The Shape of Water: Narrated by Susan Sarandon - Film screening and discussion with Kum Kum Bhavnani
10/25/2007
4:30 pm
- 7:30 pm
Contact:
Location:
Buttrick Hall 101
Category:
Open to the Public
FALL 2007 EVENT
Women's and Gender Studies Program at Vanderbilt University
The Shape of Water: Narrated by Susan Sarandon - Film screening and discussion with feminist scholar and director-producer Kum Kum Bhavnani
The Shape of Water in Kum Kum's Words:
"Four years ago I realized I had to make The Shape of Water. I had done my research, taught about the work done by women around the globe, written about the women in scholarly articles yet I still felt in my heart that their stories should be known by a wider audience. Their stories are important. And it is important that their realities are understood as the realities of those who are creating a new world, not those who are victims. That is why I have spent the last few years struggling to make this documentary."
"My documentary weaves together the powerful stories of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, Vandana and Gila who, through candor and humor, infuse their communities with a passion for change. The women are abandoning female genital mutilation (Senegal), tapping for rubber to protect the rainforest (Brazil), protecting the biodiversity of the planet (India) and opposing military occupations (Jerusalem)."
The Shape of Water, narrated by the Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon, has been extremely well-received by a global audience and has won many awards including:
Reel Sisters of the Diaspora
Best feature Documentary Award (Brooklyn, March 2006)
DC Independent Film Festival
World Cinema Award (DC, March 2006)
San Francisco Women's Film Festival
Best Director, Documentary
2007 Hugo Television Awards Gold Plaque
Special Achievement: Music Score
2007 Women's International Film Festival, Miami
Best Documentary, USA
2006 Queen's International Film Festival
Queen's Spirit Award Best Documentary
National Association for Film and Digital Media Artists
2006 INSIGHT Awards of Excellence:
First Feature Film - Direction
Category: Original Score
Category: Editing
Category: Gender-Women
Category: Human Rights
Category: Post-Production
Category: Research
Category: Original Score
About Kum Kum Bhavnani:
Kum-Kum Bhavnani is a scholar, writer, and cultural critic who has worked periodically with broadcast media in the UK in the 1980s, before coming to the USA in 1991. She created radio programs for her trade union organizations interviewing organizers such as Arthur Scargill (Leader, Mineworkers Union).
She was also the initiator and billed as researcher for Resist and Survive (30 minutes: directed by Dee Dee Glass and broadcast on Channel Four on 16th February 1983). That program followed three black women's groups in Manchester who worked on economic (employment co-operative), health (challenging white-defined notions of sickle cell anemia) and cultural/sexual (hair and sexuality) aspects of black women's daily lives in the UK.
For more information on the film, please see: http://www.theshapeofwatermovie.com/index.html
Women's and Gender Studies Program at Vanderbilt University
The Shape of Water: Narrated by Susan Sarandon - Film screening and discussion with feminist scholar and director-producer Kum Kum Bhavnani
The Shape of Water in Kum Kum's Words:
"Four years ago I realized I had to make The Shape of Water. I had done my research, taught about the work done by women around the globe, written about the women in scholarly articles yet I still felt in my heart that their stories should be known by a wider audience. Their stories are important. And it is important that their realities are understood as the realities of those who are creating a new world, not those who are victims. That is why I have spent the last few years struggling to make this documentary."
"My documentary weaves together the powerful stories of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, Vandana and Gila who, through candor and humor, infuse their communities with a passion for change. The women are abandoning female genital mutilation (Senegal), tapping for rubber to protect the rainforest (Brazil), protecting the biodiversity of the planet (India) and opposing military occupations (Jerusalem)."
The Shape of Water, narrated by the Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon, has been extremely well-received by a global audience and has won many awards including:
Reel Sisters of the Diaspora
Best feature Documentary Award (Brooklyn, March 2006)
DC Independent Film Festival
World Cinema Award (DC, March 2006)
San Francisco Women's Film Festival
Best Director, Documentary
2007 Hugo Television Awards Gold Plaque
Special Achievement: Music Score
2007 Women's International Film Festival, Miami
Best Documentary, USA
2006 Queen's International Film Festival
Queen's Spirit Award Best Documentary
National Association for Film and Digital Media Artists
2006 INSIGHT Awards of Excellence:
First Feature Film - Direction
Category: Original Score
Category: Editing
Category: Gender-Women
Category: Human Rights
Category: Post-Production
Category: Research
Category: Original Score
About Kum Kum Bhavnani:
Kum-Kum Bhavnani is a scholar, writer, and cultural critic who has worked periodically with broadcast media in the UK in the 1980s, before coming to the USA in 1991. She created radio programs for her trade union organizations interviewing organizers such as Arthur Scargill (Leader, Mineworkers Union).
She was also the initiator and billed as researcher for Resist and Survive (30 minutes: directed by Dee Dee Glass and broadcast on Channel Four on 16th February 1983). That program followed three black women's groups in Manchester who worked on economic (employment co-operative), health (challenging white-defined notions of sickle cell anemia) and cultural/sexual (hair and sexuality) aspects of black women's daily lives in the UK.
For more information on the film, please see: http://www.theshapeofwatermovie.com/index.html