Join CALS and Arkansas Women’s Outreach as they kickoff a very special program with a FREE screening and discussion of Period. End of Sentence.

The film is being shown at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater tonight (October 7) at 7pm.

Arkansas Women’s Outreach has attracted community support and external grants with its mission to supply basic hygiene items such as pads, tampons, or wipes. That fundraising strength and access to supplies can work in perfect tandem with the close proximity of many CALS library branches to their neighborhoods, and the relationships that CALS staff develop with their branch visitors. “The library will allow us to expand our reach because a lot of people need our product, and we can’t get to them all,” Pam De Gravelles, president of Arkansas Women’s Outreach, said. “The library will have 14 different access points in the community starting with the pilot program at the CALS Main Library. It’s a perfect blend of our resources and volunteers and the library’s reach and staff.”

Period. End of Sentence. is a 2018 documentary short film directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and winner of the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).

In a rural village outside Delhi, India, women lead a quiet revolution. They fight against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation. For generations, these women didn’t have access to pads, which lead to health problems and girls missing school or dropping out entirely. But when a sanitary pad machine is installed in the village, the women learn to manufacture and market their own pads, empowering the women of their community. They name their brand “FLY,” because they want women “to soar.”

Their flight is, in part, enabled by the work of high school girls half a world away, in California, who raised the initial money for the machine and began a non-profit called “The Pad Project.”

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Film starts at 7:00 p.m. Beer, wine, and concessions will be available!