By Adriana Ruiz
aruiz168@student.alamo.edu
Celebrate Women’s History Month with CineMujer, Spanish for “women film,” a weekend of film screenings featuring six documentaries that portray the stories of six “radical” women today through Sunday at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, 922 San Pedro.
Tickets are $5 for a day pass and $10 for a weekend pass.
CineMujer is one of three film series that have been repeated every year since the late 1980s, said program coordinator Itza Carbajal.
Carbajal said this year CineMujer film series “Radical Women” is the first official woman-based film series since 2010.
“It’s not a combination of things (films) but instead what CineMujer has stood for over the years, films by and about women,” Carbajal said.
The six films, averaging at about 71 minutes each, follow the lives and struggles of journalist Anne Braden, Argentinian musician Mercedes Sosa, philosopher Grace Lee Boggs, Afro-German activist Audre Lorde, bilingual educator Antonia Pantoja and UCLA professor Angela Davis.
Carbajal said the films are about women who come from all walks of life, and they touch on many issues women have faced such as racism, feminism and civil rights struggles.
Carbajal added that the Esperanza group chose films that would highlight and celebrate women who are still alive and active.
“We don’t want to highlight women just because they passed away but to acknowledge their contribution while they’re still alive so that we really can appreciate them,” Carbajal said.
Carbajal said all of the films go together well because each is unique.
She said they are all really good but “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” directed by Shola Lynch has “gotten raving awards and reviews.”
The film follows the life of then 26-year-old professor and activist Angela Davis, who was involved with the Communist Party and the Black Panthers in 1960s.
Davis ended up on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list on charges of kidnap, conspiracy and murder, of which she was later acquitted.
The film will screen at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Carbajal said “Anne Braden: Southern Patriot” directed by Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering is another standout.
“Anne Braden is this white woman coming from privilege, but throughout the film, she is acknowledging and being outspoken about what her privilege is, not only as a white woman but as an upper-class white woman and what that means for her,” Carbajal said.
The film will screen at 7 p.m today followed by a discussion with director Anne Lewis.
Carbajal said CineMujer is not just for women.
She said it is really important to present this, especially during Women’s History Month because it’s good to see what women can accomplish.
“We are human and we are capable of so much, not just as women but as queer women and women of color, to highlight this notion of what it means to be radical,” she said.
Carbajal said they hope to draw about 150 people per day.
For more information, call 210-228-0201or visit www.esperanzacenter.org.