Venus, Priests and Superwomen

Documentary Exposes Institutional Silencing

 Providence, R. I. ShiftingVisions Films Education Project, a small, passionate, non-profit collective headed by Alexia Kosmider and Deborah Monuteaux returns from the success of the documentary In the Shadow of the Crow to aim their lens on endangered civil liberties once again in a new film, Venus, Priests, and Superwomen. This time, they investigate the recent move by administrators at Providence College to shut down a scheduled campus production of the Vagina Monologues. Like the previous film, which made its way to an installation at Rhode Island College ’s Banister Gallery, as well as to the Woodstock Museum Film and Video Festival and to the American Anthropological Association’s Visual Film Festival in Washington D. C., this film gives voice to those who would be silenced.

First seen as a short called Not on My Campus, which was chosen to air on the Rhode Island Council of the Humanities and R. I. PBS series Here at Home: What Unites Us, What Divides Us, the film grew out of interviews with two female students who organized the Vagina Monologues production, Courtney Howard and Erica Rioux. Stunned and angered by the college’s interdict, Rioux and fellow VM cast members and crew subsequently staged a demonstration in hopes of getting the Monologues back on campus. “I’m always interested in angry women and what they do with their anger,” says Kosmider, producer for both In the Shadow of the Crow and Venus, Priests, and Superwomen. “Many people feel that anger is a negative quality—perhaps dangerous to express,” adds the URI Instructor. “But anger, too, can be a productive response, and in this case it changed these women’s outlook on life.” The film sheds light on the methods used to silence people, the arguments put forth by those in power, and the risks these young women undertook to make themselves heard. “I hope it inspires all people”, says Kosmider, “not just women, to stand up for what they believe in and to find ways to be heard.”

Pre-screening dates:

Feb. 19 th at 7:00 p. m. at the University of Rhode Island ’s Multicultural Center , sponsored by the URI Alumni Association and the Women’s Center URI

Feb. 26 th at 8:00 p.m. at Rhode Island College ’s Student Union, ballroom, sponsored by RIC Women’s Organization

Mar. 16 th at 5:00 p.m. at Brown University sponsored by Sarah Doyle’s Women’s Center

For additional screening dates and other information, visit shiftingvisions.com