October

Saturday
October 14
Women's Health Community Day

Join us as we celebrate the diversity of Bay Area organizations devoted to women's health needs. The event features over a dozen local nonprofit women's health organizations, and will include hands-on demonstrations and presentations.

At 2 p.m., come hear Dr. Melanie Tervalon speak. Dr. Tervalon is a longtime medical activist who works to educate the medical community about the role culture and language play in health and healing. She founded the nationally recognized Multicultural Curriculum Program at Children's Hospital in Oakland, and is working with the University of California at San Francisco to develop its "culture in medicine" curriculum.

Tuesday
October 17
Dispatches from the Young Women's Health Conference www.exploratorium.edu

Saturday
October 22
Mammogram Webcast
McBean Theater, 11a.m. PST

Many women experience a lot of anxiety surrounding their first mammograms--the possible results, along with the process itself, can be frightening. This Webcast, presented in collaboration with UCSF, will show a woman undergoing a mammogram step by step. We will also talk with doctors about cancer, and how a benign tumor is different from a malignant one.

Saturday & Sunday
October 21 & 22
The Changing Face of Women's Health
Film Series

Join us as documentary filmmakers explore the boundaries of women's health, investigate the role of environment in disease, and celebrate women. This weekend, the focus is on breast cancer, as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

SATURDAY ONLY
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

How I Coped When Mommy Died (2000, 26 min.), produced by San Francisco high school student Brett Hardy Blake and Lori Hope, is the poignant tale of a young boy losing his mother to breast cancer. In the heartbreaking interviews interspersed with animation and home videos, Brett talks about losing his mom and offers comfort and guidance to both children and adults confronted with a loved one's death. (Tentative screening; please call (415) 563-7337 to confirm.)

"I'm the first among our friends to have cancer . . . many will see their future in the way I handle mine," Barbara Rosenblum wrote after learning she had advanced breast cancer. In Cancer in Two Voices (1994, 43 min.) by Lucy Massie Phenix, Rosenblum and her partner, Sandra Butler, come to terms with Rosenblum's illness on camera. For the three years Barbara had yet to live, they documented their lives with courage, dignity, and frankness. This stunning film provides a unique view into the intimacy of a relationship in a time of crisis. The two women talk about their identity as Jewish women and as lesbians, and speak openly about the difficult issues each is facing: anger, guilt, feelings about their bodies and changing sexuality, and about death and loss. Never once losing either its balance or its fierce emotional integrity, Cancer in Two Voices provides a practical example of dealing with death with sensitivity and a deep commitment to living. This film will be preceded by a short animated film, Cancer (1999, 5 min.), by local filmmaker Nina Paley.

SUNDAY ONLY
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

What's driving the breast cancer epidemic? In Rachel's Daughters (1997, 107 min.), Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Allie Light and Irving Saraf, with producer and breast cancer activist Nancy Evans, unearth the science and politics behind the disease to provide a rigorously reported and deeply affecting film. The filmmakers document the efforts of a group of women with breast cancer acting as "detectives"--through interviews with scientists, archival footage showing widespread radiation and chemical contamination, and the women's personal battles with breast cancer--to investigate the causes of the disease. Dedicated to the original environmental detective, Rachel Carson, this film is an inspiring rally cry for anyone concerned about the impact of pollution on health.

Saturday & Sunday
October 21 & 22
Women as Healers: Crafts Demo Weekend

We've expanded the definition of women's health to include self-reliance, with a series of do-it-yourself demonstrations (this weekend also features a related film).

SATURDAY ONLY
Film
McBean Theater, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Don't miss Fat of the Land (1995, 56 min.) by local artists Sarah Lewison, Niki Cousino, Florence Dore, Julie Konop, and Gina Todus. Watch the filmmakers careen around the country, stopping at greasy spoons for leftover frying grease to top off their vegetable-oil-fueled vehicle. This unique road trip celebrates the resourcefulness of women experimenting with the "health" of their car.

Saturday & Sunday
Get Charged: Auto Workshop
Under the Central Skylight, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Get down and dirty this weekend with auto mechanic Lucille "Cile" Beatty, as she teaches basic car maintenance. We'll provide a car to practice on.

November

Saturday
November 4
Embracing Menopause: Traditional and Alternative Approaches McBean Theater, 9 a.m.--3:30 p.m.

Sunday
November 5
Sex Ed 101 in the 1940s and 1950s
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

A campy afternoon of mid-twentieth-century sex education and body-grooming films!

Friday
November 17
Taking Charge: A Practical Guide to Women's Cancers for You and Your Family McBean Theater, 1--4 p.m.

A half-day symposium with top researchers and doctors in the fields of women's cancers. Produced by the Obstetrics and Gynecology Research and Education Foundation. $15 Nonmembers/$6 Members. Call (415) 353-2668 for reservations.

Sunday
November 19
Women as Healers: One Joint at a Time
Under the Skylight, noon-4 p.m.

We've expanded the definition of women's health to include self-reliance, with a series of do-it-yourself demonstrations. This event features women furniture makers Peggy Chung and Susan Working who will demonstrate ways to mend broken furniture. Formally trained in studio furniture design, these women use their expertise to salvage furniture. Chung and Working will demonstrate differences between types of joinery and how to apply that knowledge to fixing things at home. Visitors will be able to practice using drills, hammers, and screwdrivers.

