And Still I Rise
Ngozi Onwurah, 1993, 30 minutes                             
Inspired by a poem by Maya Angelou, this powerful film explores images of Black women in the media, focusing on the myths surrounding Black women's sexuality. Like Color Adjustment, in which Marlon Riggs looked at images of Black people on television, And Still I Rise uses images from popular culture to reveal the way the media misrepresents Black women's sexuality. A combination of fear and fascination produces a stereotypical representation which in turn impacts on the real lives of Black women. And Still I Rise intercuts historical and media images with hard-hitting contemporary views of women of African heritage as they struggle to create a new and empowered perspective.

Artist
Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg, 1999, 10 minutes
Internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Tracey Moffatt takes the viewer on a fast-paced journey through Hollywood's depiction of the artist. Using a wealth of clips from classic cinema bio pics and popular television sitcoms, the video voyage spans centuries of art and art-making to reveal how five decades of mainstream media have perceived the creative process and creators themselves. A lively music track underscores the fervor and passion we have come to associate with artists and their typical one-dimensional representations on the large and small screen. Punctuated by recurrent gestures--the confident whisk of the paint brush, the futile laugh of frustration, and the violent destruction of one's own work--this amusing, thought-provoking array of well-known images paints an incisive portrait of the artist as a total Hollywood fabrication.
Press Kit

Black, Bold, and Beautiful: Black Women’s Hair
Nadine Valcin, 1999, 40 minutes
Afros, braids or corn rows--hairstyles have always carried a social message, and few issues cause as many battles between black parents and their daughters. To "relax" one's hair into straight tresses or to leave it "natural" inevitably raises questions of conformity and rebellion, pride and identity. Today, trend-setting teens happily reinvent themselves on a daily basis, while career women strive for the right "professional" image, and other women go "natural" as a symbol of comfort in their Blackness. Filmmaker Nadine Valcin meets a diverse group of black women who reveal how their hairstyles relate to their lives and life choices. Black, Bold and Beautiful celebrates the bonds formed as women attend to each other's hair while exploring how everyday grooming matters tap into lively debates about self-determination and society's perceptions of beauty.

Black Kites
Jo Andres, 1996, 26 minutes
Based on 1992 journals of Bosnian visual artist Alma Hajric who was forced into a basement shelter to survive the siege of Sarajevo, Black Kites is the outcome of a chance encounter between Hajric and filmmaker-choreographer Andres. Focusing on Hajric's inner landscape, it skillfully merges reality-based content with interpretive visual material to reveal the simple, sometimes beautiful, yet brutal truth of her existence. Non-linear, dreamlike and spectral, Black Kites is a testament to artistry, imagination and the resiliency of the human psyche. Features sensitive performances by Steve Buscemi, Mimi Goese and Mira Furlan, a prominent actress from the former Yugoslavia, as the narrator

Black Women on the Light Dark Thang
Celeste Crenshaw and Paula Caffey, 1999, 52 minutes
Black Women On: The Light, Dark Thang explores the politics of color within the African-American community. Women representing a variety of hues speak candidly about the longstanding "caste system" that permeates black society. These women share provocative, heart-wrenching personal stories about how being too light or too dark has profoundly influenced their life and relationships--from childhood on and throughout their adult years. Originating in a culture of slavery, the "light, dark thang" still persists. Even today it haunts black women's individual and collective memories. Both entertaining and transformative viewing, Black Women On: The Light, Dark Thang combines personal interviews and historical footage with literary and dramatic vignettes.

Blind Spot
  Irving Saraf, Allie Light and Julia Hilder, 2000, 87 minutes
Because murder by women is still relatively rare--only one out of eight murders in the United States is committed by a woman--women's own stories provide unique insights into the circumstances leading to these violent acts. In this absorbing documentary, intimate one-on-one interviews with six women murderers are combined with re-enactments of their background experience and visual re-creations of their interior lives. Sharing and reflecting on their memories, fantasies, dreams, and anger, the six women candidly describe their actions as perpetrators in detail and address the issue of having taken a life. Interspersed between their separate stories are their individual reflections on coping strategies, and life and relationships in prison. From the Academy and Emmy-award winning filmmakers responsible for Dialogues With Madwomen, Blind Spot is a provocative and riveting encounter with throw-away children, out-of-control adults, and the emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences of murder.
Press Kit

Bringing It All Back Home Chrissie Stansfield, 1987, 48 minutes
This fascinating documentary analyzes how the patterns of international capital investment and the exploitation of Third World women workers in free trade zones are being brought home to the First World. Issues discussed include: the internationalization of our local economies, the growing schism between the rich and poor and the changing nature of women's work.

Chicana
Sylvia Morales, 1979, 23 minutes
Chicana traces the history of Chicana and Mexican women from pre-Columbian times to the present. It covers women's role in Aztec society, their participation in the 1810 struggle for Mexican independence, their involvement in the US labor strikes in 1872, their contributions to the 1910 Mexican revolution and their leadership in contemporary civil rights causes. Using murals, engravings and historical footage, Chicana shows how women, despite their poverty, have become an active and vocal part of the political and work life in both Mexico and the United States.

