Madam Walker Legacy Center celebrates Women's History Month with movie screening

INDIANAPOLIS — The Madam Walker Legacy Center’s 95th Anniversary is hosting a movie screening Thursday night as it celebrates Women's History Month.

In honor of the big milestone, the center is hosting a movie screening Thursday night. The movie is an independent film, called Social Disturbance.

Indiana native, LaRae Wilson wrote the movie. She’s a girl boss, working in California, who took time during the pandemic to use her emotions and create this movie.

She said having this screening in her hometown sends a message of female empowerment and fits Madam Walker’s Legacy.

Walker created the center because she liked to go to the movies, but she was denied access, unless she paid what was called a Black tax.

So, Walker took matters into her own hands.

“We are 95 years old. It is still 100% Black-owned but now we have Black women that are coming back and writing the movies, producing the movies, all Black in the Walker, during women’s history month," President of the Madam Walker Walker Legacy Center Kristian Little Stricklen said. "So yeah. That’s empowering in itself.”

“I’m humbled, I’m humbled, and I’m honored," writer and producer LaRae Wilson said. "I just didn’t expect any of it. And it’s just huge for me, it’s huge. You know you come home and there’s just love and it’s just so huge, I can’t even believe it."

Wilson said she hopes to inspire other screenwriters with her work. The film centers around a young suburban woman, running from her past when she encounters an unassuming man and a twisted obsession begins.

Thursday's event begins at 6 p.m. with food, cocktails, music, and a discussion with the film’s music producers. The screening starts at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a post-film talkback.

You can buy tickets at Madam Walker Legacy Center website, or at the door.