UB to begin documentary series with ‘gendercide’ topic

Luis Martinez, Entertainment Editor

An upcoming University Board documentary series by UB Ideas and Issues, “It’s A Girl,” will be shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Coleman Auditorium.

Ariel O’Neal, the coordinator for the board’s ideas and issues committee, is in charge of the event.

“This event is the beginning of a documentary type series for University Board,” O’Neal said. “Basically I’m showing documentary about some issues that are going on.”

“It’s A Girl” is the first in the series and focuses on the topic of “gendercide,” the killing of a member of a specific sex, which is an issue in China and India.

“They have this thing where girls aren’t wanted, and they rather have boys, so whenever they have baby girls, sometimes the baby girls are abandoned, or aborted, or killed, or given away,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal also said she is showing this film to shed some light on the topic and inform students.

“I thought it would be nice to spread some awareness about some of the issues that these documentaries show,” O’Neal said. “I chose ‘It’s A Girl’ because I’m a girl and because a long time ago, I read a book about this and it really touched me and I watched the documentary, and I thought this would be something interesting to share.”

While “It’s A Girl” will be the start of the documentary segment, the series will focus on a variety of different topics throughout the semester.

After watching “It’s A Girl,” those in attendance will also have a balloon release for all the baby girls that have passed away.

”It really wasn’t no rhyme or reason, this was kind of the order I decided to present them,” O’Neal said. “I have movies planned out for just this semester, now as far continuing with this would depend on the success of these events and how they go.”

O’Neal said though she would like as many people as possible to come to the documentary series events, it is more about how the shows make an impact.

The film will last for an hour, followed by a brief discussion of the film, and the event will conclude with the balloon release.

 

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]