The Children We Sacrifice
Grace Poore, 2000, 61 minutes
Shot in India, Sri Lanka, Canada and the United States, this evocative, visually powerful documentary is about incestuous sexual abuse of the South Asian girl child. By interweaving survivors' narratives, including the producer's own story, with interviews with South Asian mental health professionals, and with statistical information, as well as poetry and art, The Children We Sacrifice discloses the many layers of a subject traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Insights into the far-reaching psychological, social and cultural consequences of incest are accompanied by thoughtful assessments of strategies that have helped adult women cope with childhood trauma. The video also analyzes social and cultural resistance in South Asia and the Diaspora to dealing with incest's causes and its effects on its victims. This personal and collective letter from South Asian incest survivors and their advocates is both a validation of their struggle and a compelling charge to protect future generations of children better.

Covered: The Hejab in Cairo, Egypt, Tania Kamal-Eldin, 1995, 25 minutes
Just over a decade ago it was hard to find women on the streets of Cairo who veiled, a custom that their forebears struggled to overthrow at the beginning of the twentieth century. But today, many Muslim women in Egypt wear a head scarf called the hejab, and in more extreme cases they cover their entire faces. This absorbing documentary offers a rare opportunity to examine the restoration of veiling and the reasons for its pervasiveness through the eyes of Egyptian women. In unique interviews with women of different ages and backgrounds, "Covered" reveals that Islamic tradition, religious fundamentalism, and growing nationalism are not solely responsible for decisions to wear the hejab. Diverse social, economic and political factors, as well as personal preferences, often play prominent roles. As timely as it is compelling, the film shows how complex causes account for a phenomenon that is poorlyunderstood outside the Muslim world.

Cusp
Ruth Sergel, 2000, 25 minutes
There is an electric moment for girls on the cusp of adolescence. They leave behind the bold egoism of girlhood for the shaky self-consciousness of their teens. Cusp is a portrait of Alice, a spirited 12 year old, hitting the wall of early adolescence. Her fierce struggle to retain her sense of self, despite the onslaught of other voices, denotes girls’ particular coming of age. As Alice teeters on the edge of adolescence her connection to her mother seesaws between explosive outbursts and warm intimacy. They are forced to constantly renegotiate the balance of their relationship. The intricacies of sixth grade social order are played out between Alice and her best friend. The painful intersection of popularity and class strain and then break the ties between the friends. The intensity of that loss is mirrored in Lila, an adult friend of the family, and her lover. Lila represents sensuality, danger and the secrets of growing up. Alice looks to her for an initiation into womanhood that she cannot get from her mother. Alice is left an anthropologist of her own culture, trying to understand what is expected of her. Her fierce struggle and quiet bravery shape the heart of Cusp.

Daughter of Suicide
Dempsey Rice, 1999, 72 minutes
"My mother's suicide is the single most defining event in my life. It's like there's before and there's after and everything is different after," Dempsey Rice, Filmmaker.  "Opening a box of old family pictures, layering them into a collage of depression, suicide, and guilt, filmmaker Dempsey Rice tells the extremely intimate story of her mother's life and eventual suicide. Her mother Bonnie appeared to live a typical American life, for most of which she maintained the façade of perfect daughter, wife, and mother. But she battled depression her whole life. Her suicide forces her family to reflect on their shared lives through the kaleidoscope of her final action, searching for a cause that can allow them to understand and to make peace. Throughout, the filmmaker tries to rationalize an irrational act and to find a way to forgive her mother. Daughter of Suicide is a deeply moving, impressionistic documentary that shares the inner thoughts and feelings of a family's personal tragedy." Mark Taylor, Frameline
Press Kit

Daughters of War
Maria Barea, 1998, 30 minutes
How does a 17 year old mother and leader of a girl gang survive in a region where violence and abuse has become the norm? In  Daughters of War Peruvian director, Maria Barea, documents Gabriela’s life in Ayacucho, Peru, the former Maoist guerrilla stronghold ravaged by civil war in the 1980’s. As Gabriela’s story unfolds, we witness first hand the effects that war, drugs and poverty have had on this generation of youths in Peru and will have on generations to come. Her mother mysteriously disappeared when Gabriela was five. She and her sister were passed on to their Grandmother who didn’t want them. Violence, neglect and abuse drove Gabriela to the streets where survival meant fighting with a knife and stealing. Her story is typical for the region where many children lost their parents to the civil war or the drug trade. Gabriela is leader of a gang of girls with similar histories. They have grown so used to violence and abuse that they no longer recognize when they are victims to it. Gabriela has a daughter. Named after Gabriela’s mother, Evila is the only person Gabriela trusts. What hope can Gabriela have for her future and for the future of her child?

Dialogues with Madwomen
  Allie Light, 1993, 90 minutes
"I was always so afraid that someone would ask me (where I was when JFK was shot), and I would have to say I was in a mental institution", says director Allie Light. This moving and informative film features seven women--including the filmmaker--describing their experiences with manic depression, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, euphoria and recovery. Candid interviews are enriched with dramatic reenactments and visualizations of each woman's history, emotions, and dreams--the private symbols of madness and sanity. The social dimensions of women and mental illness are revealed in testimony about sexual assault, incest, racism and homophobia, the abuses of the medical establishment, family, and church. Acknowledging that "madness" is often a way of explaining women's self-expression, this film charges us to listen to the creativity and courage of survivors. Produced by the Academy Award winning filmmakers of In The Shadow of the Stars, Dialogues With Madwomen is a ground-breaking film about women and mental illness.

