Thursday, March 21, 2012
Contacts: Vickie Devenport, WSIU Outreach Coordinator, (618) 453-6148, vickie.devenport@wsiu.org
Local Film Screening Traces Evolution of Women's Liberation
Carbondale, Ill. -- WSIU Public Broadcasting, the public media arm of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the Carbondale Public Library will host a free Community Cinema screening of the film Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines on Saturday, March 30 at 2:30pm at the library, 405 West Main, Carbondale.
Deborah Tudor, Associate Dean of the SIU College of Mass Communication & Media Arts, and Melinda Yeomans, SIU Coordinator for University Women's Professional Advancement, will lead a discussion after the film.
Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines explores the nation's long-term love affair with comic book superheroes and raises questions about the possibilities and contradictions of heroines within the genre. The film goes behind the scenes with Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna, comic writers and artists, and others who offer an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male-dominated superhero genre.
Exploring how our highly visual culture places more emphasis on the appearance of girls and women rather than on their deeds, Wonder Women! urges women to claim the action genre -- and media in general -- as their own, if they want to change how they are represented. Additional details about the film are available at the Wonder Women! website.
The remaining Community Cinema schedule is as follows: The Island President (April 27), The Revolutionary Optimists (May 25), and Love Free or Die (June 29).
Community Cinema is a national civic engagement initiative featuring free film screenings of films distributed by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), followed by discussion of the themes explored in each film. Film screenings are held at Carbondale Public Library on the last Saturday of every month at 2:30pm. Screenings will be held monthly through June 2013, with the exception of December. The project is designed to bring communities together to discuss key social issues of our time.
For more information about WSIU's Community Cinema screenings, contact Vickie Devenport at (618) 453-6148 or vickie.devenport@wsiu.org. More information can be found online at the WSIU Community Cinema website.
The Community Cinema initiative is a service of Independent Television Service (ITVS) and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
About WSIU Public Broadcasting
WSIU Public Broadcasting is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University and is an integral part of the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts on the Carbondale campus. The WSIU stations reach more than three million people across five states and beyond through three digital public television channels, three public radio stations, a radio information service, a website, and an education and community outreach department.
WSIU's mission is to improve the quality of life of the people they serve. The WSIU stations partner with other community organizations to promote positive change and to support the academic and public service missions of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Learn more and get the latest station news online at wsiu.org and on WSIU's Facebook and Twitter pages.
WSIU's programs and services are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
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