Sa-I-Gu
Director Dr. Choy Kim, Dai Silkim-Gibson
Year 1993
Subject documentary
Language English
Running Time 38 minutes
Comments: Sa-I-Gu is the Korean expression for the time of the L.A.
riots in 1993. The film depicts the devastating effects of the riots,
particularly from the perspective of Korean American women. It includes
introductory comments by the filmmakers.
Salmonberries
Director Percy Adlon
Year 1991
Subject Feature Film
Language English
Running Time 100 minutes
Distributor Wolfe Video
Comments: German director Percy Adlon's political thriller features k.d.
lang in her film debut. The story concerns a repressed East German librarian
who escapes her oppressive surroundings after her lover is killed trying to
scale the Berlin Wall. Devastated and grief stricken, Roswitha (Rosel Zech)
travels to Alaska. Trapped in a grim, remote Eskimo outpost, she finds comfort
and emotional fulfillment with the sexually ambiguous lang.
Salt of the Earth
Director Herbert Biberman
Year 1954
Subject Feature
Artists Rosaura Revueltas, Juan Chacon, and Will Geer
Screenplay Michael Wilson
Language English
Running Time 94 minutes
Distributor MPI Home Video
Comments: One of the most gripping, controversial films ever made was
created in a small, New Mexico mining town with a largely nonprofessional cast.
The year was 1953 and the film, Salt Of The Earth, still strikes a
resonant chord in the hearts of the millions of people who have flocked to its
message of human dignity and freedom. When released in 1954, almost every
theater nationwide boycotted its exhibition because it was made by a
blacklisted Hollywood group. The story tells of the true-life struggle of a
mining community to achieve better working and living conditions. In a
startling anticipation of social changes still decades away, Salt Of The
Earth made an eloquent plea for economic and sexual equality at a time
when these issues had yet to hit the front page.
Sanger; The Margaret Sanger Story
Year 1995
Running Time 120 minutes
Comments: American nurse Margaret Sanger's lifelong campaign for birth
control made it possible for women to obtain information on contraception and
reproduction. In 1916 she opened the first American birth-control clinic, and
later founded the organization that became the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America.
Scared Straight! 20 Years Later
Director: Arnold Shapiro
Year: 1999
Subject: TV Documentary
Running Time:
Comments: Adults meet up with the people who changed their lives twenty
years ago, by confronting them about their lifestyles as teenagers.
Sebastiane
Director Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress
Year 1976
Subject Feature Film
Language Latin with English Subtitles
Running Time 86 minutes
Distributor Cinevista Video
Comments: Sebastiane caused riots at the 1977 Locarno Film Festival
and became a runaway hit in London. It has "a pretention and perversity about
it that are surprisingly appealing in the long run" (Rob Baker, Soho Weekly
News). The film tells the highly charged homoerotic story of St. Sebastian.
Sebastian spends most of the film tied to the stake, haunted by sexual advances
of his commander Severus, and tortured when he refuses him. Newly
remastered.
Secret Daughter (FRONTLINE)
Year 1992
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 117 minutes
Distributor PBS Video
Comments: Producer June Cross examines the intricate story of her own family
through the prism of the challenging face of race relations in America. Cross,
born to a white mother and an African-American father in the early 1950's was
given away by her mother to live with a black family when she was four. Cross'
mother was afraid that her new husband's entertainment career would be
destroyed if the truth about Cross were discovered. This expanded FRONTLINE
takes viewers on an epic journey into a hidden world of Hollywood and deep in
to the complicated relationship between a daughter and the mother who gave her
away.
The Secret of the Sexes
Director Veronica L. Young
Year 1980
Subject Documentary
Artist NOVA
Screenplay Veronica L. Young
Language English
Running Time 60 minutes
Distributor Vestron Video, PBS, WGBH, Peace River Films
Comments: How are boys and girls "supposed" to behave? The Secret Of The
Sexes takes a disarming look at how we type-cast young girls and boys --
in the way we think of them, act toward them, and teach them. Psychologists,
teachers, sociologists and families investigates how this happens, sometimes
even without our knowledge. Find out why: parents still prefer boys over girls
by more than a two to one margin; teachers still reinforce traditional sex
roles taught at home; sex-typed toys influence a child's behavior; and much
more.