Eternal Seed
Meera Dewan, 1996, 43 minutes
With insightful interviews and rare footage from India's agricultural industry, this keenly observed film depicts Indian women's struggles to use traditional farming practices instead of chemically-based agriculture. Comparing the practices of women who consider seeds sacred with multinational companies' use of sterilized hybrids, this evocative analysis celebrates the scientific basis of women's native traditions in a provocative look at the evolving meanings of healthy land use.

The F-Word, Marcia Jarmel and Erin Gallagher, 1994, 10 minutes
The F-Word is a provocative look at the power of the word 'feminism' in the US. Why does it mean so many different things to different people? Pithy interviews with women and men from diverse backgrounds are rhythmically intercut with computer-animated quotes from the likes of Barbara Smith to Pat Robertson, all set to an upbeat rap accompaniment. Designed to open up attitudes, The F-Word proves feminism is still something worth talking about-hotly debated, widely misconstrued, but undeniably a fact of life!

Forbidden Fruit
Susan Bruce, 2000, 30 minutes
Zimbabwean filmmaker, Sue Maluwa Bruce, breaks long held taboos about sexual identity and lesbian love in African society in her groundbreaking video, Forbidden Fruit. “What is most remarkable about 'Forbidden Fruit' is its range of appeal. It opens rural life and village politics in Zimbabwe to a new understanding, which is reconfigured by the love shared by the two women protagonists. To a society hostile to that love, the film responds neither with pleas for tolerance nor condemnation; instead, Forbidden Fruit exploits passion in the service of transformation. The inventive reconstruction of that love story breaks the barriers of genre, too: this is a docu/dramatic and moving call to queer, global solidarity." – Amy Villarejo, Cornell University

Gaea Girls
Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams,2000, 106 minutes "This fascinating film follows the physically grueling and mentally exhausting training regimen of several young wanna-be 'Gaea Girls', a group of Japanese women wrestlers. The idea of them may seem like a total oxymoron in a country where women are usually regarded as docile and subservient. However, in training and in the arena, the female wrestlers depicted in this film are just as violent as any member of the World Wrestling Federation, and the blood that’s drawn is very real indeed. One recruit, Takeuchi, endures ritual humiliation not seen on screen since the boot camp sequences of 'Full Metal Jacket'. In 'Divorce Iranian Style', Kim Longinotto cinematically explored the previously unexplored world of the Tehran divorce courts. Working with co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto has been given access to shoot an insider’s verité account of this closely guarded universe." - Chicago Film Festival
Press Kit

The Hat
Michele Cournoyer, 2000, 6 minutes
A young woman works as an exotic dancer in a bar. She recalls an incident from her childhood in which she was physically abused by a male visitor. This inner journey brings back painful memories, including the obsessive image of a hat. Black-ink drawings, spare and rapidly executed, flow together in a succession of troubling and striking metamorphoses. The Hat is a tough, visceral experience but a beautifully rendered and imaginative look at the violence which is ever present in women’s lives.

Heaven
Tracey Moffatt, 1997, 28 minutes
This playful video from famed director and photographer Tracey Moffatt turns the tables on traditional representations of desire to examine the power of the female gaze in the objectification of men’s bodies. Heaven begins with surreptitiously taped documentary footage of brawny surfers changing in and out of bathing and wet-suits. While the soundtrack switches between the ocean surf and male chanting, Moffatt moves closer to alternately flirt with and tease her subjects, who respond with a combination of preening and macho reticence. This witty piece is a potent and hilarious meditation on cinematic and everyday sex roles, voyeurism, power, and the thin line between admiration and invasiveness.
Press Kit

The Idea We Live In
Pilar Rodr’guez, 1990, 19 minutes
How does space, specifically our family home, affect us and our idea of who we are? The script for this beautiful and poetic videotape began as a collage of poetry and texts by diverse authors such as Jaime Sabines, Marge Piercy, Gaston Bachelard and Pilar Rodr’guez herself. It became a narrative about a woman going inside the home of her memories and desires. The Idea We Live In eloquently explores the concept of 'home' as a metaphor for understanding cultural identity.

I, Doll
Tula Asselanis, 1996, 57 minutes
There are more Barbie Dolls in the U.S. than human beings. Barbie was fashioned after a German prostitute doll named "Lilli." These are just two of the many Barbie facts revealed in this hilarious documentary on the Barbie phenomenon. Interviews with adoring fans as well as culturally diverse critics of Barbie's unrealistic body image for women, express feelings, both pro and con, about the 6-ounces of plastic that became a national icon.

Jane: An Abortion Service, Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy, 1996, 58 minutes
This fascinating political look at a little-known chapter in women's history tells the story of "Jane", the Chicago-based women's health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training. As Jane members describe finding feminism and clients describe finding Jane, archival footage and recreations mingle to depict how the repression of the early sixties and social movements of the late sixties influenced this unique group. Both vital knowledge and meditation on the process of empowerment, Jane: An Abortion Service showcases the importance of preserving women's knowledge in the face of revisionist history.

