Tonight (Thursday March 5) iFathom aired a one-time showing of a film (production company Unify Films, director Tom Cappello, Scott Thigpen and Jennifer Fineran, producers, Sheila C. Johnson, executive producer, about 85 min) “A Powerful Noise”, in a town-hall event from Hunter College in New York City called “A Powerful Noise Live”.
The main theme of the event is that women should be empowered in the developing world as a main strategy for leading the third world out of poverty.
The film traces three women, one in Vietnam, one in Mali, and one in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in their efforts to improve their world.
In Vietnam, HIV infection is becoming rampant, and the heroine leads a effort to discourage heroine use, and visits a coal mine. In Mali, a woman fights the tribal customs of female circumcision and builds a rural school. In one scene, fifth graders are shown getting a plane geometry lesson that looks pretty sophisticated for the grade (I know, I have taught math before). In Bosnia, scenes of manual harvesting are shown (I saw manual tilling from a train from Cracow to Warsaw in 1999) and a woman starts a raspberry processing factory as a local business. In all the areas, women are often raising families without husbands, and older children often wind up raising younger siblings who are not “theirs.”
The one-show at a Regal in Arlington VA was almost sold out, in a large auditorium. The sound did not work for about ten minutes.
The panel discussion was hosted by Ann Curry, with these guests: Nicholas D. Kristof, Christy Turlington Burns, Dr. Helen Gayle, Natalie Portman, and Madeleine K. Albright.
0 comments:
Post a Comment