MATANGI/MAYA/MIA at MIT

Directed by Stephen Loveridge
Friday March 1st, 6:30pm
MIT Bartos Theatre

Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, Stephen Loveridge creates an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician known as M.I.A.

Film followed by Q&A with Aysha Upchurch from Harvard University

*pizza at 6:30pm, film at 7

Call Her Ganda at Tufts

Directed by P J Raval
Wednesday March 6th, 2pm
Tufts University
Dowling Hall/Room 745A
419 Boston Ave Medford, MA 02155

When a transgender Filipina woman is found dead in a motel room and the leading suspect is a U.S. Marine, grassroots activists demand accountability. The ensuing case lays bare political tensions between the United States and the Philippines.

Film followed by Q&A with director P J Raval

Left on Pearl at Brandeis

Directed by Susan Rivo and Produced by Rochelle Ruthchild
Thursday March 7th, 12:30pm
Brandeis University, Liberman-Miller lecture hall
Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC)

What happens when Boston's 1971 International Women's Day marchers turn LEFT ON PEARL Street in Cambridge, and seize and occupy a Harvard-owned building for a women's center, on land sought by the largely African-American Riverside neighborhood for affordable housing? How and why did hundreds of women of diverse backgrounds decide to take a radical, collective action that would change their lives? How did this action intersect with the surrounding African-American neighborhood's fight against displacement by Harvard University's expansion? What is its lasting legacy 45 years later?

Film followed by Q&A with director Susie Rivo

Roll Red Roll at MIT

Directed by Nancy Schwartzman
Thursday March 7th, 6:30pm*
MIT Bartos Theater

At a 2012 pre-season high school football party in Steubenville, Ohio, a young woman is raped. The aftermath exposes an entire culture of complicity and the roles that peer pressure, denial, sports machismo, and social media played in the tragedy.

Film followed by Q&A with director Nancy Schwartzman

*pizza served at 6:30pm, film start time 7pm

This documentary is a true-crime thriller that goes behind the headlines to uncover the deep-seated and social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of high school sexual assault in America. Roll Red Roll tells the story of the beloved Steubenville, Ohio football team and how a blogger uncovered the disturbing social media evidence of the assault of a teenage girl by members of the team. 

Nancy Schwartzman is a documentary film director, producer, and media strategist who uses storytelling and technology to create safer communities for women and girls. Roll Red Roll goes beyond the headlines of the notorious Steubenville, Ohio high school sexual assault case to uncover the social-media fueled “boys will be boys” culture that let it happen. Roll Red Roll premiered in 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Hot Docs, and is currently playing at over 20 festivals, and will have a robust impact campaign. She is the recent winner of the Adrienne Shelly Foundation’s Excellence in Filmmaking Award. Roll Red Roll is her feature film debut. Her first film, The Line, a short documentary examining consent was used by the White House for a campaign around sexuality, and her follow-up film XOXOSMS, was on PBS/POV and BBC exploring love between two teenagers, bridged by technology.

A globally recognized human rights activist, Nancy serves on Vice President Biden’s Advisory Council for Violence Against Women. Nancy is a tech founder, and created the White House award-winning mobile app Circle of 6 designed to reduce sexual violence among America’s youth and college students. Circle of 6 is used by over 350,000 people in 36 countries. The app is now open source and being adapted for women journalists working in Mexico. She has presented her work at the White House, the United Nations, TEDxSheffield, Good Pitch, DOCNYC and more.

Rafiki at Northeastern

Directed by Wanuri Kahiu
Wednesday March 13th, 4:30pm
Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex
(102 ISEC)

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

Film followed by Q&A with director Wanuri Kahiu

Madeline’s Madeline at Emerson

Directed by Josephine Decker
Thursday March 14th, 7pm
Emerson College at Bright Family Screening Room

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and goes through all three women's lives.

Film followed by Q&A

Hosted by Bright Lights
Co-presented with the Boston Underground Film Festival and the Independent Film Festival of Boston and the ReelAbilities Film Festival

Rafiki at MIT

Directed by Wanuri Kahiu
Friday March 15th, 6:30pm*
MIT Bartos Theater

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

Film followed by Q&A with director Wanuri Kahiu

*pizza served at 6:30pm, film start time 7pm

All About Nina at Emerson

Directed by Eva Vives
Tuesday March 19th, 7pm
Emerson College, Bright Family Screening Room

Nina Geld's passion and talent have made her a rising star in the comedy scene, but she's an emotional mess offstage. When a new professional opportunity coincides with a romantic one, she is forced to confront her own deeply troubled past.

Film followed by Q&A with comedic consultant Jamie Loftus (‘13) and director Eva Vives

Hosted by Bright Lights

Co-presented with the Boston Women’s Film Festival, the Boston Latino International Film Festival and the Boston Jewish Film Festival

I am Not a Witch at Emerson

Directed by Rungano Nyoni
Thursday March 21st, 7pm
Emerson College, Bright Family Screening Room

Shula is the first child taken to a traveling witch camp, where she is told that should she cut the ribbon and attempt to escape, she will be cursed and transformed into a goat.

Film followed by Q&A with Assistant Professor Rae Shaw

Hosted by Bright Lights

Co-presented with Boston Women’s Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston and the Roxbury International Film Festival

On Her Shoulders at Umass Boston

Directed by Alexandria Bombach
Wednesday March 27th, 4pm
UMass Boston University Hall 2-2330

Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi genocide and ISIS sexual slavery survivor, is determined to tell her story. As her journey leads down paths of advocacy and fame, she becomes the voice of her people and their best hope to spur the world to action.

Film followed by Q&A

K-2 and the Invisible Footmen at Lesley

Directed by Iara Lee
Wednesday March 27th, 7:30pm
Lesley University
UNIV 2-150
1815 Massachusetts Ave

Cameras follow the indigenous porters who assist climbers in their efforts to reach the summit of the Earth's second-highest mountain.

Film followed by Q&A

Women’s Lives In View at Tufts

Women’s Lives In View: Short Films Produced by Jennifer Burton and Five Sisters Productions
Thursday March 28th, 5:30pm
Tufts University
Paige Hall/Crane Room
12 Upper Campus
Medford, MA 02155

Film followed by Q&A with director Jennifer Burton

The Rider at Emerson

Directed by Chloé Zhao
Thursday March 28th, 7pm
Emerson College at Bright Family Screening Room

After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

Film followed by Q&A with Executive-in-Residence Nancy Allen

Hosted by Bright Lights

Co-presented as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival with the Boston Asian American Film Festival

Selma at Boston College

Directed by Ava DuVernay
Thursday March 28th, 7pm
Boston College McGuinn Hall 121 Auditorium

A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.

Film followed by Q&A