Secrets & Lies
Director Mike Leigh
Year 1996
Subject Feature Film
Running Time 142 minutes
Distributor 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Comments: Mike Leigh's widely acclaimed film, winner of the prestigious
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Picture, is a poignant, heartwarming drama
that's as wildly funny as it is moving. After her adoptive parents die, a young
black woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) seeks out her natural birth mother only to
discover her mother is white. Equally shocked to learn the daughter she gave up
for adoption is black, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn-1996 Golden Globe Winner-Best
Actress, drama) insists it's a mistake. But she soon realizes it's true and
when she springs her newfound daughter on the rest of the family, the resulting
chaos leads to a series of secrets and lies being revealed at last. Bravura
acting, the immediacy of real life and richly drawn characters easily make
Secrets & Lies Leigh's most radiant and enjoyable tale.
The Selling of Innocents
Year 1996
Subject Documentary
Running Time 60 minutes
Distributor HBO
Comments: The Selling of Innocents exposes the trafficking in women
and girls that takes place from Nepal to India. The documentary includes
interviews with child prostitutes, procurers and people who have sold relatives
to be sex slaves. Through the interviews, the viewer learns about the people
involved in the booming sex industry in Asia.
Seneca Reflections
Year 1998
Subject Documentary
Running Time 24 minutes
Distributor The Publisher, The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy
Comments: At the 150th anniversary of the First Woman's Rights Convention in
Seneca Falls, New York, we asked participants and keynote speakers, women's
studies scholars and historical performers, to put the 1848 convention in
perspective for a contemporary audience, and to reflect on its unique
significance to our time. Seneca Reflections is a rare, personal
tribute to the remarkable women-past and present-whose lives have furthered the
cause of women's rights. Included are the voices of Betty Friedan, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, Donna Shalala, Sally Roesch Wagner, Judy Wellman, Coline
Jenkins-Sahlin, Karen Staser, and others. Their strong, insightful comments
will contribute to any discussion of women's issues.
Senorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman
Director: Lourdes Portillo
Year: 2001
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 74 minutes
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Comments: 'Señorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman' tells the
haunting story of the more than 350 kidnapped, raped and murdered young women
of Juárez, Mexico. Visually poetic, yet unflinching in its gaze, this
compelling investigation unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed
for the brutal murders of women living along the Mexico-U.S. border. In the
midst of Juárez’s international mystique and high profile job market, there
exists a murky history of grossly underreported human rights abuses and
violence against women. The climate of violence and impunity continues to grow,
and the murders of women continue to this day. Relying on what Portillo comes
to see as the most reliable of sources – the testimonies of the families of the
victims –Señorita Extraviada documents a two-year search for the truth
in the underbelly of the new global economy. An Independent Television Service
(ITVS) Production.
Sex is Sex
Directors Jennifer Milici, Brian Bergen
Year 1994
Running Time 50 minutes
Distributor Water Bearer Films
Comments: While the title echoes the common refrain of hustlers, this
remarkable film breaks through such common cliches about prostitution to reveal
a world more complex and compelling than popular perception permits. Neither
desperately tragic, nor overly romanticized, this film presents young New York
hustlers telling what they know, whether it be the secret to faking sex, the
dangers of crazy tricks, or just the pleasure of easy money.
Shakti: The Power of Women
Director: Krishna Varnsi
Year: 2002
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 54 minutes
Language: Portions are in Hindi with English subtitles.
Distributor: Films.com
Comments: Taking inspiration from the spiritual concept of Shakti, the Great
Mother or supreme female deity of the Hindu religion, this program celebrates
the power of women to drive social and economic change in India. Female-centric
activism propels an organization that combats the practice of child marriage,
and another which has created a banking system for the poor. The video also
examines a renowned scientist who promotes eco-feminism and a married couple
fighting for the rights of the traditionally shunned Dalit caste. These stories
support the idea that Shakti is a phenomenon to be reckoned with—a source of
creative energy for cultural transformation. Portions are in Hindi with English
subtitles.
She Must Be Seeing Things
Director Sheila McLaughlin
Year 1992
Subject Feature
Artist Sheila Dabney, Lois Weaver
Screenplay Sheila McLaughlin
Running Time 95 minutes
Distributor First Run Features
Comments: The strength of a love affair between two women, a lawyer and a
filmmaker, is tested when the lawyer, after reading the filmmaker's diary,
disguises herself as a man and jealously "shadows" her lover. The dynamics of
sex and sexuality, career and commitment, fidelity and companionship are keenly
explored.
Shinjuku Boys
Director Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams
Year 1996, Color
Running Time 53 mins
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: From the makers of Dream Girls, Shinjuku Boys introduces
three annabes who work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo.
