San Diego Film Critics Society and the San Diego’s Women’s History Museum and Educational Center present a benefit screening of Iron Jawed Angels starring Hilary Swank, Julia Ormond and Patrick Dempsey.
When: 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008
Where: Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: Suggested donation $10; available at the door.
Please make reservations at filmclub@kpbs.org
The benefit includes comments from local dignitaries and celebrates Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The film reenacts the story of the defiant young activists who risked their lives to help American women earn the right to vote. As shown in the film, this battle was hard-fought over a significant period of time. Women were fined, jailed, force-fed and vilified, because they pursued the same rights as men. Hilary Swank and Frances O’ Connor artfully portray Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. During the long battle of the movement, Paul, on day 22 of her prison hunger strike, had doctors brutally force a tube into her nose and down her throat, pouring liquids into her stomach, three times a day for three weeks. Despite the pain and illness this caused, Alice refused to end the hunger strike. One physician reported: “[She has] a spirit like Joan of Arc, and it is useless to try to change it. She will die but she will never give up.”
Directed by Katja von Garnier, the movie also stars Anjelica Huston, Julia Ormond, Frances O’Connor, Lois Smith and Patrick Dempsey among other credible actors. The film won a Cinematography award, Golden Globe, was for nominated for five Emmys, other awards and a Humanitas Prize.
Although Congress passed the law in 1919, amending the Constitution required ratification by at least two-thirds of the states. On August 26th, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, and women officially won the right to vote. The Women’s History Museum celebrates Women’s Equality each year with a variety of events. On Sat., August 23 there will be a Suffrage March across the bridge in Balboa Park, followed by a Suffrage Ball with dancing, food, historic reenactments and a “voting” theme.