Jodie, an Icon
Pratibha Parmar, 1996, 24 minutes
Jodie is a fast paced, breezy look at the transatlantic phenomenon that has made Hollywood actress Jodie Foster an icon for lesbians who identify with, adore and celebrate the screen personas of her remarkable career. Fans and queer cultural critics share their favorite “iconic” moments giving illuminating lesbian readings of Foster’s key films which trace the charismatic actor’s progression from early tomboy parts as a child star to mature performances depicting active, strong willed women with attitude. Die hard Foster fans like comedienne Lea de Laria’s comment that “If I was Hannibal Lecter, it wouldn’t be her liver I’d want to eat,” express the desire and lust shared by Foster’s lesbian fans around the world. The film captures the Jodie Foster look alike contest in San Francisco and a visually slick montage of views on Foster’s butch femme indeterminacy all help to confirm Foster’s status as a dyke icon.

Kinaalda
  Lena Carr, 2000, 56 minutes
Native American filmmaker, Lena Carr, presents a beautiful documentary with rare insight into a young girls’ rite of passage on a Navajo reservation. The Kinaalda ceremony, an intricate four-day event performed to guide a young girls’ ascent to womanhood, is considered to be one of the most important and sacred rituals among the Navajo people. Carr was regrettably denied her Kinaalda ceremony because of her parent’s relocation out of the reservation and their desire to integrate their daughter into mainstream American culture. In this highly moving and visually arresting documentary, Carr is able to journey back into her childhood and reconnect with her Navajo culture by intimately chronicling her 13-year old niece’s initiation into womanhood. As the two stories poetically intertwine, Carr sensitively engages in an inter-intergenerational dialogue about the Kinaalda rite that lightly touches on the current socio-political situation of the Navajo people, but more importantly, demonstrates how the coming-of-age of a young woman is important to an entire community.

Lip
Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg, 1999, 10 minutes style
It is Hollywood’s favorite role for black women: the maid. Sassy or sweet, snickeringly attentive or flippantly dismissive, the performers who play them steal every scene they are in, and Tracy Moffatt’s entertaining video collage reveals the narrow margin Hollywood has allowed black actresses to shine in. But shine they do. Giving lip is proven an art form in these scenes from 1930’s cinema to present-day movies featuring a remarkable roster of undervalued actresses and their more celebrated white costars. Moffatt and Hillberg’s rough, no-budget assembly effectively highlights with familiarity and humor the disturbing realization of how black characters and white characters still interact on screen, under Hollywood’s eternally backwards eye.
Press Kit

Lockin’ Up
T. Nicole Atkinson, 1997, 29 minutes
When Jamaican-born filmmaker T. Nicole Atkinson threw away her comb to let her hair coil into dreadlocks, she was forced to challenge both society’s and her own conflicted notions of beauty. Her story and those of other African Americans who have chosen to ‘lock up’ are wittily chronicled in this award-winning, entertaining film. Anecdotes, historical data, groit performances, and hair tips mingle in a survey of the origins and cultural significance of dreadlocks, including the stereotypes which mirror the racism inherent in Western standards of beauty. T. Nicole Atkinson is the co-producer of the late Marlon Riggs’ acclaimed documentary, Black Is...Black Aint

Macho Lucinda Broadbent, 2000, 26 minutes
...provides an in-depth profile of Men Against Violence and its ground-breaking work towards eliminating attitudes of male chauvinism (known as machismo in Spanish) that have perpetuated violent acts against women in Nicaragua and Latin America. The film strongly demonstrates that despite living in one of the most destitute countries in Latin America, this group has succeeded in providing a model that is used by men worldwide to discuss issues of violence and advocate for the rights of women.

Miss Universe in Peru Grupo Chaski, 1986, 32 minutes Shot during the Miss Universe contest hosted by Peru in 1982, this documentary juxtaposes the glamour of the pageant with the realities of Peruvian women’s lives, while providing a critique of multinational corporate interest in the universal commodification of women. Grupo Chaski is a collective engaged in video production in Peru and is deeply committed to women’s equality and participation in society.

My Left Breast
Gerry Rogers, 2000, 57 minutes
“With startling honesty and immediacy, Canadian filmmaker Gerry Rogers began filming her ordeal with breast cancer the moment her hair started falling out from chemotherapy. You are with her at 4 in the morning when she expresses her deepest fears and her most intimate feelings; she takes you to her doctor’s appointments and family gatherings; you are in the chemo room as the toxic red liquid is pumped into her body; you are in the radiation chamber as she gets zapped with the equivalent of 10,000 chest x-rays; you join in the singing and magic of the most joyous Christmas party; you attend the pot-luck wig hair-raiser she organizes in defiance of cancer; you laugh with her as she lies next to a bald-headed seal that rests on a local beach near her Carbonear home. You are there as Gerry lives her life with her partner Peggy, who nurses, films, and loves her. You won’t watch this film, you will experience it --and you will never see the world quite the same way again.”  Terry Nash, Academy Award-Winning Director, "If You Love this Planet"

My Feminism
Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert, 1997, 55 minutes
In an era of anti-feminist backlash, this articulate documentary by the makers of Thank God I'm a Lesbian forcefully reminds us that the revolution continues. Powerful interviews with feminist leaders including bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, and Urvsahi Vaid are intercut with documentary sequences to engagingly explore the past and present status of the women's movement. Discussing the unique contributions of second wave feminism, they explore their racial, economic and ideological differences and shared vision of achieving equality for women. An essential component of women's studies curricula, My Feminism introduces feminism's key themes while exposing the cultural fears underlying lesbian baiting, backlash, and political extremism.

