The Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, in collaboration with the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Leadership Initiative, will offer a free screening of Selma to filmgoers under 18 this Saturday at 4 pm. Dukes County commissioner and NAACP member Gretchen Tucker Underwood and Isabella Hazell El-Deiry, a MVRHS graduate and Howard University undergraduate, will lead an interactive dialogue after the film. This event is a tribute to Island women who participated in the civil rights movement: Polly Murphy, Nancy Hodgson Whiting, Peg Lilienthal, Virginia Mazer, and Nancy Smith.
The special screening was organized by a national effort in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Twenty-eight African-American business leaders sponsored more than 275,000 middle and high school students in 40 cities at free screenings of the Oscar-nominated film. Following their lead, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society is providing complimentary tickets so Vineyard youth can see the historical significance of the film firsthand.
Selma chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965 when Dr. King led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.
Selma, Thursday, Feb. 12, and Sunday, Feb. 15, 7:30 pm; special screening Saturday, Feb. 14, 4 pm (free admission to youth under 18 years of age, normal admission prices for adults and MVFS members). All showings at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, Tisbury Marketplace, Vineyard Haven. For information and tickets, see mvfilmsociety.com.