ASU Annual Women’s Week includes Women + Film Festival on March 4

Photo by Joseph Friedman
Pictured, Avon romance authors Eloisa James, Sarah MacLean, Cathy Maxwell, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Kerrelyn Sparks with moderator Bette Lee Fox at the Margaret Mitchell house in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Adams State University Community for Inclusive Excellence, Leadership and Opportunity (CIELO) is pleased to collaborate with Women + Film, the Denver Film Society, and community members to present a one-day festival featuring films by and about women, on Saturday, March 4. The founder of the Women + Film, Barbara Bridges, will be at the later screenings and at a reception following the final showing. Women + Film is a program and festival presented by the Denver Film Society.

Films include A Ballerina’s Tale, The Babuschkas of Chernobyl, and Love Between the Covers.

A Ballerina’s Tale, a feature documentary about African-American ballerina Misty Copeland examining her prodigious rise, her potentially career ending injury, and themes of race and body image in the classical ballet world, begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Ski-Hi 6 Theater, located in Alamosa, Colo. The film also includes exclusive, unseen footage of Misty performing.

The Babuschkas of Chernobyl begins at 4 p.m. at the Ski-Hi 6 Theater. In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, a defiant community of women scratches out an existence on some of the most toxic land on Earth. They share this hauntingly beautiful but lethal landscape with an assortment of interlopers—scientists, soldiers, and even ‘stalkers’—young thrill-seekers who sneak in to pursue post-apocalyptic video game-inspired fantasies. Why the film’s central characters, Hanna Zavorotyna, Maria Shovkuta, and Valentyna Ivanivna, chose to return after the disaster, defying the authorities and endangering their health, is a remarkable tale about the pull of home, the healing power of shaping one’s destiny and the subjective nature of risk.

The final film begins at 7 p.m. in Adams State Carson Auditorium. Love Between the Covers, is an entertaining and inspiring look into the billion-dollar romance fiction industry and its powerhouse of female writers and readers, a sisterhood that’s pioneering the digital revolution while finding fortune, fulfillment, and a global community. Adams State Carson Auditorium is located in the Student Union Building (SUB). The parking lot directly north of SUB is open and free to the public.

A minimum donation of $10 per film is encouraged, but not required.

A free reception will follow Love Between the Covers, with Barbara Bridges at the Adams State Marvel House, home of Adams State President Beverlee J. McClure.

This one-day Women + Film Festival will kick-off the fourth annual Adams State Women’s Week which includes lectures, music, food, and more.