Controversial Film Opens 17th Women Direct Series
	Women Direct, Ithaca College's series of new films, video, and media by women, will begin its 17th season on Wednesday, March 18, with a screening of The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Carma Hinton's controversial film documenting the 1989 massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The screening, set for 7:00 p.m. in Roy H. Park Hall Auditorium, is one of four events planned for this year's series. All Women Direct presentations are free and open to the public. The Chinese government attempted to ban Hinton's film -- regarded as one of the most provocative documentaries of the last decade -- from being shown at the New York Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. In its chronicling of the student democracy movement and the events that unfolded at Tiananmen Square, The Gate of Heavenly Peace illuminates the historical complexities of the uprising from an insider's point of view. Produced with an international crew and research team and including camcorder footage from all over the world, the film includes never-before-broadcast scenes of the movement's internal political debates. Hinton's previous works include Small Happiness, To Taste a Hundred Herbs, and First Moon. She has been directing acclaimed documentaries for more than 20 years. Hinton will be present at the March 18 screening. Future Women Direct events including presentations of works by visiting artists Pamela Yates, Leah Gilliam, and Branda Miller. Women Direct series programmers are Ithaca College faculty members Barbara Adams, writing, and Patricia Zimmermann, cinema and photography. Major funding for the series is provided by the James Pendleton endowment of the Roy H. Park School of Communications. Additional funding is provided by the College's Department of Cinema and Photography, the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute, and the Electronic Arts Program of the Experimental Television Center funded by the New York State Council on the Arts.