Women’s History Month Short Film Screening Saturday, Presented By Community Film Workshop of Chicago

In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFWC) will host a free screening with women filmmakers from Chicago’s South Side on Saturday, March 25th from 2-4pm at Harriet Harris Park, 6200 S. Drexel Avenue.

CFWC Executive Director Margaret Caples asserts, “This group of emerging Black women Filmmakers are among the trailblazers who are inspiring the development of new Black voices in media. Their current impact will become the impetus for future trailblazers. Community Film Workshop continues mentoring and empowering women to push for equity and access in the film industry.”

In the spirit of prolific storytellers/filmmakers, like Zora Neale Hurston, Madeline Anderson, Euzan Palcy, Julie Dash, Ava Duvernay, Chloe Zhao, Zeinabu irene Davis, “to be a woman filmmaker, specifically a Black woman filmmaker, feels like a breath of fresh air,” affirms filmmaker Natalie Battles, co-instructor of CFWC’s Weapon of Choice Initiative and founder of Melanated in America.

Battles went on to say, “It feels powerful, and it feels right. Women’s voices have been shunned, not only in the film industry, but in life for far too long, so I am proud to be a Black woman filmmaker.”

The short films are produced by the cohorts of the Production Institute at the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Media Center housed at the Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts on the campus of the University of Chicago. 

Featured filmmakers include:

·       Ashley McKeithen, BETTS 

·       C. Phoenix Tyler, STOP  

·       Candace Odili, HEY, FREN!

·       Cindy Martin, LOVE IS A STRANGER

·       Jacqueline Foreman, THE APARTMENT

·       Jennifer Thompson-Watson, TSUNAMI Z

·       Nicole Newman, HOTEL PARTY 

·       Okema ‘Seven’ Gunn, BLACK MAMA SABLE 

·       Vick Lee, JOURNAL-a-SCENE

“We have been in the shadows for far too long, but our stories are too important to be shadowed. Our vision and our point of view are gifts from God, and now it’s time to shine a light on them for the world to see. Share our stories, control our narrative, and empower the young women coming behind us to show them that their visions, dreams, viewpoint, and stories matter,” shares Battles, a cohort of the 2020 Production Institute. 

The screening is free and open to the public. There will be a Q&A with the filmmakers following the screening. 

To RSVP, click right here to go to cfwchicago.org/events

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