GREAT FALLS — How much do you know about historical Montana women who helped mold the state into what it is today? The Great Falls High School History Department will present a screening of the Emmy-nominated docuseries The Story of Us: The Women Who Shaped Montana, followed by a Q&A session with the director and other experts.
The Story Of Us: The Women Who Shaped Montana tells the stories of women in Montana that overcame adversity, and made a significant impact on Montana and the country.
The series features accounts told through journal entries, historical experts, and reenactments. Series director, producer, and editor Kim Hogberg will also attend the screening to discuss production of the series.
Hogberg says, “Whether it was death, or just being a woman and not being believed, or not being taken seriously or, you know, abusive relationships, it was very traumatic. And yet each of them, it never stopped them. They kept moving forward”.
The first two episodes of the series will be screened next week, featuring six historical women including Rose Hum Lee, a Chinese-American woman from Butte who became the first woman to head a university sociology department, and Susie Walkingbear Yellowtail, the first registered nurse of Crow descent in the United States. Hogberg explains, “We really try to focus on a diverse group of women. We don't want to just tell all the white women's stories”.
Hogberg hopes the screening will inspire young women watching to make an impact on their communities despite obstacles. Great Falls High Senior Brooklyn Olmstead says, “History’s written often by men, and so the women's aspect of it usually gets passed by. And so, as a woman coming up into culture, wanting to effect change myself, it's really cool to be able to see how they've done it in the past and kind of shape where we're going in the future”.
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Produced majorly by grant funding, including the Greater Montana Foundation, the Big Sky Film Grant Humanities Montana, and the Foundation for Montana History, the series will continue to produce more episodes. They are currently working on a new episode including Nancy Cooper Russell from Great Falls. They have also partnered with Montana PBS to create an online learning guide for educators across the country.
Great Falls High School social studies teacher Annie Simkins says, “ I think I'm just excited to kind of leap into history and have the kids experience it. A lot of primary sources and the stories, the pictures and things like that, it just brings history alive. All the students are invited as well as a Great Falls community to come out and support and just kind of learn something new”.
Admission to the screening is free and will be held in the Great Falls High School auditorium at 1900 Second Avenue South, on Thursday, November 21st at 6pm.
To learn more about The Story of Us: The Women Who Shaped Montana, click here.
