LEFT ON PEARL Documentary Premieres at Boston International Film Festival
When:
Monday, Apr 17, 2017 5:00p -
6:30p
Monday, Apr 17, 2017 5:00p -
6:30p
Where:
AMC Loews Boston Common
175 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02111
Admission:
$12
Categories:
Film, LGBT, Social Good
Event website:
bostoniff.org/portfolio-view/left-on-pearl
Lately, women's marches have made the news, but the surprise ending of a women's march over 45 years ago still reverberates in the Boston area today. On March 6, 1971, International Women's Day marchers turned left on Pearl Street in Cambridge to seize and occupy 888 Memorial Drive, declaring it a Women's Center.
LEFT ON PEARL is a fast-paced, humorous 54-minute documentary about a highly significant but little known victory of the Women's movement during another turbulent time of social protest. Many of the questions raised in the film - about economic justice, feminism, black power, gay and lesbian liberation - are still being fiercely debated.
The occupiers of 888 Memorial Drive acted for women and the surrounding community. Their first press release included demands for childcare, healthcare, legal aid, self-defense, a safe space for lesbians, and support for community demands for low-income housing in the largely African-American Riverside neighborhood.
While building occupations were not that unusual at the time, this takeover was one of the few with a positive outcome. The energy, courage, and creativity unleashed at 888 Memorial Drive led to the creation of the Cambridge Women's Center, which is still vibrantly active. LEFT ON PEARL is an inspiring story of resistance that could not be more relevant for our current times.
