Director William Greaves
Language English
Running Time 55 minutes
Distributor Facets Multi-Media, Inc.
Comments: This multi-award -wining film documents the life and times of Ida B. Wells, the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and an anti-lynching crusader of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although now almost forgotten, for a period of 40 years Wells' stature in Black American was equal to that of such leaders as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. The story of this courageous woman's fight for justice is told on film through her own writings, read by Nobel Prize-inning author Toni Morrison. Hundreds of archival photographs, rare lithographs, as well as interviews with historials and scholars help to create the period while shedding new light on Wells' place in history. Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice was produced, written, and directed by William Greaves, the Emmy Award-winning producer, whose documentaries have won over 70 international film festival awards.
Director Julie Dash
Year 1983
Language English
Running Time 34 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: The time is 1942, a year after Pearl Harbor; the place is National Studios, a fictitious Hollywood motion picture studio. Mignon Dupre, a Black woman studio executive who appears to be white and Ester Jeeter, an African American woman who is the singing voice for a white Hollywood star are forced to come to grips with a society that perpetuates false images as status quo.
Director Nestor Almendros, Orlando Jimenez Leal
Year 1984
Subject Documentary
Language French/Spanish with English Subtitles
Running Time 110 minutes
Distributor Cinevista Video
Comments: Controversial, powerful documentary, a series of interviews with fascinating Cuban intellectuals and homosexuals who have been persecuted under the Castro regime. An indictment of Castro, implicating also those who would turn a blind eye toward repression from the left.
Director Fatima Jebli Ouazzani
Year 1997
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 67 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: In this beautiful, poetic and deeply personal film, Moroccan filmmaker Fatima Jebli Ouazzani investigates the status accorded women in Islamic marriage customs and the continuing importance of virginity. Ouazzani left her father's house in Morocco sixteen years ago to escape the constraints her culture and its traditions have put on women. She returns now to confront those traditions, her own family and herself. Following three generations of women - her grandmother and mothers' arranged marriages, her grandmother's subsequent attempts to divorce, and Naima, a young woman who has returned home for a traditional wedding ceremony - she questions whether her choice for a life of her own was worth the loss of her father. Jebli Ouazzani offers us a rare glimpse of the shifts and changes in Moroccan and Islamic culture in this powerful, moving film.
Director: Jay Rosenstein
Year: 1997
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 47 minutes
Comments: The Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians. American Indian nicknames and mascots have been used in sports for years. So what’s wrong? Find out in this moving, award-winning documentary. In Whose Honor takes a critical look at the long-running practice of "honoring" Indians by using them as mascots and nicknames in sports. It follows the remarkable story of Charlene Teters (Spokane) and her transformation from a graduate student into a national movement leader. In Whose Honor? examines the issues of race, stereotypes, minority representation and the powerful effects of mass-media imagery, and also shows the extent to which one community will go to defend and justify its mascot.
Year: 2001
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: ?
Comments: An anonymous group of students presents a gender performance at the Collis Underground in January 2001.
Director Maria Maggenti
Year 1995
Subject Feature (Comedy)
Artists Laurel Holloman, Nicole Parker
Screenplay Maria Maggenti
Language English
Running Time 94 minutes
Distributor New Line Home Video
Comments: Touching and poignant, this acclaimed coming-of-age comedy from new filmmaker Maria Maggenti, is the story of two teenagers who unexpectedly experience the excitement, surprise, and romantic fantasy of first love. Randy (Laurel Holloman), a rebellious working class tomboy, meets the beautiful, well-to-do Evie (Nicole Parker) when she brings her Range Rover into the repair shop where Randy works after school. Immediately intrigued by each other, the two girls discover their subsequent friendship develops into an unlikely romance that impacts their lives in ways they could never have imagined. Matter-of-fact, funny, and sincere, Two Girls in Love is the perfect date movie for all.
Year 1993
Subject News Program
Language English
Running Time 60 minutes
Distributor 48 Hours
Comments: 48 Hours considers the questions...When does a word, look or touch become a slur, leer or grope? And, when is this behavior illegal? The first part of this program is an interview with a Hollywood agent accused of sexual harassment by eleven actresses. The next segment presents a profile of a victim of sexual harassment , who has since become an author on the subject and a consultant for companies. Finally, a police chief and a captain are accused of looking the other way when female police department employees were sexually harassed. A former dispatcher also comes forward to accuse these men of rape.
