The Library continues its film series showcasing the diverse roles of girls as cinematic storytellers with the acclaimed 1997 emotional drama Eve’s Bayou. Starring a young Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Samuel L. Jackson, it explores the secrets of a Louisiana family through the not-always-understanding eyes of a 10-year-old.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Erin Hamer-Beck leads a subsequent discussion.

The Girlhood and Cinema series explores how adolescent girls use media to tell their stories and how social influences, technology, audience expectations, consumerism, and historical and cultural fluctuations help frame the girls’ perception and narrative. Hamer-Beck is a communications studies instructor at UMKC, lecturer in the Liberal Arts Department at the Kansas City Art Institute, and English instructor at Metropolitan Community College-Longview.