Artistic women through time

In advance of March being Women's History Month, it's time to see how the Women of the South Coast have contributed in the past and will contribute into the future.

Artistic women through time

by Michael J. DeCicco

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is offering the perfect opportunity for people to see women's past contributions to South Coast society with its "Celebrating Women and Work" workshop. The program is on Zoom on Wednesdays January 26, February 2, 9, and 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and Thursdays January 27, February 3 and 17 from 9:30 a.m. to Noon. On Saturday, February 12 from 9:30 a.m. to Noon, the workshop will be conducted in-person at the museum.

“Lifelong learners are invited to join us for an eight-session program celebrating women's work,” explained Catherine Saunders, coordinator of the museum's "Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the SouthCoast" virtual exhibit, of which this program is an off-shoot.

Saunders said this will be a chance for attendees to explore treasures in the Whaling Museum's collection made by women, learn about women who succeeded in the traditional maledominated workforce, and see past women’s handiwork in the home.

She said this is the museum's first such program. Women over the age of 65 are encouraged to apply. Though the program is open to the general public, priority will be given to women who are part of the ARAW (Association for the Relief of Aged Women). The program is made possible through the participation of the ARAW and through its Community Partnership Grant funding. Advance registration is required; the fee is $15 for the eight sessions.

The program will include a presentation from Whaling Museum staff who will bring out treasures from the museum collection not on display that have been made by or used by women. On the in-person day (Saturday), attendees will visit the museum's exhibits with the help of docents who will point out items of interest from the women's perspective, such as mementos of the captain's wives who accompanied their husbands on whaling voyages. One example, she said, is the work of Marian Shaw Smith, who took some of the first photographs ever taken of whaling life.

Attendees will also meet with the museum librarian who will show them original papers of historic women from the museum collection. Once such woman, Edith Guerrier, taught immigrant women to make pottery as a way for them to make money. Guerrier compiled a notebook for their thank-you notes to her. Attendees will also be able to see original recipe books and do family recipe swaps.

Additionally, there’ll be a presentation from the Lowell Maritime History Park on women who worked in the textile industry and a visit to New Bedford's Fishing Heritage Center to explore its exhibit on "Women's Work on the Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community".

Saunders said the program has two goals. The first is to provide a meaningful program for older women who, especially under current COVID pandemic conditions, can be isolated and forgotten about. The program gives them the opportunity to share their own stories as well as hear of stories like theirs, she said.

The second goal, she added, is to "shine a woman's lens on the story of the South Coast."

FINDING FILMMAKING

In Fairhaven, you'll find a bright future star of the women of the South Coast. Alyssa Botelho, a recent graduate of the film program at the University of Rhode Island, is already an award-winning filmmaker.

One of her first short films in high school was “A Normal Life”. You never see the narrator, and it's a sob story, she said. At the end, (spoiler alert!) the anonymous narrator is revealed to be a bird.

The film won first place in the short form category in the MA Organization of Video Educators state competition and an Honorable Mention New England Student Emmy Award.

In high school alone she won a total of three first-place awards from the state Organization of Video Educators and three Honorable Mentions from student Emmy awards.

But it's no boast when you consider her award-winning streak has continued beyond her college years. For college, she said, she chose a different route than most aspiring filmmakers, "as an underdog of sorts," she said.

"A lot of them go to Emerson College or the film schools in California,” she explained. “My aunt, who is involved in publishing, said I could be a big fish in a small pond rather than the other way around. So I became a URI major in film media and second major in business management."

At URI she earned a BA in Film Media and a BS/BA in Business Management, and there she completed her first real short film, “Junkie”, based on a true story of a drug addict who in the end finds inspiration to change through something unexpected: a conversation with a police officer.

Her second college-level production, “To Dust All Return”, became her next award-winner. It premiered at Fairhaven Town Hall in early October, and it was recently entered for competition into the Shawna Shea Memorial Film Festival based in Sturbridge, where it won first place in the short Folk Horror genre.

Her latest film, “Seacrets”, another award-winner, was produced for a worldwide 48-hour Film Project competition As part of a team in Providence, she co-wrote and directed the film after being given a series of prompts: a character, a prop, a line of dialogue. Each team had 48 hours to write, film, and edit their entry using those prompts.

The film won first place awards in Best Acting and Audience Favorite, against 20 RI teams in the September 2021 competition. As a result,the film will represent RI in the 48-hour Film Project's World Wide Competition in Washington, DC, in March.

Also this past year, she served as a Production Assistant on “Space Oddity”, a film directed by Kyra Sedwick and starring Sedwick's husband Kevin Bacon and Alfie Woodward, and she was recently hired as a producer's assistant (a position with higher-level duties, she said) within Rob Goodrich's Walk Like A Duck Entertainment. Soon she'll be heading to New Mexico to shoot a film there for that company.

"I'm very grateful and excited for the chances I've had," she said. She recalled that when she was a freshman at Fairhaven High School, she was struggling to find a focus. "I ran out as soon as the bell rang," she said. "I wasn't happy."

Choosing video production as a minor course in her freshman year "transformed me from someone who couldn't wait to leave school to someone who wanted to stay," she said. "The teacher, Drew Furtado, had to kick me out sometimes."

She said she enjoys filmmaking "because to me it's the most powerful form of storytelling there is. You give people a perspective they haven't had before. For those that have had the same experience that's on the screen, it's cathartic. There's nothing like sharing a story together in one room and feeling connected. It reminds me of when I first started filmmaking in high school. I was pretty shy. People started coming up to me after my film and said 'Wow!' or 'it made me laugh, cry!'. Filmmaking is a way of creating those connections with people."