Annabes are women who live as men and have girlfriends, although they
don't usually identify as lesbians. As the film follows them at home and on the
job, all three talk frankly to the camera about their gender-bending lives,
revealing their views about women, sex, transvestitism and lesbianism.
Alternating with these illuminating interviews are fabulous sequences shot
inside the Club, patronized almost exclusively by heterosexual women who have
become disappointed with real men. This is a remarkable documentary about the
complexity of female sexuality in Japan today.
Silent Pioneers
Director Lucy Winer
Year 1985
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 54 minutes
Distributor Water Bearer Films
Comments: Silent Pioneers is a remarkable, upbeat documentary about
America's older lesbians and gay men. Utilizing firsthand experiences of an
eclectic group of people, the film taps into the very personal naure of a less
tolerant era. Winner CINE Golden Eagle, 1985.
Silko; Leslie M. Silko: Native American Writer
Subject Documentary
Running Time 45 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: Rarer even than Native American writers known outside their own
communities are Native American women writers. The best known is Leslie M.
Silko, whose work is strongly rooted in her tribal background. Like all writing
of lasting value, it uses particular experiences and places to reveal universal
truths. Here Silko discusses her own background and the interrelationship
between her smaller, immediate Indian world and the larger surrounding
world.
Silliman; Mary Silliman's War
Year 1994
Subject Documentary/Biography
Screenplay based on the biography by Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel Jr.
Language English
Running Time 94 minutes
Distributor Heritage Films, National Endowment for the Humanities
Comments: In 1779, Mary and Selleck Silliman resided in Fairfield,
Connecticut, a town deeply and bitterly divided over independence. While Mary
Silliman feared the disintegration of the community, it fell to her husband, a
prominent patriot and the state's attorney, to prosecute citizens of Fairfield
who had remained loyal to Great Britain. The arrest, conviction, and impending
execution for treason of two local tories soon made Selleck Silliman the object
of revenge. Kidnapped from his home by friends of the condemned men, Silliman
became a prisoner of the British, a hostage whose freedom depended on the
release of the convicted tories. Confined in New York and facing the reprisals
by the enemy, Silliman ultimately relied on the determination of his wife to
obtain his release. As events unfold, Mary Silliman retained the expected
deference to authority, but also took the initiative in ways unusual for women
of her social position. While she managed domestic affairs and coped with the
calamities of war, Mary Silliman also petitioned the Connecticut Assembly for
her husband's release, solicited the help of the governor and council, and
finally formulated a bold plan to secure his freedom. In the process she faced
a crisis of conscience and gained a new understanding of the urgent and often
cruelly tortuous demands of the Revolutionary conflict.
Slaying the Dragon
Director Deborah Gee
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary
Language English
Running Time 60 minutes
DistributorWomen Make Movies
Comments: Slaying the Dragon is a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of
Asian and Asian American women since the silent era. From the racist use of
white actors to portray Asians in early Hollywood films, through the success of
Anna May Wong's sinister dragon lady, to Suzie Wong and the '50s geisha girls,
to the Asian-American anchorwoman of today, this fascinating videotape shows
how stereotypes of exoticism and docility have affected the perception of
Asian-American women. Produced by Asian Women United, this invaluable resource
has been widely used by universities and libraries.
Slim Hopes
Director Jean Kilbourne
Subject Documentary
Running Time 30 minutes
Distributor Media Education Foundation
Comments: Jean Kilbourne's award-winning video offers an in-depth analysis
of how female bodies are depicted in advertising images and the devastating
effects of those images on women's health. Addressing the relationship between
these images and the obsession of girls and women with dieting and thinness,
Slim Hopes offers a new way to think about life-threatening eating disorders
such as anorexia and bulimia, as well as a well-documented critical perspective
on the social impact of advertising. Using over 150 ads, it informs as it
entertains, allowing viewers to build an analytical framework for considering
the impact of advertising on women's health.
Small Domestic Acts
Year 1999
Subject Student Play
Language English
Running Time
Comments: Dartmouth student production.
Soldier's Girl
Director: Frank Pierson
Year: 2002
Subject: Feature Film
Running Time: 112 minutes
Comments: Soldier's Girl recounts the story of Barry Winchell
(Garity), a 21-year- old Private First Class who fell in love with Calpernia
Addams (Pace), a beautiful transgendered nightclub performer. The movie details
their relationship against the growing animosity of Winchell's roommate, Justin
Fisher (Hatosy). Fisher ignites anti-gay sentiments in the barracks, which
ultimately lead to Winchell's death in 1999 by a drunken fellow soldier.
