For its eighth year, the Women in Media-Newark’s international Women’s History Month Film Festival will educate and advocate for global issues facing women with film screenings and a panel discussion on April 3 at Monmouth University.
The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be held at the university’s Pollak Theatre, which is located off Larchwood Avenue in West Long Branch.
This year for the first time, Monmouth University is proud to hold screenings of the short film “Letters to April” and the narrative feature film “Sold.”
The event is free and open to the public.
“Sold” is a narrative, feature film adaptation of the globally acclaimed novel by Patricia McCormick. Based on true stories, “Sold” is the story of Lakshmi who journeys from a pastoral, rural village in Nepal to a gritty brothel/prison called Happiness House in Kolkata, India.
The film is directed by Academy and Emmy award winner Jeffrey D. Brown, executive produced by two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson, produced by Jane Charles, co-produced by Katie Mustard and written by Joseph Kwong and Jeffrey D. Brown.
Immediately following the screening, there will be a panel on human trafficking featuring Wincy Terry and Susan Panzica, of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking; Dr. Guia Calicdan-Apostle, vice president of Helping to Educate and Advocate Against Trafficking (HEAAT) Foundation; Keyla Munoz, FBI; and Detective Shawn Murphy, Special Victims Bureau of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
Women in Media-Newark’s annual Women’s History Month Film Festival, which showcases and honors the work of established and emerging independent filmmakers who are predominately women, tells women’s stories of faith, courage, hope, determination and fortitude. The festival runs March 28-April 6 at several locations throughout the state.
The full festival schedule is available at http://wim-n.com/. For more information about the Monmouth University screening date, visit monmouth.edu/arts or call 732-263-5715.