by John Millington
Wednesday March 17, 2010
The Morning Star
Hidden Herstories proved a great success at Bolivar Hall with nearly 100 people turning out to watch the film at an event co-hosted by the Star to mark International Women's Day.
The film showcases four women - Octavia Hill, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jayaben Desai and communist Claudia Jones - who inspired its young creators to tell their stories.
It draws together a mixture of interviews with academics, activists and original footage of the women making a contribution to London and the wider community.
Beginning the evening, Morning Star equalities reporter Louise Nousratpour (pictured) set the tone by reciting inspirational poems from Iranian director Forugh Farrokhzad.
And, after the film screening, an informative Q and A session gave people the opportunity to talk to some of the young people involved in making the film, who recalled how history at school only ever seemed to focus on the Tudors and Victorian monarchs.
They chose to focus on women whose achievements would have been remembered if they were white men - such as Jones, a Trinidad-born member of the US and British Communist Parties, who founded the Notting Hill Carnival, and Desai, who led the Grunwick strike of Asian women in 1976.
Chairing the discussion, Morning Star education reporter Lizzie Cocker thanked the Venezuelan embassy for co-sponsoring the event.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn labelled the British history syllabus a "tyranny," encouraging the development of further projects such as Hidden Herstories.
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