SYNOPSIS

The time is 1912. The U.K. is seeing an increased
 public presence of the Suffragettes, whose rallying cry
 is \"Votes for Women!\" The epicenter of their national
 Women\'s Social and Political Union (WSPU) is in
 London, where Maud is a working-class wife and
 mother; she and husband Sonny toil at a laundry.
 Startled one day by a protest, Maud recognizes a coworker,
 Violet among the agitators. Initially unwilling to
 get involved in the Suffragette cause, Maud comes to
 realize that she must claim her dignity both at home
 and in her workplace.

Program Note

Suffragette begins in a laundry factory in 1912 London. Female workers toiling for low wages are seen in the background while male politicians\' words govern and oppress them. \'Women do not have the calmness of temperament or the balance of mind to exercise judgment in political affairs.\' \'If we allow women to vote, it will mean the loss of social structure. Women are well represented by their fathers, brothers, or husbands.’\'Once the vote was given, it would be impossible to stop at this. Women would then demand the right of becoming MPs, cabinet ministers, or judges.\' The seemingly representative voices of multiple male politicians, however, stipulate and repress women who work in silence. The struggles of suffragettes in the early 20^thcentury in the film show that it is women themselves who can win the sovereignty and stop \'mansplaining.\' The main character of this film is neither Emmeline PANKHURST who founded and led the Women\'s Social and Political Union (WSPU), nor Emily Wilding DAVISON who was knocked down to death by King\'s horse in Epsom Derby when she demanded women\'s right to vote. Our protagonist is Maud, a female worker toiling in a laundry factory. The film shows how she transforms herself from a common, working class woman who accepts her poor circumstances to a suffrage devotee after waking up to the voices calling \'Votes for Women.\' While this film details the course of a woman\'s raising consciousness, the role of \'camera\' in this film must be noted. The camera, a media revolution emerging of the industrial revolution, functions as a surveillance device for domination as well as a recording device that only works for those in power. DAVISON charges toward the camera headon to bring the world\'s attention to the struggles behind the women\'s suffrage movement and the realities of women\'s labor fraught with poverty and exploitation. [Sunah KIM]