Nobody Knows My Name
Rachel Raimist, 1999, 58 minutes
"Nobody Knows My Name" tells the story of women who are connected by their love for hip-hop music. Despite the fact that these talented female artists exist within a culture that revolves around self-expression, the subjects of Raimist’s documentary must struggle to be heard. Asia One has found a nitch as an organizer of the B-Boy Summit, but longs for a sense of female community. DJ Symphony is the sole female member of the The World Famous Beat Junkies. Leaschea lives a turbulent life, even though she has been signed by a major label. Lisa married in the hip-hop lifestyle, and now raises a hip-hop family. Medusa is the successful queen of the L.A. hip-hop underground. T-Love, an ex-Cripette, hopes her creative talents will help her change her lifestyle. Through the candid study of these women, documentarian Raimist explores a fascinating and diverse feminist community, which yearns to find a place in a male-dominated subculture that is, in itself, marginalized. Ultimately, Raimist succeeds in empowering these self-actualized women by giving them voice for which they struggle.
Press Kit

Out of Phoenix Bridge
Li Hong, 1997, 110 minutes
This groundbreaking work from Li Hong, China’s first independent female documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the countryside who have come to Beijing for jobs. Although they work long hours as maids or street vendors and share a tiny room no bigger than a closet, they savor these years -- between living as a daughter at home and returning to the village to marry --as probably the freest time of their lives. Documenting both her deepening relationship with these women and the gulf of experiences and opportunity that separate them, Hong carefully charts their hopes for a better future and dreams of self-determination.  In interviews and intimate footage, Hong elicits remarkably candid and complex testimony from her subjects as they frankly discuss their work, pressures from home, and experiences with men. A remarkable achievement, this touching film is a fascinating look at the lives of women whose experiences are rarely explored. As they straddle traditional and modern roles, their stories uniquely exemplify the conflicts between the swift changes in women’s roles occurring in China and around the developing world.

The Pill 
Erna Buffie and Elise Swerhone, 1999,  45 minutes
Conceived to help women control their fertility, the birth control pill was a touchstone for sexual liberation in the 1960s and is now used by millions around the globe. This fascinating documentary, which chronicles little known chapters in the history of the oral contraceptive that changed the world, examines how far the pharmaceutical industry was willing to risk women's health to launch its magic bullet. For its inquiry, the film draws on archival and period footage, interviews with women from Puerto Rico who became unsuspecting test subjects for the early Pill, insights from women's health activists who publicly questioned the high-dose version's safety, and testimony from scientists prominent in the drug's development. Also featured are Gloria Steinem and journalist Barbara Seaman, whose 1969 book, The Doctors' Case Against the Pill, became a cause célèbre in the campaign for informed consent. An impressively researched story of how the Pill came to be, the film speaks directly to issues of patient's rights, medical ethics, and women's health care that still resonate today.

Rachel’s Daughters
Allie Light and Saraf,   1997 107 minutes
From the makers of the Oscar-winning In the Shadow of The Stars, this fascinating documentary follows a group of women - all breast cancer activists who are fighting or have survived the disease - who are on a personal mission to unearth the causes of breast cancer. The result is Rachel's Daughters, an engaging detective story and detailed analysis of the science and politics of this epidemic. Seeing themselves as spiritual heirs of author Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring warned of the dangers of DDT exposure, they focus on issues including chemical contamination, radiation, and electromagnetic exposure to find breast cancer's causes. Addressing environmental racism, inequalities in research funding, and disparities in cancer rates for women of color, they track the effects of social biases on cancer incidence and health care delivery. Incorporating interviews with prominent scientists, documentary footage from high cancer rate areas, and the investigating women’s personal battles to stay healthy, Rachel's Daughters offers a scientifically rigorous and intensely affecting view of this growing epidemic. An unprecedented warning of the dangers of industrialization; it is an inspiring rallying cry for those working to change current views about women's health.

Rebel Hearts: The Grimke Sisters, Betsy Newman, 1995, 60 minutes
...a captivating documentary about the abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the anti-slavery movement of the early 19th Century. Daughters of a wealthy slave-holding family from Charleston, SC, the Grimke sisters astonished everyone-family, friends and abolitionists-when they left the south to become the first female agents of the anti-slavery movement. Their passionate rhetoric and fiery speaking style led them to the front ranks of the abolitionist movement and set the stage for the establishment of the women's rights' movement. A combination of interviews - - including one with historian Gerda Lerner - - dramatic performances and rare archival footage creates a lively portrait of these extraordinary women and their contribution to American history.

Remembering Wei Yi-Fang, Remembering Myself
Yvonne Welbon, 1995, 29 minutes
Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography style charts the influence of the filmmaker’s experience as an African American woman in Taiwan after college graduation. The highly original film recounts Welbon’s discovery, through another language and culture, of being respected for who she is, without the constant of American racism, and how it helped her achieve self‑knowledge. Linking this story with that of earlier women in Welbon’s family, the richly textured memoir blends dramatic sequences with documentary footage.