Some Nudity Required
Director Odette Springer
Year 1998
Subject Sundance Film Festival: Documentary
Language English
Running Time 82 minutes
Distributor Only Child Productions
Comments: The first documentary to expose the naked truth behind Hollywood's
multi-million dollar B-movies, Some Nudity Required reveals an
industry where "big breasts remain the cheapest special effects." Featuring
film clips from classics like Naked Obsession and Co-eds on
Vacation and rare interviews with the industry's exploitation vets,
including Roger Corman, director Jim Wynorski, and blood-soaked "scream-queens"
Maria Ford and Julie Strain, the film offers a rare glimpse into the big
business of B-movies. Directed by Odette Springer, a long--time music
supervisor for B-movie king Roger Corman, Some Nudity Required gets to
the heart of a widely felt and complex attraction to an exploitive world of
filmmaking that specializes in the erotic/slasher/action genre.
Something to Sing About
Director Martin Daley
Year 1995
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 55 minutes
Distributor First Run Features
Comments: The 100-member Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir is the pride of
Australia's vibrant gay and lesbian community. Decked in purple waistcoats with
the odd touch of chain and leather, the Choir sings everything from Gershwin to
Madrigals, spirituals to ABBA, as it takes its audiences on a rich, emotional
journey across the continent of Australia to defend its title in the National
Choral Competition. "A standing ovation" (The Australian).
Sphinxes Without Secrets
Year 1992
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 58 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: Since its inception, performance art provided a forum for those
artists whose work challenges the dominant aesthetic and cultural status quo.
In Sphinxes Without Secrets, performers, curators and critics unravel
the mysteries of performance art and ponder the world women confront today.
Performers featured in this stylish program include Diamanda Galas, Holly
Hughes (one of the 'NEA Four'), Robbie McCauley and Rachel Rosenthal; intercut
with appearances by many others such as Laurie Anderson, Annie Sprinkle and
Reno.
The Status of Latina Women
Subject Documentary
Running Time 26 minutes
DistributorFilms for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: This program looks at the differences between the U.S. Latina and
her Latin American counterparts. It also examines how Latino men regard
professional Latina women, and the myths of machismo among Latinos in the age
of two-income families and shared child-rearing responsibility. Finally, the
program profiles a Latina feminist, who has shown that activism is not just a
Latino male's prerogative.
Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement
Producer Joyce Follet, PhD.
Year 1998
Subject Documentary
Running Time 57 minutes
Distributor Step by Step
Comments: Step by Step traces the emergence of feminism through the life
stories of eight women. Set against the backdrop of decades of war, prosperity,
and reform, their testimonies weave a narrative of a mass movement evolving as
personal experience yields political analysis and spurs social protest. The
documentary concludes with the gathering of 20,000 women at the 1977 National
Women's Conference in Houston, the largest and most representative assembly of
women in U.S. history. An outgrowth of International Women's Year, the event
marked a turning point in the maturing movement. While participants seized the
occasion to celebrate momentous gains, they also confronted challenges as
internal conflicts erupted over issues of race, class, and sexual preference,
and as organized opposition to feminism made a strong showing. The documentary
builds on an oral history project directed by Gerda Lerner.
The Stepford Wives
Director: Katherine Ross
Year: 1974
Subject: Feature
Running Time: 115 minutes
Distributor:Anchor Bay Entertainment
Comments: Joanna (Katherine Ross) reluctantly moves with her husband and
children from New York City to the ideal suburban community of Stepford,
Connecticut. But when life in Stepford begins to seem to perfect, Joanna and
her new friend Bobby (Paula Prentiss) investigate a mysterious conspiracy among
the town’s husbands. Are this suburb’s women happy to be vapid homemakers or is
there a more shocking secret behind the domestic perfection of the Stepford
wives? Twenty-five years after its original release, The Stepford
Wives remains a legendary combination of chilling chauvinistic horror and
savage social commentary.
Sigmata: the Transfigured Body
Director: Leslie Asako Gladsjo
Year: 1992
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 27 minutes
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Comments: Stigmata is 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. Please note that Stigmata includes
some extremely explicit footage.
