Director: Meri Weingarten
Subject: Documentary
Year: 1985
Running Time: 35 minutes
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Comments: "If I were to choose only one film on sexual assault to show to a class or to the general public, I would select Waking Up to Rape. This is a powerful film that examines the personal trauma of rape, its long-term psychological effects, societal attitudes about sexual assault, and the problem of racism in the criminal justice system. Three rape survivors (Black, Chicana, and white) courageously describe their rape experiences (acquaintance rape, incest, and stranger rape). The film also features scenes with women police officers, counselors, and self-defense instructors. Unlike most films, it offers strong support for women viewers who are coping with their own sexual assault experiences. I highly recommend it for college classes, everyone who works with sexual assault survivors, and the general public." -Feminist Collections
Subject Documentary
Running Time 33 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: "Being black, being a woman, and being a writer is just the most wonderful challenge. It's like having three eyes, three hearts, rather than one," says the author of The Color Purple in this profile, as she relives her journey from an impoverished childhood in rural Georgia to the peace and creativity of her present life in northern California. Alice Walker describes how the civil rights movement transformed her life, defines her concept of "womanism," and explains her recurrent theme of a woman's recovery of wholeness through resistance to racism and sexism.
Subject Interview
Artists Alice Walker, Steven Spielberg
Running Time 60 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: This masterfully filmed interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author juxtaposes her comments and literary recitations with dramatic interpretations from Steven Spielberg's film. Walker reveals the characters as actual people from her childhood. Describing the work as honoring the dignity of all people, especially black women, Walker offers the novel as an example of the power of art as a weapon against racism and sexism. The importance of interpreting literary tradition in the context of history and culture is examined. Director Steven Spielberg is also interviewed. A BBC Production.
Director Glenn Silber and Barry Alexander Brown
Year 1979
Running Time 100 minutes
Comments: Nominated for an Academy Award and widely considered one of the most important political films ever made, The War at Home vividly chronicles the anti-war protest movement of the 1960's and 70's. The film provides an illuminating look at the home front of the Vietnam War- the way that students and other anti-war dissidents waged on America's political system, military and notions of patriotism.
Director Pratibha Parmar/ Executive
Producer Alice Walker
Year 1993
Subject Educational Documentary
Language English
Running Time 54 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: Warrior Marks is a poetic and political film about female genital mutilation from the directors of A Place of Rage, presented by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy. Female genital mutilation affects one hundred million of the world's women and this remarkable film unlocks some of the cultural and political complexities surrounding this issue. Interviews with women from Senegal, Gambia, Burkino Faso, the United States and England who are concerned with and affected by genital mutilation are intercut with Walker's own personal reflections on the subject. "When I saw the completed Warrior Marks I recognized it as a symbol of our mutual daring and trust. It is a powerful and magnificent film, thanks to Pratibha's brilliance as a director, constructed from our grief and anger and pain. But also from our belief in each other, our love of life, our gratitude that we are women of color able to offer our sisters a worthy gift after so many centuries of tawdriness, and our awareness of those other "companion spirits" we know are out there." Alice Walker Walker and Parmar also collaborated on a book about their experience of making the film called Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women
Director Gaylene Preston
Year 1995
Running Time 95 minutes
Distributor First Run Features
Comments: Seven women share their extraordinary true love stories set during the Second World War. Simply constructed as a series of interviews overlaid with beautifully restored archival footage and popular songs of the War period, War Stories presents seven women of different classes, races and cultural backgrounds speaking about the impact of World War II on their lives. Revelation follows revelation as stories of sexual passion, illicit love, heroic adventure, and painful death are uncovered.
Director Maggie Hadleigh-West
Subject Documentary
Running Time 40 minutes
Distributor Media Education Foundation
Comments: What does it feel like to be a woman on the street in a cultural environment that does nothing to discourage men from heckling, following, touching or disparaging women in public spaces? Filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West believes that the streets are a war zone. Armed with only a video camera she both demonstrates this experience and, by turning and confronting her abusers, reclaims space that was stolen from her. Drawing upon her own experiences, as well as that of other women across the country, she demonstrates how women operate in enemy territory whey they venture into the public space of the street. Forcing men to confront the motivations for their own actions, War Zone lays bare the normally unspoken gender rules of the street where access to women's bodies is regarded as a male right. War Zone speaks to women in a very personal way, giving voice and expression to an experience that silences and sidelines women's subjectivity. It speaks to men equally powerfully, awakening them to the experience of women, and allowing for new understandings of their behavior towards women.
