Based on true events of the late ’20s, teenage sisters Bessie and Jo dream of faraway places while they paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials at the American Radium Factory in New Jersey. When Jo becomes ill, a larger, darker truth begins to emerge: She is not the first girl in the radium factory to become unwell. Bessie fights not only for her sister, but also for the rest of the women around her; she becomes a powerful advocate as she risks everything to stand up to the corporation that provides her family's livelihood.

Radium Girls is a celebration of everyday women finding their strength in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler co-direct a standout film that explores what it takes to piece together the small elements of wrongdoing in order to understand the scope of a larger injustice and, ultimately, fight against the system, when life's odds are stacked against you.

—Mara Webster

After the premiere screening: please join filmmakers Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler along with former EPA official Dr. Betsy Southerland in a discussion about the film and how the early organization of the women's movement empowered the Radium Girls to speak out. Their story reflects the strong history of women taking the lead in social reform addressing issues around industrialization, science, consumer health, and institutional corruption. Hosted by the Tribeca Film Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Directed by

Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler