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Film Review: "Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights"

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Closing out The Little Theatre's Women's History Month film series, "Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights" examines the crucial role of African-American women in the fight for civil rights. Director Nevline Nnaji uses archival footage and interviews with many of the activists, sitting down with female former members of groups like Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the Black Panthers, letting the women speak about the sexism they faced from society at large and within their own community. The film is a low budget effort, and it shows in the rough-around-the-edges production values, but that does nothing to diminish the importance of the story it tells. Listening to the women talk about fighting for their place at the table, against largely male leaders who believed that taking up the cause of women's rights would splinter the civil rights movement, gives an idea of the amount of work and the delicate push-and-pull balance it takes to truly achieve change.