The Westport Island Community Association is hosting a film screening of “Votes for Women, The History of Women’s Suffrage Through Song,” a film made by Westport Islander Barbara Cray, on Thursday, March 31, in recognition of March being Women’s History Month. The event will start with a social at 6:30 p.m., with the film screening at 7 p.m., followed by discussion. The event will be at the Westport Island Old Town Hall at 1217 Main St., Westport Island. Refreshments will be served. The event is open for all, with masking requested.

The film captures the heroic efforts of women to achieve the right to vote. Historical accounts of the suffrage movement are illustrated with fascinating archival photographs and video from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and other sources, and are interspersed with rousing songs of the suffrage movement performed by Portland chorus Women in Harmony. The historical segments of the film are narrated by Nancy Giles, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. The film is of great moment for our times. As stated by one viewer after seeing the film, “[t]he effective protests of women over one hundred years ago serve as models and inspiration for today. The suffrage songs add emotion and passion. Barbara Cray’s movie is both delightfully entertaining and compelling. It reminds us, if this is necessary, of both the decades of struggle and sacrifice that were necessary to give us the freedoms we enjoy today, and of the unfinished business for a ‘more equal union’ that has been bequeathed to our generation.”