December

Friday
December 1
International AIDS Awareness Day
The Changing Face of Women's Health Film Series
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

Realizing the inadequacy of local information on AIDS prevention, cosmetologist DiAna DiAna, along with her partner Dr. Bambi Sumpter, took on the task of educating the Black community in Columbia, South Carolina. DiAna's Hair Ego: AIDS Info Up Front by Ellen Shapiro (1990, 29 min.) is a provocative, funny, informative video. It documents the growth of the South Carolina AIDS Education Network, which operates out of DiAna's Hair Ego, the beauty salon where a condom display is as common as a basket of curlers.

Saturday
December 2
Mother Daughter Day

Join us as we celebrate the special relationship between mothers and daughters through a series of events and films.

Bad Gir l Science
Under the Skylight, noon--2 p.m.

This fun workshop will explore the science that underlies the everyday lives of girls and women--from the chemistry behind hair dyes and tattoos to the physics of sports.

The Changing Face of Women's Health Film Series
Mothers & Daughters
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

The autobiographical film Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter by Deborah Hoffman (1994) chronicles the stages of her mother's Alzheimer's disease, as well as Hoffman's own changing response to the illness. With profound insight and a healthy dose of levity, this film is ultimately a life-affirming exploration of family relations, change, and the meaning of memory and love.

In A Portrait of Andrea Crisp (2000, 10 min.), high school student Katherine Thomas crafts a compelling portrait of Andrea Crisp, a Life Training program counselor. Crisp's care and respect for people and her maternal instinct toward everyone she comes in contact with eventually inspires a portrait of Crisp as a counselor and a mother.

University High School student Tory Stewart offers a glimpse into the life of photographer Lucy Grey in the film Lucy (2000, 12 min.). In the process of creating this video portrait, Stewart found that Lucy's role as an artist can't be separated from her complex life role as a wife and a mother.

Saturday
December 9
Iron Science Teacher Webcast
The Changing Face of Women's Health Live @ the Phyllis C. Wattis Webcast Studio and online at www.exploratorium.edu
noon--1 p.m.

Iron Science Teacher is a wacky, science experiment cook-off, where teachers compete live at the Exploratorium and are simultaneously Webcast around the world. Science teachers have ten minutes to concoct a science activity from a secret ingredient. In honor of The Changing Face of Women's Health , the ingredient will be a well-known women's health product.

Saturday
December 9
The Changing Face of Women's Health
Film Series
Sneak Preview with the Filmmaker Present!
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

Younger Thinner Smoother (2000, 55 min.), just completed by Bay Area filmmaker Elizabeth Sher, examines how baby boomers are changing the face of cosmetic surgery. Sher takes us through her personal decision-making process about cosmetic surgery, and also looks at the history of cosmetic surgery and the current obsession by some baby boomers to disguise their age.

Sunday
December 10
Sunday December 10 Women as Healers:
Women Electricians--See the Light
Under the Skylight, noon--4 p.m.

We've expanded the definition of women's health to include self-reliance, with a series of do-it-yourself demonstrations. This final day of our women's health activities series is dedicated to the Exploratorium's founder, Dr. Frank Oppenheimer. When speaking about the educational impact of the museum he created, Frank remarked, "One women told me that after she came home from the Exploratorium, she wired the plug on a lamp cord. Now there's nothing in the museum that teaches you how to wire a plug on a lamp cord, but somehow it gave her the confidence that she could do something like that." A local female electrician will demonstrate steps to repairing lamps, lights, plugs, and more. Bring your own lamp along for a check-up, evaluation, and hands-on help getting it to work again.

Sunday
December 10
The Changing Face of Women's Health
Film Series
Ethereal Celebrations of Mothers and Daughters
McBean Theater, 2 p.m.

Window Water Baby Moving (1959, 12 min.) by experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage records and celebrates the birth of his daughter. The result is a forthright picture full of primitive wonder and love.

My Name is Ooona (1969, 10 min.) by experimental filmmaker Gunvor Nelson creates a film poem about her daughter and captures, in intensely lyrical images, the coming to consciousness of this young girl. With the late afternoon sun partially outlining her in silvery filigree, the girl repeats her name as if in awe until it becomes an incantation of self-realization.

In Jump (1997, 15 min.), local filmmaker Cade Bursell constructs a meditative film that stands as a stark examination of her life with cancer. Created as a film essay, Bursell's story touches on her family history, as well as the political history of nuclear contamination in 1950s America. Cut between images of mist-laden forests and streambeds and the cold isolation of hospital wards, this film exposes both human fragility and life-affirming perseverance, celebrated by the song "Art to Living" by Avin Loki Baird.

January

A Look at Teen Health
January 27 , 2001
Time to be announced

Webcast from the McBean Theater and broadcast around the world at www.exploratorium.edu .

No longer relegated simply to the world of birth control and physical fitness tests, "teen health" encompasses everything that relates to how teens can develop a healthy life. Webcast from the Exploratorium’s McBean Theater, and broadcast around the world at www.exploratorium.edu , the program explores teen health from the point of view of teenagers. Developed, written, and produced by Exploratorium high school Explainers, this live Webcast will cover such subjects as depression and medication, outlets for anger, and the rising rates of incarceration among teenage girls. Designed by and for teenagers, this program offers parents a great opportunity to tune into the complex issues facing today’s teens. This event is free with admission to the museum.

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