MCC to celebrate Women's History Month
McHenry County College kicks off Women's History Month with its third-annual Women's Film Festival from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the MCC Conference Center, 8900 Route 14, Crystal Lake.
The festival will feature three films made by women about women's bodies, beauty and intimate themes in today's culture. Films are recommended for mature audiences. Parental discretion is advised.
"This year's film festival theme, 'Women's Bodies,' helps our community to focus on the demystification of the female image," said Katherine Midday, English instructor and Women's History Month co-chair.
"The bodies of women in reality, versus the ways we have learned to see and think about them inside our culture, have created a sense of alienation in American women. Who we are, and what we think we should be, create a polarizing binary that handicaps women in their personal, professional and emotional lives," she said.
The film festival will begin with "Gorgeous," a 10-minute animated film by Kaz Cooke, an Australian cartoonist, whose character Hermoine, the Modern Girl, tackles plastic surgery, beauty therapy, and bulimia to deal with feeling inadequate in a society that glorifies physical appearance.
The second film, "Made Over in America," is a 60-minute documentary by Bernadette Wegenstein and Geoffrey Alan Rhodes about how people perceive body image and how desires for a better self are influenced by reality television and the makeover industry.
The final film, "Breasts," by Meema Spadola, is an award-winning, 50-minute film that features 22 women, ages 6 to 84 years old, who discuss how breasts play a crucial role in the experiences of puberty, motherhood, sex, health and aging. The film received several awards from 1997 through 2005, including a 2002 Outstanding Achievement Award by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.
"By examining women's bodies, both as they are and as they are portrayed, we can bring a dialogue of awareness to the issue; we do all this through the film medium, where women's' work remains on the margins," Midday said. "We celebrate women in film, and women's bodies, on March 2, to honor them both for the incredible work they have done and will continue to do in this country and in the larger world."
Other Women's History Month highlights include two lunchtime lectures, a self defense workshop, a domestic violence awareness workshop, a book discussion and a poetry performance.
In addition, a domestic violence T-shirt exhibit will be on display as well as a Women's History Display in the hallways and Building B Commons Area.
The film festival will include an all-student panel to discuss the films. These films are recommended for mature audiences. Parental discretion is advised.
Refreshments at the film festival will be provided by Cheshire Cheese Society, a student literary group.
Admission is $5 for the general public, free for MCC and high school students. Proceeds will go toward expanding MCC's library collection of women's films and for female student scholarships at MCC.
For information, visit www.mchenry.edu/women or call Katherine Midday at (815) 455-8735.