Professors host Women’s History Month event for the eighth total time together
A Women’s History Month event about the history of women in the film industry was held in the Winn Center on March 23. Women’s History Professor Diana Reed on the right talking to attendees of the event about the clip that Radio, Television and Film Professor Lauren Wagner on the left presented.
The Women Who Tell Our Stories event was held in the Winn Center on March 23 to educate how involved women have been in the film industry.
Radio, Television and Film Professor Lauren Wagner and History Professor Diana Reed hosted the event. Wagner said this was the eighth year that she and Reed had collaborated to make the event possible.
“The history is that Professor Reed and I were both hired at the same time when we started teaching here as full-timers,” Wagner said. “Every year, we always collaborate on one of these presentations. I pick the clips and we look through them and think about things to talk about and then we present them.”
Wagner and Reed talked about female filmmakers in the industry dating back to the early 20th century from Ava DuVernay and Mary Pickford to more current directors such as Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) and Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”).
“Because I teach women’s history, when we were talking about Mary Pickford about how she was one of the founders of the production company United Artists, I talked about her in my classes as well about how women were involved in the early days of the development of Hollywood and their experiences,” Reed said.
Reed said there has been some progression for women in the film industry throughout the decades on both sides of the camera from producing, directing and writing scripts to acting.
Arian Monroe, a 30-year-old film and television major, said she connected with what was presented based on what she is studying as well as the talk around gender politics.
“I think the representation of gender politics in these films are the same as they always have been,” Monroe said. “Women, in general, haven’t been valued in various states and countries and you could see that on film. It just tells you where we are.”
Wagner said that attending any history event such as this is a great part of going to college.
“I would just encourage people to go to Women’s History Month events, Black History Month events, any events that we have on campus that help to broaden students’ experiences,” Wagner said. “That’s such a great part of going to college in general.”