Director Cheryl Dunye
Year 1997
Subject Feature Film
Language English
Running Time 85 minutes
Distributor First Run Features
Comments: Prompting an infamous little ruckus at the NEA because of its interracial lesbian lovemaking scene, Cheryl Dunye's startlingly fresh debut is a film within a film. Dunye, playing herself, is a young black woman making a documentary about Fae Richards, an obscure black actress known as "the Watermelon Woman." As Cheryl doggedly researches Fae's life, she discovers that the actress had a romance with her white lesbian filmmaker. Like Fae, Cheryl has an affair with a white woman, Diana (Guinevere Turner, Go Fish), and both Fae and Cheryl question this attraction.
Director Shakti Butler
Subject Documentary
Running Time 92 minutes
Distributor New Day Films
Comments: The Way Home shows what happened when eight ethnic councils of women came together to talk honestly about race, gender and class in the U.S. The result is an unpredictable collection of stories that reveal the far-reaching effects of social oppression and present an inspiring picture of women moving beyond the duality of black and white. Over the course of eight months, sixty-four women, representing a cross-section of cultures in the U.S., met in councils separated by ethnicity--Indigenous, Asian, European, African, Arab, Jewish, Latina, and Multi-Racial. Their candid conversations offer rare access into multi-dimensional cultural worlds mostly invisible to outsiders. With uncommon courage, the women speak their hearts and minds about resistance, love, assimilation, beauty standards, power, school experiences, and more. Woven throughout are collages of historical and family photos, dance sequences, visual images, and music from over twenty cultures -- all of which expand the impact of the women's words.
Subject Lectures
Language English
Distributor Trustees of Dartmouth College
Director: Larry Andrews
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 55 minutes
Distributor: Cultural Odyssey
Comments: Nominated for a Golden Gate Award by the San Francisco International Film Festival and winner of "Best Documentary" by the San Francisco Black Film Festival in June 2001. The documentary was created by film artist and U.C. Santa Cruz Professor Dr. Larry Andrews and Director/ Founder of the Medea Project, Ms. Rhodessa Jones. The film documents The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, a women's theater workshop founded and directed by Ms. Rhodessa Jones in the San Francisco County Jail. It follows the theatrical development process, which unveils the stories of four women and other inmates. The film reveals unique techniques that Ms. Rhodessa Jones has developed for working with incarcerated populations -- an alternative rehabilitation process. As the stories unfold, the viewer gains an understanding of racial, social, economic, and psychological factors shared by women in American jails.
Director Kathy L. Tiger Paschal & Barbara LaMonica
Year: ?
Subject: Documentary
Running Time 36:40
Distributor :Vision Quest Film and Video Productions
Comments: Welfare Warriors is a grassroots movement of single mothers on welfare who are combating the current attack on the poor-which is better known as the "welfare reform bill". Through lobbying, public speaking, and direct action the women dispel the negative myths about welfare mothers, and assert that "an attack on poor women is an attack on all women." Welfare Warriors interweaves the women's personal statement with comments by social critics and advocates who put today's efforts to dismantle the welfare state in historical perspective from FDR's New Deal to Clinton's vow to "change welfare as we know it."
Director: Judith Katz
Subject: Documentary
Year: 2003
Runnning Time: 90 minutes
Distributor: PBS (www.pbs.org)
Comments: This program goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, most of whom were convicted of murder. The women delve into and expose the most terrifying places in themselves, as they grapple with the nature of their crimes and their own culpability. The film culminates in an emotionally charged prison performance of the women's writing.
Running Time 30 minutes
Distributor Common Ground Productions
Comments: This video is part of a series called, "Search for Common Ground". The program starts with abortion statistics and a fair review of the pro-life and pro-choice movements. It features a debate between Kate Michelman of the National Rights Action League and Dr. John Willke, M.D. of the National Right to Life Committee. The debate is moderated by a conflict resolution expert. During the debate a "scoreboard" keeps track of the agreements and the disagreements of the two advocates.
