An Evening with filmmaker Jane Gillooly May 14, 2008

Women in Film & Video New England presents the last film in this Spring's Chicks Make Flicks film series: "Today the Hawk Takes One Chick."

“Today The Hawk Takes One Chick” captures day-to-day life in a rural society on the threshold of simultaneous collapse and reinvention. The Lubombo region of Swaziland suffers from the world’s highest prevalence of HIV and the lowest life expectancy. This observational film is told from the poignant perspective of three grandmothers (gogos) who have become instrumental in defining a new world order in the fight against the spread of HIV. As the stakes of each day heighten, gogo Albertina asks: “What will happen when all the gogos are dead?

A MacDowell Fellow, Gillooly is a professor of film at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

With a rare lucidity, "Today the Hawk Takes One Chick" catches the sound of the wind whistling through an entire people's graveyard and wonders about the long road back. -Ty Burr, the Boston Globe

This sorrowful, unflinching documentary by Cambridge’s Jane Gillooly, with extraordinary cinematography by Karin Slater, is an elegy to a land laid low by genocide but also a tribute to the courageous foot soldiers who fight on. -Gerald Peary, the Boston Pheonix

Balancing a commitment to emotional authenticity and a sensorial, textural style driven by striking images, sounds, and a musical approach to editing, Gillooly’s work continues to surprise as she crosses new boundaries and confronts new subjects with her distinctive vision. -Peter Dowd, Film & Reality

Official Website: http://www.wifvne.org/programs.chicksmakeflicks.php