Remote Sensing
Ursula Biemann, 2001, 53 minutes
In Biemann’s latest video, she traces the routes and reasons of women who travel across the globe for work in the sex industry. By using the latest images from NASA satellites, the film investigates the consequences of the U.S. military presence in South East Asia as well as European migration politics. This video-essay takes an earthly perspective on cross-border circuits, where women have emerged as key actors and expertly links new geographic technologies to the sexualization and displacement of women on a global scale. By revealing how technologies of marginalization affect women in their sexuality, "Remote Sensing" aspires to displace and resignify the feminine within sexual difference and cultural representation.

Return of Sarah’s Daughters
  Marcia Jarmel, 1997, 56 minutes
The Return of Sarah's Daughters is a compelling personal documentary about secular women drawn to Jewish Orthodoxy. Rus, a no-nonsense social worker, discovers fulfillment in the Hasidic community. Myriam, a spiritually-oriented lesbian, struggles to fit in, but ultimately leaves to become a rabbi. Their stories challenge the filmmaker to give more than a feminist tour of this closed world. She must confront her own lack of ethnic identity. What does tradition have to offer? At what price? Ultimately, her journeyilluminates the modern conflict between assimilation and tradition, community and individualism.

The Righteous Babes
Pratibha Parmar, 1998, 50 minutes
In this new documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Pratibha Parmar (A Place of Rage, Warrior Marks) explores the intersection of feminism with popular music, focusing on the role of female recording artists in the 1990s and their influence on modern women. Parmar argues that, far from being dead, feminism has thrived and expanded its reach through the direct, aggressive, and revolutionary medium of rock music, and through the role models of performers like Madonna and Ani DiFranco. Intercuting performance footage with interviews, Parmar explores her thesis with some of the most outspoken female musicians, feminist theorists, and journalists of the UK and US, including Sinead O’Connor, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Camille Paglia, and Gloria Steinem. The Righteous Babes offers a searing and timely critique of the commercialization of feminism through 'Girl Power' Spice Girls style, ditzy Ally McBeal and her trans-Atlantic counterpart, Bridget Jones. With critical insight and candidness, this powerful and timely documentary demonstrates the vibrancy and relevance of feminism to women and young girls today. Essential viewing for feminists, post-feminists and anti-feminists alike.

Shadows of Memory,
 Claudia von Alemann, 2000,   43 minutes
Filmmaker Claudia von Alemann embarks on a journey to uncover her family's painful history and erroneous relationship with the Third Reich during World War II. In an attempt to reconcile this unsettling past, the filmmaker, her 84-year old mother, and her 17-year old daughter, reunite in the small East German village of Seebach, the location their family fled from to the west after being expropriated. The ensuing  intergenerational dialogue reveals a disturbing, but rarely heard point of view on Nazism: that of an average German citizen and mother of six and housewife, believing in Hitler, who later radically changed her beliefs with deep regret and guilt for her past affiliations. The honesty and clarity of the mother’s narrative provides a unique insight into the psychology behind Hitler's mass appeal among the German people. As well, the conversations between mother and daughter and mother and granddaughter, while not always easy, make for emotional and touching scenes. Candid and deeply moving, Shadows of Memory reveals three generations still attempting to recover from the legacy left behind by Hitler's Third Reich more than half a century ago. It is the final of four documentaries made by von Allemann about the history of German reunification in the Thuringian village of Seebach.

Siren Spirits
Ngozi Onwurah, Pratibha Parmar, Frances‑Anne Solomon, Dani Williamson, 1994, 80 minutes
Siren Spirits is a wonderful feature comprising four short dramas directed by women of color, produced by the British Film Institute for BBC Television.  Ngozi Onwurah’s "White Men Are Cracking Up" uses a murder mystery to explore the legacies of British colonialism and the exoticization of Black women.   Using magic realism, "Memsahib Rita" by Pratibha Parmar looks at the physical and emotional violence of racism. Shanti is haunted by both the racist taunts of nationalist white youths and the memory of her white mother.  Dani Williamson’s "Get Me to the Crematorium on Time" is a moving portrait of undying love and grief. When her husband of twenty years dies, Bonetta is overcome by her loss and is taken to a mental hospital; but she knows she must escape to get to the crematorium to say farewell to the man with whom she has shared her life. In Frances‑Anne Solomon’s "Bideshi" a 50‑year‑old Bengali man lies in a coma in hospital, his soul stuck in a dark tunnel near death, until a resolution of his conflict with his daughter liberates his spirit. "Siren Spirits" shows the powerful complexity of family and race relations in contemporary society and is testament to the brilliant creativity of these four directors.

Seven Hours to Burn
Shanti Thakur, 1999, 9 minutes
"A visually expressive personal documentary that explores a family's history. Filmmaker Thakur mixes richly abstract filmmaking with disturbing archival war footage to narrate the story of her Danish mother's and Indian father's experiences. Her mother survives Nazi-occupied Denmark while her father experiences the devastating civil war in India between Hindus and Muslims. Both émigrés to Canada, they meet and marry, linking two parallel wars. Their daughter lyrically turns these two separate histories into a visually rich poem linking past and present in a new singular identity." Doubletake Documentary Film Festival Catalogue
Press Kit

Skin and Ink
Barbara Attie, Nora Monroe and Maureen Wellner, 1990, 28 minutes
Increasing numbers of women are choosing to become tattooed, a practice once considered the domain of bikers, sailors and criminals. This absorbing documentary looks at both women who have tattoos and those who create them. Artists, secretaries, academics and mothers reveal their motivations for becoming heavily tattooed, as well as some of the social repercussions, which for one woman included losing custody of her children. Skin and Ink is useful for discussions of sex-role stereotyping, anthropology and folklore.