Still Revolutionaries
Director:
Year:
Subject:
Running Time:
Distributor: Short 10
Comments: A collection of short films and interactive content. 1
Electronic Labryrinth is the first film by George Lucas. 2 Five
Feet High And Rising won ‘Best Short’ awards at Sundance, Cannes, and
South by Southwest. 3. Burnout and Still Revolutionaries are
two official selections of the Sundance Film Festival. 4. The Fly is
an animated film from Hungary. Also Po Mo Knock Knock, The Bottomless
Cup, Deleriouspink, and Kebabalub, etc.
Stolen Moments
Director Margaret Wescott
Year 1998
Subject Documentary Narrator Kate Nelligan
Running Time 91 minutes
Distributor Facets
Comments: This powerful and moving documentary weaves together some of the
lost threads of lesbian history, combining first-person accounts with revealing
examinations of the past. The film traces pre-Stonewall oppression -- from the
executions of the 18th century Dutch women who posed as men, to the violent
police raids on lesbian bars in the 1950's -- as well as more contemporary and
intimate portraits of those in the life.
Stories of Women in Kabul
Director:
Year: 2006
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 27 minutes
Distributor: A Deutsche Welle Production/Films for the Humanities &
Sciences www.films.com
Comments: The producers of this program were granted unlimited access to
Kabul’s Baghe Zanana, or Garden of Women—perhaps the only public place in
Afghanistan where men are not welcome. Here, women can gather, dance, and
remove their burqas without fear of violence or alienation. In stark contrast,
a women’s prison is also visited. The courageous figures who inhabit these
settings—including a resident therapist who conducts support groups for the
frightened and the traumatized, and a cafeteria employee struggling to improve
her family’s living conditions—demonstrate how far Afghanistan must go to
overcome its repressive and war-ravaged history. A Deutsche Welle
Production.
Straight From the Heart
Year 1993
Distributor Motivational Media
Comments: Straight From the Heart includes interviews with Americans from
all walks of life who have dealt with homosexuality in their families. It
includes a family fighting a son's discharge from the Navy after coming out and
parents grieving their son's death after he contracted AIDS. The conflict
between homosexuality and religion is an underlying theme as the video is
narrated by a clergyman.
Straight Talk on Menopause
Subject TV Documentary
Language English
Strawberry and Chocolate
Director Tomas Guitierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio
Year 1994
Subject Feature Film
Language Spanish with English Subtitles
Running Time 104 minutes
Distributor Miramax Films
Comments: Meet David: a naive college kid who's on his own for the first
time. With the help of two extraordinary new friends, David soon learns
everything there is to know about the things that aren't taught in school.
Diego is the writer who teaches him about the passion of life, and Nancy is the
woman who teaches him about the passion of love! Nominated for the Academy
Award as best Foreign language Film of 1994, Strawberry and Chocolate is a
deliciously-fun-filled celebration of life at its entertaining best.
Strangers in Good Company
Director Cynthia Scott
Year 1990
Subject Feature Film
Language English
Running Time 105 minutes
Distributor First Run Features
Comments: They were seven old women stranded at a deserted farmhouse- miles
from civilization. They didn't have much food, or a decent place to sleep, or
much in common. Strangers. You wouldn't expect them to fare very well, to turn
a crisis into a magical time of humor and spirit. But that's exactly what these
surprising, remarkable women do...in "Strangers in Good Company". A film about
being old. And thinking young. Directed by Academy Award-winner Cynthia Scott,
this modern day classic is "a truly daring and unique movie..it is so
endearingly funny and warmly touching one hates to leave these remarkable
women!" (NY Daily News).
Strip Jack Naked: Nighthawks II
Director Ron Peck
Year 1990
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 90 minutes
Distributor Water Bearer Films
Comments: The unsparing, autobiographical documentary by pioneering British
filmmaker Ron Peck about the making of Nighthawks and Britain's gay culture
over the last 30 years. Archival footage, old photos and magazines recount
Peck's life and work. "Groundbreaking" (Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of
Gay and Lesbian Film and Video).
Surname Viet, Given name Nam
Director Trinh T. Minh-ha
Year 1989
Language English
Running Time 108 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: Vietnamese-born Trinh T. Minh-ha's profoundly personal documentary
explores the role of Vietnamese women historically and in contemporary society.
Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of
Vietnamese women in Vietnam -- from both North and South -- and the United
States, Trinh's film challenges official culture with the voices of women. A
theoretically and formally complex work, Surname Viet Given Name Nam
explores the difficulty of translation, and themes of dislocation and exile,
critiquing both traditional society and life since the war.
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