LEWISTON — L/A Arts presents Best of Bluestocking, a special screening of films from the Bluestocking Film Series, in the Downstage at 6 p.m. Friday, March 22. Admission is free.

The screening celebrates Women’s History Month and features a selection from the Bluestocking Film Series, a curated short film festival that requires films to feature a female protagonist. Founded by Maine-based independent filmmaker Kate Kaminski, Bluestocking was Maine’s women-in-film event from 2011-2018 and the first U.S. event to receive Sweden’s A-Rate for compliance with the Bechdel-Wallace Test.

“Narrative works by women are so underfunded and underscreened. Bluestocking harvests the best, dynamic works with women in the heart of the frame, the center of the story,” said Ariel Dougherty, Media Equity, co-founder Women Make Movies.

Parental advisory: These films are unrated and may contain content unsuitable for children younger than 16.

L/A Arts Downstage film programs are supported in part by the Maine Community Foundation, Healthy Neighborhoods and the Onion Foundation.

Since 1973, L/A Arts, the arts agency for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, has pursued a mission to engage and inspire a vibrant community through arts and culture. The agency works with government arts agencies, city governments, businesses and local arts and cultural organizations to create opportunities for community members across the generations to experience, learn, and participate in the arts. L/A Arts organizes arts programs and initiatives, supports the work of local artists and art organizations, and highlights the essential role the arts play in shaping an economically vital, socially integrated and forward-looking future for its community.

Learn more at www.laarts.org.

Still shot from “Sista in the Brotherhood,” one of the films in the Bluestocking Film Festival. (Photo by Dawn Jones Redstone)

Still shot from the film, “Schwestern (Sisters).”(Photo by Chantal Bertalanffy)