Director: Salome Chasnoff
Year: 2000
Subject: Documentary
Language:
Running Time: 22 minutes
Distributor: Beyondmedia
Comments: Women former prisoners use personal stories, poetry, group discussions and on-the-street interviews to analyze the issues of women in prison and the impact on their children. They ask challenging questions about women’s imprisonment and they look to young people for fresh answers. The result is a rich tapestry of perspectives that undermine stereotypes about women in prison and demonstrate the power of disenfranchised groups to shape their own media images.
Director
Year 1995
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time
Distributor WGBH Boston
Comments: Meet the members of SWAGLY, a private peer-support group for gay and lesbian teens in Worcester, MA, and hear some stories that range from shocking to poignant. Nineteen-
Year-old Chris has just been "outed" by his brother and fears that his father, who calls him a freak, will kick him out of the house or "beat the living crap out of me". Jason a high-school senior, wrestles with a more philosophical dilemma: having chosen to become a born-again Christian, he takes literally the biblical texts that say his lifestyle will send him to hell. Amy, an easygoing college student, love sto visit her familybut can never bring her girlfriend home to meet them. On the other hand, there is 25-
Year-old group leader Greg, a soft-spoken thoughtful son of a minister, whose parents, the only ones to appear on camera, accept and love him unconditionally.
Director: Dorothy Fadiman, Daniel Meyers, Beth Seltzer
Year: 1992
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 28 minutes
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Comments: This acclaimed series provides a comprehensive look at abortion in the United States. Combining interviews and archival footage, it covers the moving story of the fight for, Supreme Court decision regarding, and current climate surrounding legalized abortion. Women who risked their lives and doctors who risked their licenses speak frankly to bring alive the era of back-alley abortions, revealing the physical, legal, and emotional dimensions of abortion when it was a crime.
Director Ana Coyne Alonso
Year 1996
Subject Feature
Running Time 32 minutes; 40 seconds
Distributor NOON pictures
Comments: In 1990, Nicaragua held a presidential election and the world watched as Violeta Chamorro, a widow and grandmother, campaigned on crutches against Daniel Ortega, the young revolutionary then in power. The campaign was a war of symbols and she wore white. In her, the Nicaraguan people saw peace, salvation and the Virgin Mary. On election day, Violeta Chamorro won. Woven into this documentary footage is an impressionistic look at the four rites of passage for women in a Latin, Catholic country: baptism, confirmation, marriage and death. Beautifully conceived and nicely executed,White Dresses acts as the filmmaker's meditation on her country and her place.
Year 1986
Subject Stand Up Comedy
Language English
Artists Whoopi Goldberg
Running Time 75 minutes
Distributor Vestron Incorporated
Comments: Whoopi Goldberg brings her widely acclaimed talent and five of her unforgettable characters to your home video screen. She defines the word versatile, with an incredible display of her acting ability in a presentation of firve characters that couldn't have less in common.
Director Lorraine Gray
Subject Documentary
Running Time 45 minutes
Distributor New Day Films
Comments: The classic With Babies and Banners presents, the untold story of the women who became the backbone of the Great General Motors Sit-Down Strike of 1937 --United States History's key event in the drive for industrial unionism. The nation's eyes were on the men inside the auto plants, while women outside progressed from manning the strike kitchens to leading the famous Women's Emergency Brigade. Forty years later, nine of these women reunite, and show the relevance of their experience for people today.
Subject Documentary
Running Time 27 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: The program tells the remarkable story of the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative founded by poor, uneducated black women and inspired by the sight of their homemade quilts hanging on a clothesline. In 1966, a group of black women from Wilcox County, Alabama, stirred by their involvement in the civil rights movement, founded the quilting cooperative as a means to provide economic development for their rural community. The cooperative not only raised living standards for its members, it is credited with igniting nationwide interest in the art of quilting and inspiring numerous other cooperatives.
