Release date: Jan. 21, 2005

Emory Center for Women Presents Female Directors Film Series

The student advocacy committee of the Center for Women at Emory University announces the spring 2005 lineup for its Female Directors Film Series. Now in its fifth year, the series highlights films that have not been widely distributed and now focuses on four distinct themes each year. The fall 2004 semester showcased African-American and Iranian female directors. The second half of the series, beginning Feb. 2, will focus on the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community, and films directed by Ida Lupino.

All films are free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-727-2000 or go to www.womenscenter.emory.edu.

Ida Lupino: Pioneer Film Director
Taking into account both her feature film work and later television work, Lupino is considered the most prolific American woman director in history. By the 1940s she was known as "the darling of the Tough Guy school of directing" along with some of her favorites: Raoul Walsh, Fritz Lang and William Wellman. "There was none of this nonsense," said Lupino. "I mean, you got your backside in there, baby, and you did it." Between 1949-54, she wrote and directed six features for her own company, The Filmmakers, while starring in seven features directed by others. Her movies, filled with near melodramatic intensity recorded in stark, unflattering terms, have earned comparisons to the directors Robert Aldrich and Samuel Fuller. Lupino, the second woman admitted to the Director's Guild, wasn't interested in typical Hollywood glamour: Her characters were common people--salesmen, waitresses, gas station attendants and fishermen. Her empathy for the characters is revealed in the finely-honed representations of people often ignored by Hollywood.

LGBT: Love Stories
The highlight of the LGBT theme is a 10th anniversary celebration of "Go Fish." Two new releases by Women Make Movies also will be showcased: "Georgie Girl" and "Ruth and Connie: Every Room in the House."

LGBT: Love Stories
Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m.
Harland Cinema, Dobbs Center, 605 Asbury Circle, Emory.
"Go Fish" 10th Anniversary Celebration. A beguiling and charming look at the lives and loves of a small group of lesbian women in Chicago. Friends play matchmaker to bring together two very different women: Max, a beautiful, gregarious writer, and Ely, a quiet, thoughtful and painfully shy woman. They are perfect for each other in this gentle and offbeat film. Introduction by Brent Byars of Emory's film studies department. (Directed by Rose Troche, 1994, 90 min.)

Tuesday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m.
Harland Cinema, Dobbs Center, 605 Asbury Circle, Emory.
In "Georgie Girl" meet Georgina Beyer, the latest "it" girl of New Zealand politics. A one-time sex worker of Maori descent turned public official, Georgina stunned the world in 1999 by becoming the first transgendered person to hold national office. Born George Beyer, this unlikely politician grew up on a small Tarankai farm and later became a small-time celebrity on the cabaret circuit in Auckland. Incorporating a montage of colorful archival images dug up from Georgina's days as an exotic dancer, theater and television performer, this absorbing documentary breaks down stereotypes and promotes greater understanding of transgendered people (Directed by Annie Goldson and Peter Wells, 2001, 70 min.)

Thursday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Harland Cinema, Dobbs Center, 605 Asbury Circle, Emory.
Hilarious and heartwarming, "Ruthie & Connie: Every Room in the House" is about love, friendship, passion and politics--and the price two women paid to be themselves. In 1959, Ruthie Berman and Connie Kurtz were both married mothers living in a working-class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. In 1974, they left their husbands and children to move in with each other, turning their worlds upside down. Twenty years later the couple made history in a landmark lawsuit winning domestic partner benefits for New York City employees, turning two Jewish lesbian grandmothers into national icons. (Directed by Academy Award-nominee Deborah Dickson, 2001, 55 min.)

Pioneer Film Directors: The Films of Ida Lupino
The Miller-Ward Alumni House, 815 Houston Mill Rd., Emory. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; all films begin at 7 p.m. All three of the Lupino films will have an introduction and Q & A facilitated by Bill Eggert, film scholar and head of the Silent Film Society of Atlanta.

Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.
Miller-Ward Alumni House
Frank Lovejoy, Edmond O'Brien and William Talman star in the classic film noir, "The Hitch-hiker." Talman is an ex-convict who hitches rides, then robs and kills the driver. Two carefree travelers make the mistake of their lives when they pick up a mysterious hitchhiker who never closes his right eye, even when he sleeps. Considered by critics to be the only film noir directed by a woman, the movie is a fascinating, tense psychological study with taut direction by Lupino (1953, 71 min.).

Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
Miller-Ward Alumni House
The authority of the church and adolescent rebellion meet head on in "The Trouble With Angels," a film about two young thrill seekers (Hayley Mills and June Harding) who continually test the will and fortitude of their Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) during their stay in a Pennsylvania convent school (1966, 112 min.).

Wednesday, March 2 at 7 p.m.
Miller-Ward Alumni House
In "The Bigamist" Harry Graham (Edmund O'Brien) and his wife (Joan Fontaine) are trying to adopt a baby, but the agency head senses Harry is keeping a secret. After some investigating, it is soon discovered that Harry has done an unusual amount of traveling from his home in San Francisco to Los Angeles. Harry is tracked down in L.A. where he has a second family. This film is the only work in which Lupino directs herself (1953, 79 min.).

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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