Women Take the Reel Film Festival: Belly of the Beast

When an unlikely duo discovers a pattern of illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, they wage a near impossible battle against the Department of Corrections.

Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, Belly of the Beast exposes modern day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons.

Join us as we screen the documentary Belly of the Beast (2020) a film by Erika Cohn followed by a moderated discussion. 

We encourage you to view history of hypnosis (2023) on view in List Projects 26: Alison Nguyen in the List Center Bakalar Gallery prior to the film screening.

Women Take the Reel 

This annual film festival is a collaborative effort among Women's and Gender Studies departments involved in the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (as well as select institutions/universities aligned with its mission) that features films directed by women and about issues relating to gender, race, sexuality, class and/or feminism. 

The festival’s focus is on intellectual investigation of these issues as well as visibility for female directors, and so every film is accompanied by a Q&A and discussion with either the film director, producer, or a faculty member from the film screening's host institution.