Year 1972
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 43 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: Womanhouse is an historic documentary about one of the most important feminist cultural events of the 1970s. Judy Chicago (best-known as the creator of "The Dinner Party") and Miriam Shapiro rented an old Hollywood mansion and altered its interior through decor and set-pieces to "search out and reveal the female experience...the dreams and fantasies of women as they sewed, cooked, washed and ironed away their lives." Womanhouse is a fascinating historical look at feminism, its reception in the 1970s, and the ever-important relationship between the art and social change.
Director Gene Wilder
Year 1984
Subject Feature (Comedy)
Screenplay Gene Wilder
Artists Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Charles Grodin, Joseph Bologna
Language English
Running Time 87 minutes
Distributor Orion Pictures
Comments: Gene Wilder is Teddy Pierce, a shy, married executive. All Teddy ever wanted was a little adventure in his life and one day it walked right in, wearing a red silk dress (and little else). Now Teddy is an obsessed man and his wife, his friends, and his co-workers are caught up in the comic whirlwind of Teddy's new passion. A masterfully witty comedy, The Woman In Red has been called "a well made sex farce", "easy to love" and "Wilder's best film in years".
Director John Casavetes
Year 1999
Subject Feature Film
Language English
Running Time 146 minutes
Distributor Castle Hill
Comments: Mabel Longehetti is wife, mother and primary caregiver to her family. She has always tried so hard to be what "she thinks" everyone else wants her to be. But lately she seems to be having a hard time dealing with everyday life. She has become intimidated by her surroundings, even by her children. As Mabel struggles to find her identity, people are starting to wonder if shes cracked up, including her loving but over-bearing husband. It soon becomes apparent that Mabel can no longer function "normally" and her husband reluctantly has her committed to a mental institution for six months of treatment. When Mabel returns home, she must somehow find the strength to pull her life together and bring some normalcy to their lives. But what exactly is "normal"?
Director George Cuker
Year 1939
Subject Feature
Artists Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell
Screenplay Anita Loos and Jane Murfin
Running Time 2 hours, 13 minutes
Distributor Metro-Goldwyn
Comments: This is the story of Crystal (Joan Crawford), Sylvia (Rosalind Russell), Miriam (Paulette Goddard) and a legion of femme fatales. They're in shape, in demand...and out to find the men-any men- who can keep them that way! This is also the story of Mary (Norma Shearer). Uptown yet down-to-earth, Mary is in style, in love...and out to keep the one man who means everything to her - even if she has to beat the others at their own game to do it!
Director Helena Maria Viramontes
Year 2001
Running Time 87 minutes
Distributor Dartmouth College - Women and Gender Studies Program
Comments: A talk given by Viramontes in 13 Carpenter Hall, Dartmouth College on May 11, 2001. Sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program at Dartmouth.
Director The National Women's History Project
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary (Black and White)
Language English
Running Time 15 minutes
Distributor The National Women's History Project
Comments: An overview of Women's History in the United States: The twenty years between 1860 and 1880 saw huge social upheaval in America. The destruction of southern cities during the Civil War made recovery a painful process for both whites and Blacks. Although slavery was officially outlawed in 1865, the economic position of Blacks improved very little. The abolitionist movement added strength to a new movement for civil rights for women. Westward expansion meant a new life for pioneer families, but it also meant the destruction of the traditional ways of life for American Indian and Mexican populations already there.
Director The National Women's History Project
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary (Black and White)
Language English
Running Time 16 minutes
Distributor The National Women's History Project
Comments: An overview of Women's History in the United States: Millions of immigrants arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1920. Immigrant labor made possible the rapid industrial growth of the Northeast. Women and children took jobs in factories and mills. Urbanization created dramatic changes in family life. To address the social problems which came with these changes, many women's organizations developed. The long sturggle for woman suffrage achieved victory with the passage of the 19th amendment.
Director The National Women's History Project
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary (Black and White)
Language English
Running Time
Distributor The National Women's History Project
Comments: An overview of Women's History in the United States: Women's participation in World War I and the suffrage vistory of 1920 gave women a new self-image and a sense of equal participation in society. The 220s appeared to be a time of radical changes for women: new job possibilities, new clothing styles, and new social opportunities. The Depression of the 330s, however, unravelled many of these changes as women's roles were dictated by the nation's dire economic situation.
