I have been invited to be one of the presenters at the annual "Edith Stein Conference" at Notre Dame in late March. (They don't seem to have a web site up for it yet, but here is one I found for a past conference.) The conferences always revolve around the theme of redefining feminism in a Catholic context, and so all the talks look at issues concerning women in society.
They first asked me to give a talk that somehow brings together "Women and Film." I told them, honestly, I have no idea what that would mean. I am not a cinema historian, and I don't know if even trying to survey some recent films would be meaningful. So, they said it would be up to me to come up with a topic.
I wanted to throw the question out there and see if any of you have some suggestions for a talk that would be helpful to the young women who will attend. My instincts are always to pick a small subject as opposed to a broad one - so, instead of talking about "Women in Film", I could see myself talking about "The Woman in This Particular Film" or contrasting "Two Women from Two Different Films." But they would really have to be the right films in the sense of shedding light on the theme for the conference.
I feel like I've been saying a lot over the past few years on the errors and tragic wake of the Sexual Revolution, and I suppose I could rework that if need be.
Or else maybe I could do my hero talk, only narrow it to consider the idea of women as heroes. But they are going to want me to show movie clips. That's why people want me. I'm the movie clip lady.
So, anyway, any ideas will be very welcome.
