Cornell Cinema series accompanies Women's Studies conference in April

Flame, a film that reveals injustices against women fighters in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, will screen April 7 at Cornell Cinema.

During the month of April, Cornell Cinema will present a series of films in conjunction with the conference "Genders & Nations: Reflections on Women in Revolution," scheduled for April 2 to 5, sponsored by the Women's Studies Program and the Gender and Global Change Program at Cornell. See story.

Cornell Cinema's film series will feature five documentaries addressing a variety of women's issues, struggles and achievements in different countries. A guest speaker will introduce and discuss each film.

The series begins Thursday, April 2, with a free screening of The Other Half of Allah's Heaven at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre and continues Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. through the month as part of the Cinema Off-Center series in the Center for Theatre Arts Film Forum. Admission to the Tuesday night screenings is $2. The series is cosponsored by the Women's Studies Program, the Feminist Action League and the Cornell Council for the Arts.

The Other Half of Allah's Heaven is the story of Algerian women and their dramatic experiences in past and present struggles. The film won the Best Documentary prize at the 1996 Milan Festival of African Cinema. Discussing the film will Nimat Hafez Barazangi, a visiting fellow in the Women's Studies Program; Sandra Greene, associate professor of history; and Ithaca College Professor Zillah Eisenstein.

The second film in the series, Flame (April 7), originally was conceived as a documentary but had to be made as a fiction film because none of women on whose lives the film was to be based dared discuss their experiences on camera. Directed by Ingrid Sinclair, this highly controversial and deeply moving film reveals grave injustices against women fighters in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. The film was seized by the police during editing on the grounds that it was subversive and pornographic. Flame will be discussed by Associate Professor Anne Adams, associate director of the Women's Studies Program and director of the Program on Gender and Global Change.

Women's Lives & Choices (April 14) is a program of three short documentaries that deal with women's health and the cultural, social and economic factors underlying reproductive choices. As of this writing, speakers were not announced.

Calling the Ghosts: A Story about Rape, War and Women (April 21), a chilling and painful documentary account of rape, torture and genocide in the former Yugoslavia, tells an intimate story of the survival of two women caught in a war where rape was as much an everyday weapon as bullets and bombs. Ithaca College Professor Patricia Zimmermann will discuss the film.

The series concludes with Through Chinese Women's Eyes (April 28), an insightful documentary on the transformations of the lives of Chinese women over the 20th century. Lee C. Lee, professor of human development, will offer commentary.

Also, this weekend Cornell Cinema will offer 3-D movie madness with screenings of Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (March 27, 9:35 p.m. and March 28, 7:30 p.m.) and Vincent Price's star maker House of Wax (March 27, 7:30 p.m. and midnight, and March 28, 9:45 p.m.) Admission to each show is $5 and includes a pair of souvenir 3-D glasses. All screenings are in Willard Straight Theatre.