The Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Mona Unit has organized a film showing on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 5 pm at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1), UWI, Mona. The featured film is “Souls of Black Girls.”

The Souls of Black Girls is a provocative news documentary that takes a critical look at media images--how they are instituted, established and controlled. The documentary also examines the relationship between the historical and existing media images of women of color and raises the question of whether they may be suffering from a self-image disorder as a result of trying to attain the standards of beauty that are celebrated in media images.

The documentary features candid interviews with young women discussing their self-image and social commentary from Actresses Regina King and Jada Pinkett Smith, PBS Washington Week Moderator Gwen Ifill, Rapper/Political Activist Chuck D, and Cultural Critic Michaela Angela Davis, among others. The Souls of Black Girls is a piece that attempts to provoke honest dialogue and critical thinking among women of color about media images and our present condition—internally and externally.  The event will include a special question and answer session moderated by Every Girl Can™ creator, Jamaican-born and UWI alumni, Yasmin Anderson-Smith. Mrs. Anderson-Smith is a certified image consultant and president  KYMS Image International.

The university community and the public are invited.