MANSFIELD — Mansfield native Elizabeth (Beth) Castle will offer the first local screening of her film, Warrior Women, on Wednesday, May 8 at The Ohio State University of Mansfield’s campus.
She hopes it launches a women’s movement.
After previewing an 8-minute segment of the film at a women’s conference earlier this year, Castle was invited to show the entire film and continue the conversation about women’s empowerment from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the campus’s Marketplace Cafe.
The film features Madonna Thunder Hawk and her daughter, Marcy Gilbert, and their fight for indigenous rights during the American Indian Movement of the 1970’s.
“The film is rooted in the fact that I wanted to know the history of these women and how these indigenous women, who in the scale of things had the least political capital but did these amazing, transformative things that changed the world for the better,” Castle said.
The film uses the relationship between Thunder Hawk and Gilbert to highlight women’s activism, its impact and the “innate power” of women in indigenous societies.
“These indigenous women are at the forefront of things that protect the environment and ensure a planet,” Castle said. “I think people, at least, when they watch the film, especially women and people who care about social change, find themselves inspired by Madonna.”
She and Gilbert live on the eastern end of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. They’ve often traveled with Castle for showings of Warrior Women since it’s premiere at the Hot Docs film festival about a year ago. Â
Castle, the film’s co-director, recalled its debut, where Madonna and Marcy were recognized with a standing ovation.
“It was a really big thing because Madonna has gone her whole life without really being recognized. She doesn’t care about that,” Castle said.
Since then, the film has been shown at more than 30 other film festivals and was broadcast on PBS in March, where Castle said it had the potential to reach more than 90 percent of United States viewers.
It’s received consistently positive feedback, Castle said, but bringing it to her hometown makes her a little nervous.
“It’s a very big deal to me,” Castle said. “This is the first time it’s showing in Mansfield, and it’s being shown as part of an effort to serve a higher purpose, to have a dialogue about women’s leadership and power, activism and social change. My hope is that dialogue will help us do some brainstorming about practical things we can do to create more warrior women of all types right here.
“And it’s definitely not the only time people will be able to see it. I’m hoping it can be shown quite a few times locally, but there’s a certain vulnerability around this being a place that shaped me and where I grew up … I hope people will appreciate it and be moved by it.”
Castle grew up in Mansfield and graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1991. She studied race, gender and electronic media at George Washington University in Washington D.C. before going on to earn her Ph.D. in history at the University of Cambridge in England. She now resides in Mansfield.
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