The MFA and the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival partner for an “Evening With Our Favorite Literary Ladies.” Tickets are available at www.tiglff.com.

@6:30pm: Regarding Susan Sontag (USA, 2014), directed by Nancy Kates, 100 minutes

Susan Sontag was one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of our time. She wrote such pioneering books as Against Interpretation and Illness as Metaphor. Her own words, masterfully read by actor Patricia Clarkson, are the backdrop to hundreds of photos and videos of the author and essayist. The film also weaves in fascinating interviews with the friends, lovers, and family who knew her best.

@8:30pm: Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (USA/UK, 2013), directed by Pratibha Parmar, 84 minutes

Not everyone “gets” Alice Walker, but you’ll leave this film in love with her. She was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (The Color Purple). She talks openly about the backlash she experienced for tackling issues of violence and gender inequality in African-American culture. At the same time, she has been an ardent civil rights activist and early in her life, had an interracial marriage in Mississippi and gave birth to a beautiful daughter. She later had relationships with women, including singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. The film, released in honor of her 70th birthday in February, features readings of her poetry and prose and recent interviews with Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, and the author herself.