Made In Dagenham (Tea Party Screening) (M)

From the director of Calendar Girls comes the new comedy-drama with an all star British cast, Made in Dagenham. The film stars the award winning Sally Hawkins as Rita OGrady who is the catalyst for the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists which led to the advent of the Equal Pay Act. Working in extremely impoverished conditions and for long arduous hours, the women at the Ford Dagenham plant finally lay down their tools when they are reclassified as unskilled. With humour, common sense and courage they take on their corporate paymasters, an increasingly belligerent local community, and finally the government itself. The leader of the womens struggle is fast-talking, no nonsense Rita whose fiery temper and occasionally hilarious unpredictability proves to be a match for any of her male opponents, and is echoed by Barbara Castle`s struggle in the male-dominated House of Commons.