Cornell Cinema features women's workplace roles in film series

The story of "Tupperware!" leads off Cornell Cinema's film series on women's roles in the workplace. It's the story of Brownie Wise, the woman who enlisted a brigade of housewife saleswomen and created the concept of the Tupperware party that established Tupperware as a household name. The film screens on March 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Schwartz Center's Film Forum. Provided

In honor of Women's History Month, Cornell Cinema presents a series of films and videos exploring women's roles in a variety of workplaces, both official and unofficial, past and present.

The series begins with "Tupperware!" the story of the burping plastic containers and Brownie Wise, the woman who established the brand and the phenomenon of the Tupperware party. It will screen on March 1 at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Film Forum.

In "Vera Drake," the WWII-era working-class heroine of the title gets out of the house for very different reasons: to clean the homes of the wealthy and to perform the occasional illegal abortion, for which she doesn't accept any pay. Catch "Vera Drake" on March 3, 5 or 6 in Willard Straight Theatre.

Quebeçois filmmaker Caroline Martel's experimental documentary "Le Fantôme de l'Opératrice" ("The Phantom of the Operator") is a montage film crafted from telephone company movies that were produced in North America between 1910 and 1989, tracing the history of telephone operators, an invisible workforce without whom the 20th century would never have been the same. See it on March 8 at the Schwartz Center.

The women in Liz Mermin's contemporary "The Beauty Academy of Kabul" worked under the cover of their burkas when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, often setting up secret
beauty parlors in their homes. When six Americans travel to Kabul to open a beauty college, these women have the opportunity to "refine their trade while healing themselves and
others through haircuts, perms and makeup" (Austin Film Society) in this moving documentary. It will be shown on March 15 at the Schwartz Center.

"Radical Harmonies," screening on March 25 and 29 in Willard Straight Theatre, is an engaging documentary about the evolution of women's music and includes interviews with pioneers like Margie Adam and Holly Near as well as contemporary musicians like Ani Difranco and the Indigo Girls. The series is cosponsored with the Cornell Women's Resource Center. Tickets are $6 general admission, $4.75 students/seniors and $4 Cornell graduate students for screenings in the Willard Straight Theatre, and just $3 for screenings in the Schwartz Center.

For more information contact Cornell Cinema at 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.