When an unlikely duo discovers a pattern of illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, they wage a near impossible battle against the Department of corrections. Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, Belly of the Beast exposes modern day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons.

Centering the discussion of reproductive justice, and existing injustices, is at the core of our mission here within the MIT Women & Gender Studies Program. We hope you are able to keep the conversation alive and join us as we screen the documentary Belly of the Beast in Bartos Theater (E15-070). After the screening, we’ll allow time for a moderated discussion.

This annual film festival is a collaborative effort among Women's and Gender Studies departments involved in the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (as well as select institutions/universities aligned with its mission) that features films directed by women and about issues relating to gender, race, sexuality, class and/or feminism.

Additionally, this event would not be made possible without the collaborative efforts from the MIT List Center. During this time, the List Center will be featuring artist Alison Nguyen in the Bakalar Gallery visible upon entrance. For more information, click here. We encourage you to check out the gallery prior to the film screening.

The festival’s focus is on intellectual investigation of these issues as well as visibility for female directors, and so every film is accompanied by a Q&A and discussion with either the film director, producer, or a faculty member from the film screening's host institution host institution.

All films are free and open to the public.

WOMEN TAKE THE REEL is a FREE roaming film festival SPONSORED BY: MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies; the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women and Sexuality; Boston College Women's and Gender Studies Program; Boston University Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; Brandeis University Women's and Gender Studies Program; Northeastern University Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; Simmons College Department of Women's and Gender Studies; Tufts University Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; UMass Boston Women's and Gender Studies Department; Emerson College Department of Visual and Media Arts; and Lesley University.