Stigmata, Leslie Asako Gladsjø, 1991, 27 minutes
...a riveting look at body modification such as tattooing, cutting, piercing and branding, practices which are becoming increasingly popular amongst women. Although these activities are considered radical, the videotape suggests that they are no more physically radical than cosmetic surgery; and these women are transforming their bodies against conventional stereotypes of femininity rather than to conform to them. Stigmata explores concepts of beauty, self-determination and the outer limits of female sexuality.

Sweating Indian Style, Susan Smith, 1994, 57 minutes
The appropriation of Native American traditions by non-Natives comes under thoughtful scrutiny in this insightful documentary. As it follows the New Age activities of a group of Californian women learning to construct a sweat lodge and perform their own ceremony, it raises important questions about the use of elements of Native culture out of context, apart from the complex realities of American Indian experience. Interviews with diverse Native American women point out the problems inherent in this increasingly popular New Age phenomenon and its relationship to traditional forms of colonialism.

Thank God I’m a Lesbian
Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cardona, 1992, 55 minutes ...an uplifting and entertaining documentary about the diversity of lesbian identities.  Dionne Brand, Nicole Brossard, Lee Pui Ming, Becki Ross, Julia Creet, LaVerne Monette, Sarah Schulman, Chris  Bearchell, Chris Phibbs, Christine Delphy and Jeanelle Laillou speak frankly and articulately about issues ranging from coming out, racism, bisexuality, and SM, to the evolution of the feminist and lesbian movements, outing and compulsory heterosexuality.

Tree Shade
Lisa Collins, 1998, 29 minutes
Shame and embarrassment propel Savannah, a gifted high school student, to embark on a journey through space and time to witness the prison convictions of her great-grandmother Etta Mae, her grand-aunt Olive, and her aunt Denise. The fanciful and chilling tales of a delightfully vain maid in the 1920s , a hopelessly depressed nanny in the 1950s, and a mother frustrated during the holiday season in the 1980s, help Savannah reconcile her feelings about her own past in this touching coming-of-age story. An imaginative, thoroughly engaging drama that speaks volumes about identity and self-worth, Tree Shade will have special appeal to teenage viewers and delight audiences of all ages.

24 Girls
  Eva Ilona Brzeski, 1998, 29 minutes
Set on the borderland between childhood and adolescence, between dream and reality, Eva Ilona Brzeski’s film presents fleeting glimpses of girls on the threshold of maturity and the concomitant loss of innocence. One by one, pre-adolescent girls take the stage to announce and execute their chosen performances, from dancing to singing, poetry reading to storytelling, simultaneously revealing both unhindered childlike freedom and dawning self-consciousness. Carefully juxtaposed with these auditions is Brzeski’s evocative rumination on the short life of one girl who never had the chance to cross over into womanhood, a girl from the director’s past whose early death freezes her at this threshold.

Unbound
Claudia Morgado Escanilla, 1994, 19 minutes
Unbound is a docudrama in which sixteen women of differing nationalities, races and ideologies free themselves from societal definitions, stereotypes-and the prison of the bra. In the act of unbinding, they speak directly to the camera with humor and insight about the significance of their breasts in their lives and diverse cultures. Presented as a series of brilliantly colored, vibrant tableaux which take off on well-known works by DaVinci, Caravaggio, Velazquez and Kahlo, the film breaks through the constraints of traditional movie making and the censorship of women's bodies

Uphill All the Way
Khin May Lwin and Robert Nassau, 2000, 80 minutes style
Uphill All the Way is the astounding true story of five troubled teenage girls who face the challenge of their lives: a 2,500-mile bicycle journey along the United States Continental Divide. The girls are students at the DeSisto School, a rehabilitative high school in Massachusetts for drug addicts, victims of sexual abuse, and juveniles that have had run-ins with the law. Despite the emotional risks posed by their unstable backgrounds, they sign up for the bike trip as an opportunity to prove individually and collectively that they can reach once unfathomable heights. If finished, the trek will be the first time in their lives the girls have set a goal and met it. Over the course of three months, they mature in ways that are visible, thought provoking and completely unexpected. Rather than portray these girls as victims, Uphill All the Way highlights their resilience and ability to persevere despite great emotional and physicals barriers. Providing much-needed alternatives for young women to learn how to improve their self-esteem, this unique documentary is an inspiration for every viewer BB both young and old BB to accomplish great feats in their lives.

Visions of the Spirit: A Portrait of Alice Walker
Elena Featherston, 1989, 58 minutes
This intimate and inspiring portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker explores the compassion, insight and strength that have made her one of the most admired women in the United States. Filmed at Walker’s California home, in her Georgia hometown, and on location with the film crew of The Color Purple, "Visions of the Spirit" shows us Walker as mother, daughter, philosopher, activist and of course, writer. Featherston’s videotape explores the roots of Walker’s southern African American feminist consciousness through in-depth conversations with the writer and members of her family. African American feminist literary scholar Barbara Christian places Walker in the history of African American literature, archival footage of the civil rights movement provides background for Walker’s political vision.

