal and dependable.

Discussions will follow each film.

Sponsors of the International Women’s Day Film Festival at the University are the Jane Kopas Women’s Center, Education for Justice and the Women’s Studies Program.

For additional information, contact Justine Johnson, director of the Jane Kopas Women’s Center, at 941-6194.