This inspirational, short documentary celebrates a most significant event of the Women's movement, the "Women's Strike for Equality", an unforgettable gathering of more than 50 thousand women and men that took place in New York City in the summer of 1970. The issues are as relevant for women around the world today as they were then. Filmmaker Al Sutton shares this event with the rare footage that takes us into the heart of the rally. We see the massive crowds unfold, and we see the enthusiasm and individuality of beautiful determined women. The "Women's Strike"was part of the Feminist Movement in the United States that started in the 1960's, and commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Ravel's, "Pavane for a Dead Princess" comprises the musical score. Share the passion that moved a nation.
Equality is a notion that embraces a host of areas that can be epitomized as Human Rights.
The human genome sequence, composed of more than 3 billion nucleotide pairs, is something we all have in common. On average, any two people taken at random differ in about one or two in every 1000 in their DNA nucleotide pairs in their DNA sequence.
This commonality should be the basis of how we relate to our fellow man. How outrageous that we discriminate against one or a group of our brethren, by denying them access to our world’s bounty—breathing, speaking, voting, learning, working, playing, enjoying life. I have left the corpse of a fallen fruitfly, drosopholus melanogaster, a victim of starvation, on my worktable as a reminder of a brotherhood with whom I share no less that 70% of my genome.
The lesson of equality was taught to me early, and has brought me to protest a number of injustices throughout the years. There was the Civil Rights march in 1970 from Macon Georgia to Atlanta, protesting the police brutality in Augusta, in which I participated. The gay liberation march in June, 1970 spoke against the police action at the Stonewall bar the prior year. I filmed this event, which will soon be released as a documentary. The Women’s Strike for Equality took place in August of the same year, of which I had the opportunity to film. A protest against the proposed neo-nazi march in Skokie, Illinois, was an event in which I participated, also in the 1970’s.As to women’s rights in spite of various attempts to codify equality (viz. the UN General Assembly Bill of Rights of 1979), the statistics related to the inequality of the genders are disappointing in virtually all areas—education, earning, poverty, abuses, to name a few. The most critical steps are promoting awareness of these injustices, both in the United States and worldwide, along with education to provide the means for effecting changes.
At the same time, we cannot afford to ignore the role of violence that is part of our fabric of the male-female interaction. This socio-psychological aspect of the problem must also be dealt with by creating awareness and promoting education.
This short film, Equality, is a simple documentation of the women’s strike that moved forward the nation, and perhaps impacted the world.
