Documentary shows Michigan's role in
Second Wave feminist movement

   Carol King still remembers exactly when the inspiration hit her for Passing the Torch.
   The veteran feminist was on the road after sharing her story as part of an Eastern Michigan University student project, designed to capture the stories of “Second Wave” feminists in Michigan. Suddenly, she envisioned a much more wide-ranging venture.
   “I thought, ‘This would be a great story. This would be a great documentary.’,” said King, who now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, documentary producer Michael Rose.
   At the same time, members of Veteran Feminists of Michigan were talking about using the interviews as the basis for an in-studio discussion program with WTVS. Joining forces, they've created a synergy that's bringing the real history of the feminist movement in Michigan to a much wider audience.
   King found enthusiastic support among friends, who hoped the film would help shatter '60s and '70s stereotypes.
  “I think feminism has become so misunderstood," King said. "Back in the day, we always used to complain that we’d go to rallys and protests, and the media would be there, but the next day, all we would see were the ‘angry women’. There weren’t images of my sister, who brought my niece in the stroller to an ERA rally.”
   The media’s picture stuck, pushing feminism into a niche that has many women reluctant to claim the word today. Passing the Torch has no loftier a goal than bringing the truth to light.
   King dove into the idea - and immediately encountered a big challenge. The student interviews had been taped only for academic purposes, not broadcast quality. Having to re-shoot made the project much more expensive than she first thought.
   Production realities meant being selective about the stories. They capture the big struggles, like changing perspectives on domestic violence and pioneering fairness in the workplace.
   King recalls a potential employer asking what form of birth control she used. She has vivid memories of the fight women undertook just to enter through the front door of the Detroit Athletic Club. For every one that made it to film, there are scores more waiting to be told.
   Passing the Torch also tells those stories from the Michigan perspective. Most people are very familiar with East Coast feminism, based in politics and the literary world, or celebrity-driven West Coast feminism, King said.
   “I really felt the activism and feminism that we had in Michigan was of the practical sort. Our roots were in the labor movement.”
   King sees hope in eventually handing off the torch and is encouraged by organizations like Code Pink (www.codepink4peace.org) that rally young people around peace, social justice and political activism.
   While today’s feminists lack a set of clearly defined issues, the need for 60s-style activism may be right around the corner.
   “The challenge is to help them identify the vestiges of sexism that still exist and to fight them,” King said. “I think there is a Third Wave out there that hasn’t come together yet.”    -- by Joni Hubred-Golden

Funding for “Passing The Torch” was provided by the James A. & Faith Knight Foundation, the Michigan Women’s Foundation, the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women & Gender and individual donors.