H-Memory

The 1980s is its own “golden age” of film when considering the idea/ls of gender contained within its borders. The era indulged representations of high-testosterone masculinity (such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis) and vulnerable femininity (such as Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy). And, while films of the decade were also capable of imagining men who were strong and sensitive (like Eric Stoltz in Some Kind of Wonderful, Rob Lowe in About Last Night, and Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club), there were far fewer roles for women that broke from stereotypically feminized characterizations (like Linda Hamilton in Terminator, Lea Thompson in Back to the Future, and Demi Moore in St. Elmo’s Fire).

The Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling in Montreal invites you to the launch of Stacey Zembrzycki’s According to Baba: A Collaborative Oral History of Sudbury’s Ukrainian Community and Steven High’s Oral History at the Crossroads: Sharing Life Stories of Survival and Displacement (UBC Press, 2014), the first two books in UBC Press’s new “Shared: Oral and Public History” book series. A reception as well as a dramatic reading of Jenny Montgomery’s Déraciné, a French-language play that came out of the Montreal Life Stories project, will follow.