Join us in screening the documentary Writing with Fire as part of the annual Women Take the Reel Film Festival. This film follows the women journalists of India’s all-female newspaper as they risk it all, including their own safety, to cover the country’s political, social, and local news from a women-powered perspective. From underground network to an independent media empire they defy the odds to redefine power.

After the screening, Professor Sulafa Zidani and Dolly Arjun will host a discussion with the audience. Professor Zidani has published on online culture mixing, Arab and Chinese media politics, and critical transnational pedagogy in venues such as: Social Media + Society; Asian Communication Research; Media, Culture & Society; International Journal of Communication, and others. Dolly Arjun is a Dalit-American feminist who works in medicine and lives in the Boston area.

The screening will take place on March 15th, 2022 at 6:30 PM in the MIT Bartos Theater (E15-070). This event is free and open to the public. Masks and vaccinations are required for all event attendees and presenters.

Any visitor who does not have an MIT Kerberos account may use a Tim Ticket QR code to check in to an event that has been registered in MIT’s Tim Tickets system. We will send you the link to Tim Ticket via the email you provide.

This annual film festival is a collaborative effort among Women’s and Gender Studies departments involved in the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (as well as select institutions/universities aligned with its mission) that feature films directed by women and about issues relating to gender, race, sexuality, class and/or feminism.

The focus is on intellectual investigation of these issues as well as visibility for woman-identifying directors, and so every film is accompanied by a Q&A and discussion with either the film director, producer, relevant organization, or a faculty member from the film screening’s host institution.

WOMEN TAKE THE REEL is a FREE roaming film festival SPONSORED BY: MIT Program in Women’s and Gender Studies; the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality; Boston College Women’s and Gender Studies Program;  Northeastern University Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; and Lesley University.

Two girls, unknown to each other and separated by distance and family secrets, discover one another through a shared tragedy.  In Clap When You Land, a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

This event is free and open to all, but you must pre-register.

• If you choose to join us in person, please note that MIT CovidPass or Tim Tickets are required, and all participants must follow all MIT COVID safety protocols.
• For virtual registrants: the URL will be emailed closer to the event.

Small group discussions: In-person audience members are invited to stay for a post-event talkback session (no separate registration required.) Or sign up here for a virtual small group discussion on April 26, 5-6 pm.

Your participation makes this program better.  Please email mitreads-events@mit.edu if you require accommodation in order to join us.

Clap When You Land was chosen by the MIT Libraries, Global Languages, and Women’s and Gender Studies.  Additional program sponsors are the Committee on Race and Diversity, the Latino Employee Resource Group, Hermanas Unidas, and My Sister’s Keeper.