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UIS to host celebration of women writers and film directors

February 16, 2006

SPRINGFIELD – “Celebrating Women Writers and Directors of Film” will be the focus of a discussion and film screening beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 2, in Brookens Auditorium, located in the lower level of Brookens Library at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The event is free and open to the public.

Special guest speaker will be Jan Lisa Huttner, director of College/University Relations for the AAUW-Illinois Board, who will introduce the short film A Jury of Her Peers.

A Jury of Her Peers is a tale of revenge, justice, and women’s shared experience. The story takes place on a desolate American farm in the early 1900’s, where a farmer is found murdered in his sleep and his wife has been jailed as the prime suspect. Two women, a neighbor and the sheriff’s wife, find themselves in the accused woman’s kitchen while the prosecuting attorney and their husbands search the farm for a motive for the crime. From small details in the kitchen – spilled sugar, a broken chair – the suspect’s isolated life of physical and emotional abuse is revealed. As each new clue further incriminates the accused, the women must decide whether to reveal the evidence against her and become, in effect, a jury of her peers.

Huttner heads the statewide initiative Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now (WITASWAN), which seeks out and recommends films written and/or directed by women. She is also the managing editor of Films for Two: The Online Guide for Busy Couples (www.films42.com) and a regular contributor to the bimonthly Chicago newspaper Chicago Woman.

The program is sponsored by UIS’ College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Communication Program, and Women’s Center, and by the American Association of University Women Springfield Branch.