Black Maria Film Festival Series: “Left on Pearl”

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 6:30 pm, the Museum is proud to welcome back Hudson County’s own Black Maria Film Festival for the second of a four-part monthly series of award-winning hour-long documentaries. Program 4 features Susie Rivo’s “Left on Pearl,” a film set in 1971, when classified ads for employment were still segregated by gender, battered women’s shelters did not exist, abortion was illegal, and married women couldn’t open a bank account without their husbands’ permission. “Left on Pearl” focuses on a highly significant but little-known event in the history of the women’s liberation movement, the 1971 takeover and occupation of a Harvard University-owned building by hundreds of Boston area women.

Black Maria Executive Director Jane Steuerwald will host the custom-curated programs, and lead a discussion with the audience. Doors open at 6:30 pm, and the films will screen at 7 pm, each lasting about an hour. Admission is a suggested $5 donation, which includes light refreshments.

On Dec. 13, Steuerwald will be joined by very special guest, Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, an executive producer of “Left on Pearl.” Ms. Ruthchild was born in Jersey City, and attended public schools there through her first year at Henry Snyder High School. Her father taught in the Jersey City Public Schools. One of her grandfathers had a sporting goods store in the Greenville section; and the other worked in the Manischewitz Wine factory. Inspired by her parents’ striving for social justice, she became involved in the second-wave feminist movement, and participated in the events in Cambridge, Mass., depicted in the film ‘Left on Pearl.” Ms. Ruthchild is currently a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center and a Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Through December, a different award-winning one-hour documentary film from the Black Maria’s Global Insights collection will be presented, thanks to the support of the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and Tourism. The second program is Wednesday, Oct. 18, the third is Wed., Nov. 29, and the final session is Wed., Dec. 13.

Now in its 36th consecutive year, the Black Maria Film Festival focuses on diverse short films – narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary – including those, which address issues and struggles within contemporary society such as the environment, public health, race and class, family, sustainability, and more.