Director Mick Jackson
Year 1995
Artist James Woods, Mercedes Ruehl
Running Time 131 minutes
DistributorHBO
Comments: The story of the highly publicized and long-running "McMartin" child abuse trial.
Directors Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss
Year 1986
Language English
DistributorVideoactive Releasing
Comments: With Tina & Ruby Hell Divin' Women International Sweethearts of Rhythm gives a broad view of the 16-piece band, detailing their courage, camaraderie and, most importantly, their music. Using rare jazz recordings, live performances and vintage photographs, the film follows their amazing musical journey. At a time when it was practically unheard of, these women joined together to create a new kind of jazz. Ignoring the conventions of the day, the Sweethearts boarded a tour bus and brought their unique rhythms to audiences all over the country.
Year 2001
Subject Lecture
Language English
Running Time 77 minutes
Distributor Trustees of Dartmouth College Media Production Group
Director: Katja Von Garner
Year: 2004
Subject: Feature Film
Running Time: 124 minutes
Distributor: HBO Video
Comments: Iron Jawed Angels recounts for a contemporary audience a key chapter in U.S. history: in this case, the struggle of suffragists who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. Focusing on two defiant women, Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor), the film shows how these activists broke from the mainstream women's-rights movement and created a more radical wing, daring to push the boundaries of political protest to secure women's voting rights in 1920. Breathing life into the relationships between Paul, Burns and others, the movie makes the women feel like complete characters instead of one-dimensional figures from a distant past. Although the protagonists have different personalities and backgrounds - Alice is a Quaker and Lucy an Irish Brooklynite - they are united in their fierce devotion to women's suffrage. In a country dominated by chauvinism, this is no easy fight, as the women and their volunteers clash with older, conservative activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Angelica Huston). They also battle public opinion in a tumultuous time of war, not to mention the most powerful men in the country, including President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton). Along the way, sacrifices are made: Alice gives up a chance for love, and colleague Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond) gives up her life. The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname "The Iron Jawed Angels." However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.
Director: Phyllis Ward
Year: 2000
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 52 minutes
Distributor: Discovery Channel Program/Intersex Society of North America
Comments: This one-hour documentary has been nominated for a GLAAD award for outstanding TV journalism. From the moment of birth, everybody wants to know: Is it a boy or a girl? This question can be complicated when a third option is introduced; one out of every two thousand children in America is born intersexual. Sometimes biology malfunctions and children are born with mixed sexual characteristics, in what is called an intersexual birth. Many argue that the standard practice of sexual assignment by surgery in infancy should be discontinued giving the intersexual the right to chose or not to chose surgery once that person reaches adolescence. But whatever the surgical choice, intersexuals show us that gender is infinitely more complex than the shape of our genitals.
Director Debra Chasnoff
Subject Documentary
Language English
DistributorWomen's Educational Media
Comments: Most adults probably don't see why or how schools should address lesbian and gay issues with young children. With inspiring classroom footage, It's Elementary urges educators and parents to re-think their assumptions. This beautifully crafted film shows what actually happens when teachers lead class discussions that address anti-gay prejudice. It makes a powerful case that children need to be taught respect for ALL - and that this kind of education needs to start in elementary school.
Director Patricia Rozema
Year 1987
Subject Feature (Comedy)
Artists Sheila McCarthy, Paule Baillargeon, Ann-Marie MacDonald
Language English
Running Time 82 minutes
Distributor Miramax Films
Comments: We've heard the critics singing. And laughing. And jumping for joy. All because of this kooky new comedy. It's about a klutzy carrot top named Polly whose fantasy life has her flying. In reality, she's a temporary secretary who can't even type. In fact, she's "organizationally impaired." But that doesn't stop her from landing a job in one of the city's trendiest art galleries. She loves working for the curator who's as chic and sophisticated as Polly is clumsy and quirky. All is well until Polly masters the fine art of getting into trouble. That's all we'll tell you except that you're going to soar with laughter.
Year 2001
Subject Student Performance
Language English
Comments: An anonymous group of students present a gender performance at the Collis Underground in January 2001.
