The Athena Film Festival is proud to partner with Unladylike2020 to show four short films from their upcoming series.
UNLADYLIKE2020 is an innovative multimedia series featuring diverse and little-known American heroines from the turn of the 20th century, and the women who now follow in their footsteps. Comprised of twenty-six animated documentary shorts, the series profiles women, and especially women of color, from the Progressive Era in U.S history (1890s through 1920s) who broke barriers in then-male-dominated fields such as science, business, aviation, journalism, politics, medicine, and the arts. With breathtaking original art and animation, rare archival imagery, and interviews with accomplished women, each 7-to-10 minute film boldly brings this overlooked history back to life and into conversation about the challenges that women and girls still face today.
UNLADYLIKE2020: Bessie Coleman playing before We Are the Radical Monarchs
In the ultimate “defying the odds” story, after spending her childhood picking cotton in rural Texas, Bessie Coleman taught herself French and traveled to France to attend flight school, becoming the first African American to obtain an international pilot’s license and a media sensation because of her daredevil aerial performances. UNLADYLIKE2020 brings her incredible story of courage and persistence back to life through rare archival imagery, captivating original artwork and animation, and interviews with Madeline McCray, author of Bessie Coleman: A Dream to Fly, and U.S. Air Force Colonel Merryl Tengesdal, the first and only black woman to pilot the U-2 reconnaissance plane.
UNLADYLIKE2020: Maggie Lena Walker playing before A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem
A full 50 years before the Montgomery bus boycott, civil rights activist and entrepreneur Maggie Lena Walker led a city-wide boycott against segregated streetcars in Richmond, VA, and founded a newspaper, department store, and the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, making Walker the first African American female bank president in the United States. UNLADYLIKE2020 brings her incredible story of tenacity and wealth building back to life through rare archival imagery, captivating original artwork and animation, and interviews with biographer Muriel Miller Branch, co-author of Pennies to Dollars: The Story of Maggie Lena Walker; Walker’s great-great- granddaughter Eliza Walker Mickens; and wealth justice activist Chloe McKenzie, CEO of BlackFem and On a Wealth Kick.
UNLADYLIKE2020: Ynés Mexía playing before Stars By The Pound
An early participant in the budding environmental movement, U. S.-born, Mexican American Ynés Mexía began her scientific career at age 51, leading botanical expeditions across Mexico, Central America, and South America, becoming one of the most accomplished plant collectors of her time, discovering over 500 new species of plants of which 50 are named in her honor. UNLADYLIKE2020 brings her incredible story of personal development and adventure back to life through rare archival imagery, captivating original artwork and animation, and interviews with biographer Durlynn Anema, author of The Perfect Specimen: The 20th Century Renown Botanist Ynes Mexia, and ethnobotanist Ina Vandebroek, Assistant Curator and Caribbean Program Director for the New York Botanical Garden.
UNLADYLIKE2020: Grace Abbott playing before Sanctuary
An architect of social work and activist in the immigrant rights movement, Grace Abbott was the highest ranked woman in government from 1921 to 1934 as chief of the Department of Labor’s Children’s Bureau, leading the fight to end child labor and maternal and infant childbirth death, and also helping to draft America’s Social Security Act. UNLADYLIKE2020 brings her incredible story of vision and social good back to life through rare archival imagery, captivating original artwork and animation, and interviews with scholar John Sorensen, Director of the Abbott Sisters Project and editor of A Sister’s Memories: The Life and Work of Grace Abbott from the Writings of Her Sister, Edith Abbott, and Cristina Jiménez, immigrant rights activist and executive director of United We Dream.
UNLADYLIKE2020 is an innovative multimedia series featuring diverse and little-known American heroines from the turn of the 20th century, and the women who now follow in their footsteps. Comprised of twenty-six animated documentary shorts, the series profiles women, and especially women of color, from the Progressive Era in U.S history (1890s through 1920s) who broke barriers in then-male-dominated fields such as science, business, aviation, journalism, politics, medicine, and the arts. With breathtaking original art and animation, rare archival imagery, and interviews with accomplished women, each 7-to-10 minute film boldly brings this overlooked history back to life and into conversation about the challenges that women and girls still face today. The project includes weekly distribution of our digital shorts and an hour-long broadcast special on PBS’s flagship biography series American Masters, educational curriculum available on PBS LearningMedia, an interactive website, and community engagement events staged in partnership with PBS stations and local organizations across the country. For more information, please visit www.unladylike2020.com.
