|
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II
Director: LeAnn Erickson
Minnesota Film Arts Proudly Presents:
Top Seret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II
with Director LeAnn Erickson
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 7:15PM
Ms. Erickson will present and discuss her recent documentary film:
TOP SECRET ROSIES: THE FEMALE COMPUTERS OF WWII
With the second installment in the monthly Documenting America series, Minnesota Film Arts welcomes Ms. Erickson to St. Anthony Main Theatre. The event is free and open to the public.
In 1942 a secret US military program was launched to recruit women to the war effort.
But unlike the efforts to recruit Rosie to the factory, this search targeted female
mathematicians who would become human 'computers' for the US Army. From the
bombing of Axis Europe to the assaults on Japanese strongholds, women worked six
days a week, around-the-clock creating ballistics tables that proved crucial to Allied
success. Rosie made the weapons, but the female computers made them accurate.
When the first electronic computer (ENIAC) was developed to aid the Army’s
calculation efforts, six of these women were tapped to become its first programmers.
Top Secret Rosies incorporates the stories of four very different women who worked
as human computers at the University of Pennsylvania from 1942-1946, but does
more than simply document the factual lives of a literally ‘dying breed’- the
participants of the WWII era. Using the 16x9 HD screen as a canvas, the project
attempts to capture the opportunities and exhilaration of the times but also the moral
dilemma inherent in their work as these human ‘computers’ labored night and day to
create the mathematical computations that made every Allied bomb and bullet more
deadly.
The summer of 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII, yet the amazing
account of these women remains untold, until now. Top Secret Rosies: The Female
Computers of WWII shares a story of the women and technology that helped win a war
and usher in the modern computer age.
USA · 2010 · 56 MIN
TOP SECRET ROSIES playing at St. Anthony Main Theatre Screen #3 - Wed. Oct 6 @ 7:15
7:15pm
send
me a reminder email
email to a friend
|
