You May Call Her Madam Secretary: Film Screening and Q&A
On Sunday, March 20 at 2pm, join us at the West Tisbury Library for a film to celebrate Women’s History Month. Local film producer Marjory Potts will present a screening of her documentary, You May Call Her Madam Secretary: Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, 1933-1945. This one-hour film, a story of conscience and politics, is about the first woman to hold a high public office in the US. This event is free and open to the public. There’s no sign up needed to attend.
About the film:
“If history teaches values, then in Frances Perkins’ life, we learn of a time when, as she said, ‘People cared to change the way things were.’
You May Call Her Madam Secretary traces the rise of social conscience in this country: from the outrage that followed the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911, still the worst industrial fire in US History, to the revolutionary legislation of the New Deal: Social Security, unemployment insurance, the minimum wage and maximum hours of work, the end to most of child labor. Perkins was a part of all of these milestone events and laws, and is considered the prime mover to get FDR, with whom she had a very close relationship, behind the Social Security Act.
This lively and dramatic documentary is also fascinating in its revelations about a history most people don’t know. Above all it is witty. Perkins was a superb storyteller with a remarkable memory. In the film, Actress Frances Sternhagen presents Perkins’ character on camera, based on words from her Oral History and other of her writings. It also features the co-producer, the late Robert Potts, who portrays FDR, Al Smith, Tammany Hall Bosses and Pols, in the tones and accents of their time.
The film draws on fine archival materials including still photos from the WPA, and newsreel footage. Portions of the film were shot over one week at the “old” Lambert’s Cove Inn, whose comfortable public sitting room evoked the apartments that Frances Perkins lived in in New York and Washington. A number of Islanders participated in the documentary and original music was composed by Jeff Bryant and Peter Huntington.
The film was produced by Robert and Marjory Potts with major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Massachusetts Council on the Humanities.”