Strong Leads: A Film Seminar for High School Girls is a free after-school program spotlighting films by women. It is designed for 10th, 11th and 12th grade girls of all identities, including gender-nonconforming youth. A presentation of the Belcourt’s education and engagement program, Strong Leads explores gender representation in cinema, in the Hollywood establishment, and in film discourse.
Students will meet at the Belcourt Tuesdays, October 20 to November 17, 4:00-7:30pm, to watch films and discuss with their peers. Strong Leads is facilitated by Allison Inman, the Belcourt’s education and engagement director, and Jessie Griffith, the Belcourt’s theatre operations director and education associate.
Participation in Strong Leads is by application only. This seminar is offered at no cost to participants, but capacity is limited, and students must apply and be selected to attend. It is designed for students only and is meant to be taken in its entirety (no single sessions). Please note that the seminar is for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students. No exceptions, please.
Strong Leads features high-quality films designed to spark conversation about important issues. Because of that, some films contain adult situations, profanity, drug/alcohol use, nudity, sexual situations, and violence.
Applications are due Mon, Oct 5. Participants will be notified Tue, Oct 6.
Tue, Oct 20: AN EDUCATION Dir. Lone Scherfig | UK/USA | 2009 | 100 min. | PG-13
Tue, Oct 27: TBA
Tue, Nov 3: DAISIES Dir. Věra Chytilová | Czechoslovakia | 1966 | 76 mins | Not Rated | In Czech with English subtitles
Tue, Nov 10: GIRL PICTURE Dir. Alli Haapassalo| Finland | 2022 | 101 min. | Not Rated | In Finnish and French with English subtitles
Tue, Nov 17: MISSISSIPPI MASALA Dir. Mira Nair | UK/USA | 1991 | 118 min. | R
AN EDUCATION
Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a teen with a bright future — she’s smart, pretty and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David (Peter Sarsgaard), a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won’t soon forget.
DAISIES
If the entire world is bad, why shouldn’t we be? Adopting this insolent attitude as their guiding philosophy, a pair of hedonistic young women (Ivana Karbanová and Jitka Cerhová), both named Marie, embark on a gleefully debauched odyssey of gluttony, giddy destruction and antipatriarchal resistance, in which nothing is safe from their nihilistic pursuit of pleasure. But what happens when the fun is over?
GIRL PICTURE
Best friends Mimmi (Aamu Milonoff) and Rönkkö (Eleonoora Kauhanen) want to live adventurous lives, loaded with experiences and passion. Emma (Linnea Leino) has given her whole life to figure skating. When the girls meet, life opens new paths, and they all rocket in new directions. Within the film’s tender, funny exploration of the fears and confusions of discovering one’s identity and sexuality, a refreshingly positive portrait of the power of female friendship emerges.
MISSISSIPPI MASALA
Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, 20-something Mina (Sarita Choudhury) finds herself helping to run a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. It’s there that a passionate romance with the charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius (Denzel Washington) challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region’s Indian and African American communities.