Walnut Tree
Elida Schogt, 2000, 11 minutes
Through a striking combination of documentary and experimental approaches, The Walnut Tree examines Holocaust memory, the family, and the role of photography in history. As its point of departure, the film shows three girls in Dutch costumes posing for their father's camera. This sweet but fleeting moment, made static in a snapshot, is contrasted with live-action images of railway tracks--tracks that carried the death transports--now blurred by the passage of time. Fragments of an interrupted childhood emerge in the matter-of-fact narration by the filmmaker's mother, recounting the fate of the family's photo album, her parents' walnut tree, and her final memories of her mother and father in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. A follow-up to her award-winning Zyklon Portrait, Elida Schogt's latest film is an eloquent mediation on survival and the stories called forth from within and beyond the frame.
Press Kit

White Dresses
Ana Coyne Alonso, 1996, 33 minutes
"This rare film brilliantly combines a lyrical aesthetic with insightful political and gender analysis. Employing both documentary and narrative techniques, it illuminates recent Nicaraguan political history in a highly original exploration of the presidential election of Violeta Chamorro. Alonso's poetic and beautifully photographed consideration of the symbolic white dresses Chamorro wore, reveals more about the colonial legacy, class structure, and acute cultural influence of Catholicism within this Central American nation than any of the existing volumes of academic and journalistic writing that I have examined." - Leo Spitzer, Dartmouth College

Women of Steel, Mon Valley Media, 1984, 28 minutes
For women who entered the nation's steel mills in the 1970s, the mill was a ticket out of traditionally low-paying "women's jobs" and in some cases, out of poverty. But any gains for women were short lived. Women of Steel looks at a turning point in the history of American industry and the disastrous effects widesweeping layoffs and plant closings had on women and families, affirmative action plans, and the union movement. An important historical documentary which has an eerie relevance to women's place in the American economy in the 1990s.

Women of Substance
Rory Kennedy and Robin Smith, 1994,   55 minutes
With passion and clarity, "Women of Substance" opens the door on the struggles and triumphs for women overcoming addiction during pregnancy and motherhood. More than five million women in the United States are affected by drug and alcohol addiction and one thousand babies are born each day with drugs and alcohol in their system. While prenatal alcohol and drug exposure is believed to be the single most preventable cause of birth defects, nine out of ten pregnant addicts who want treatment never receive it. Following the stories of three diverse women, Women of Substance is a comprehensive portrait of the legal, moral and health battles being waged to improve treatment opportunities for pregnant addicts and   women with children. Joanne Woodward narrates this powerful film: “'Women of Substance' goes to the heart of the problems faced by substance-abusing women and offers the answer that makes most sense.”

Women of Zimbabwe
Joanne Burke, 1997, 26 minutes
From award-winning documentarian Joanne Burke's series about women's empowerment in developing countries, Women of Zimbabwe focuses on a group of five daring women who have taken up the challenge of creating their own future in the traditionally male field of carpentry. At its center is Fatima Shoriwa, an inspiration to many of her countrywomen. Owner of a thriving carpentry business, she also openly advocates education, family planning, safe sex practices, and economic self-sufficiency to achieve women's full voices in their own destinies. The group's other four members are Fatima's apprentices, who range in age from seventeen to twenty-three. Shown at work as mutually supportive members of a collaborative team, at home with their children, and on visits to their families in rural Zimbabwe, all five offer unique insights into the choices and changes in their lives as well as the traditional customs and roles that have shaped their experience.

A Word in Edgewise, Heather MacLeod, 1986, 26 minutes
"A truly articulate, unaffected statement about a basic human activity, this excellent video explains the role of language in shaping behavior. It is a good synthesis of all that has been explored by linguists about sex bias in everyday speech and writing. Scholarly, yet simple and believable, it is informative without being preachy, and cites illustrations of abuses as well as suggestions for improvement. This is a truly feminist video made by women. This video should be required viewing for all educators and can be used at all levels to improve awareness of our use and abuse of language in perpetuating sex bias in culture."-Choice The Yellow Wallpaper, Marie Ashton, 1977, 14 minutes
This short dramatic film brings to life the classic Charlotte Perkins Gilman story of the same name, which has become an important addition to American literature course curricula. Set in the late 1800s, the story features Elizabeth, an aspiring writer who becomes ill and is forced by her doctor and her husband to take a "rest cure." Completely isolated, her mind creates a world inside the wallpaper in her room-a world in which a woman is trapped and unable to escape

Your Name on Cellulite
Gail Noonan, 1995, 6 minutes
A wickedly funny satire about the disparity between a woman's natural beauty and the ideal promoted by the mega-billion dollar advertising industry, this animated film shows us how far we will go to change the shape of our bodies to meet the demands of an impossible image. But the picture-perfect exterior can be maintained by our heroine only if she restrains her body's natural spontaneity. Your Name in Cellulite visually ponders at what point the body will say "Enough is enough!" and take matters into its own hands.