The Women’s Studies Program is sponsoring a film festival.

The first Central Illinois Feminist Film Festival will take place from March 27 through March 30 in the Coleman Hall Auditorium.

Angela Aguayo, communications studies professor, said the Women’s Studies Program wanted to put together an event that would facilitate a conversation about women and girls in society.

She said they thought a film festival would bring up the issues they wanted to discuss.

Aguayo said everyone is invited, and people are strongly encouraged to bring their families as well. She said they’re hoping to see a good turnout from the youth community in Charleston as well as the students at Eastern.

“People have a lot of misconceptions about feminism,” Aguayo said.

She said they hope to uncover different issues of feminism as they come up in the films.

Robin Murray, an English professor, said they wanted to showcase filmmakers who are addressing issues of race, issue, gender, class and oppression to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Murray will lead the discussion on the film “Waitress.” shown at 7 p.m. tonight in Coleman Auditorium.

She said the film was made by an independent female filmmaker and addresses feminist issues with a comedic twist.

Murray said she will begin the discussion with an introduction about the film maker because she lead an interesting life.

Murray said the filmmaker was murdered during the making of “Waitress” but wrote another film, “Serious Moonlight” – which will be released on a later date – before she died.

Aguayo said the committee wanted to have a broad range of movies selected that reached out to the community. She said they want to reach out to young adults as well as high school and grade school students.

Aguayo said Friday’s movie, “Troop 1500,” is about a Girl Scout troop whose mothers are in prison for serious crimes. She said the film shows how these girls couldn’t control what happened but still had to face the issues.

“Troop 1500” will show at 6 p.m. on Friday in Coleman Auditorium.

For Saturday’s film, Aguayo said they chose “Girl Wrestler”. She said the film is about a young girl who wants to wrestle and the troubles she faces going against traditional gender roles.

Aguayo said Eastern female athletes to lead the discussion. The film will show at noon on Saturday in Coleman Auditorium.

At 6 p.m. Saturday in Coleman Auditorium, they will have a screening of “Fast Food Women” and a discussion with filmmaker Anne Lewis, with a reception to follow.

From noon through 2 p.m. Sunday, the festival will continue with the contest and submissions. Aguayo said they’ve received independent work from all over the state dealing with a broad spectrum of issues. She said the independent work on Sunday ranges from topics about homosexuality in a small town to struggles in prostitution.

“We tried to create a program that would reach someone on every level,” Aguayo said.

Sara Cuadrado can be reached at 581-7942 slcuadrado@eiu.edu.