Local Film Featured at U.N. Screened at Images

12:47PM / Wednesday, April 01, 2009Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Images Cinema will host a screening of "Heroic Girlz" on Sunday, April 19, at 2 p.m.

The film began as a home-schooling project for four 11-year old girls and screened before an international audience at the United Nations Commission Conference on the Status of Women. The Images screening will also include "Making History," a documentary about the film featuring psychiatrist SuEllen Hamkins, an expert in female adolescent development. There will be a Q & A with the filmmakers and a reception. Tickets are $10.

"Heroic Girlz" tells the story of four modern-day girls who take on the roles of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Louisa May Alcott and Amelia Earhart. Meeting in the afterlife, the girls revisit and recount a formative moment in the first 11 years of each of the famed women.

"We wanted to acknowledge the girls' coming of age through the study of language, theater arts and social sciences," said filmmaker Cindy L. Parrish. "The girls heard the story of 11-year-old Harriet Tubman who discovered her purpose in life when she tried to prevent the capture of a runaway slave. Each girl then imagined herself as an historical woman hero at age 11."

According to Carolyn Hannan, director of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, "Girls in any part of the world can be encouraged to choose women heroes from their own cultures and examine their lives as part of the process of self empowerment. 'Heroic Girlz' also introduces girls in a very natural way to the issue of gender equality and the struggles and gains from the past."

The film was written, directed and produced by Parrish, a playwright and English professor at the University at Albany, N.Y. The film is based on the play "Heroic Girlz," directed by Meg Agnew, theater director and teaching artist. Parrish, Agnew and Laura Yurko, an expressive arts practitioner, guided the girls in the writing, visual arts and theaters arts to create the play. Agnew and Parrish have also produced a curriculum guide.

"Heroic Girlz" stars Devyn Yurko, Elon Michaud, Thea Ezinga and Emma Parrish Post. The film received the 2007 Moondance International Festival Award for Best Children's Short.

For reservations: 518-781-3005 or cindyparrish@mac.com. Visit www.heroicgirlz.org for additional information. "Heroic Girlz" is underwritten by the Brabson Educational Foundation with support from the Women's Interfaith Institute, and Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.

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Reverend: Christian Nationalists Make Jesus Victim of 'Identity Theft'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
08:08AM / Sunday, October 04, 2026

David Langston introduces the Rev. Darrell Goodwin on Wednesday morning.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Rev. Darrell Goodwin told attendees at Wednesday's "PrayAction Breakfast" that they need more action to make their prayer effective.

"Sometimes prayer causes us to be in deep reflection," Goodwin told the group gathered at the Williamstown Meetinghouse. "And years and years and years pass, and we've actually done nothing about it.

"Our physical belief system is somehow: Say the words to God, and it becomes God's responsibility, and we've done our part because we've told God exactly what to do."

Goodwin, the president of the United Church of Christ's Southern New England Conference, was invited to Williamstown by First Congregational Church to speak on "The Challenge of Christian Nationalism."

And Goodwin challenged his listeners to take meaningful action to confront and address the ideology in their daily lives.

Christian Nationalism, which Goodwin referred to as White Christian Nationalism, is a perversion of Christ's teachings, he said.

"What does it mean to be spiritually grounded but practically committed?" Goodwin asked rhetorically. "This morning I've been asked to come here to talk about Christian Nationalism, but I think it would be remiss if I didn't say White Christian Nationalism. I want to name all three of these words because each tells us something that we must do.

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