WBW Part 1

Project Overview

Women Between Worlds is a thirty-minute documentary concerning the challenges faced by women who have immigrated to the United States and find themselves between cultures. Women of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic groups will share their experiences and feelings about assimilation, values, child rearing and being foreign born in contemporary American society. Participating scholars will talk about how their various cultures influenced their experiences and expectations as they came to the United States. A celebration of cultural traditions, as practiced by selected participants, will be interwoven throughout the film which will examine the roots of these traditions. The film will be accompanied by an exhibition created to highlight the art, crafts, and traditions of the immigrants, and a symposium on immigrants.

Some of these women are artists who show in their work the transition they are going through. Among these artists is a Chinese painter and a classically trained composer from Yugoslavia. These segments will be contrasted with interviews of immigrants who do not have these tools to express the changes they experience. This film conveys these immigrants’ personal stories while looking at their experiences from a scholarly perspective.

In October 2008 we completed Women Between Worlds with Spanish subtitles. The Office for New Americans will help us with distributing to organizations that work with Hispanics. In Spring 2009 we are now in the process of making a follow up of the first Women Between Worlds movie by interviewing the women again after six years.

For those who are interested in getting a free copy of the movie, as well as an informative brochure about the making of the documentary and a list of dicussion questions, or want Exsul Van Helden to introduce the film to your audience and lead a discussion after the viewing, contact him by phone at 443-334-2160 or by email at evanhelden@stevenson.edu.