Director The National Women's History Project
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary (Black and White)
Language English
Running Time 15 minutes
Distributor The National Women's History Project
Comments: An overview of Women's History in the United States:World War II radically changed women's roles. War production required millions of women to work in heavy industry as well as in civilian occupations and activities. Record numbers of married women took jobs, changing the face of the American workforce. At the war's end a media campaign was begun to get women out of the workplace and back into their homes again. The early 550s saw massive suburbanization of American cities, but many women were involved in much more than homemaking. The 550s also saw the beginning of the Black civil rights movement.
Director The National Women's History Project
Year 1988
Subject Educational Documentary (Black and White)
Language English
Running Time 25 minutes
Distributor The National Women's History Project
Comments: An overview of Women's History in the United States: The years between 1955 and 1977 were decades of dramatic change in America. Married women, most of whom had previously been homemakers, poured into the workforce; family structures changed and the divorce rate soared. Legislation that had encouraged American Indians to move to urban centers disrupted their traditional ways of life. Large numbers of Puerto Ricans and Cubans immigrated to U.S. cities in the East, bringing new cultural traditions with them. Across the country, Blacks organized, demanded, and won civil rights which had been denied for too long. And the feminist movement created new options for women in both public and private life.
Director Stephanie Bennett
Year 1986
Running Time 57 minutes
Distributor CD universe
Comments: This entertaining musical survey, produced by the minds behind the great Beatles documentary THE COMPLEAT BEATLES, not only highlights how diverse rock's female artists are, but also just how diverse the genre of rock music is itself. Women in Rock uses rare historical footage, musical videos, live concert performances, and personal interviews to showcase such legendary women of rock and roll as soul diva Aretha Franklin, Spanish-influenced Linda Ronstadt, 60's rock goddess Janis Joplin, pop star Madonna, and 1980's rockers The Bangles.
Director :
Year : 1998
Subject Documentary
Running Time:
Distributor K.M. Productions Inc.
Comments: In 1942, America was at war and the need for pilots was great. Women answered the call and for the first time began flying military aircraft in a special program. They towed targets for aerial gunners. They tested tactical aircraft and trained men to fly them. They ferried top secret documents, and much more. Thirty-eight brave female fliers lost their lives in service to their country. You will see rare historical footage an hear remarkable first hand adventures from these brave Women of Courage.
Producer Bread and Roses Cultural Project
Subject Documentary
Running Time 29 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: This program tells the story of Latina women in the U.S. through portraits of twelve unusual women who have broken new ground in their lives and achievements. Among those featured in the program are Miriam Colnn, actress and founder of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater; Nydia Velzzquez, the first Puerto Rican Congresswoman; and Sandra Cisneros, Chicana novelist and poet. Describing their hopes, their dreams, and the paths they took which shaped their lives, the twelve women share their stories in the context of their families, their common histories, and their careers. The program includes a wealth of historical archival footage, and features a soundtrack of diverse and important Latin music from the 1940s through today.
Director: Suzanne Baumen and Rita Heller
Year: 1986
Subject: Documentary
Language:
Distributor: Filmakers Library
Comments: Tells the story of the summer program as seen through the eyes of the alumna fifty years later at a specially planned reunion. Time has not dimmed the spirit and intellect of the graduates, who talk with passion about their lives in factories, mills, and unions. They recount the experience of living through the Depression, the trail of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the New Deal. The Women of Summer is a story of class and race uniting on the common goals of education and social justice, weaving together oral histories, unearthed diaries and letters, and historical footage to recreate the period in American history between the World Wars.
Director Zane Buzby
Year 1987
Subject Comedy
Artists Ellen Degeneres, Rita Rudner, Judy Tenuta, Paula Poundstone
Language English
Running Time 56 minutes
Distributor HBO Video
Comments: Four comediennes take the stage at the Palace in Hollywood for an uninhibited hour of mirth and madness introduced by comic Martin Short.
Director Paolo Quarengna and Mahamane Souleymane
Year 1995
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 52 minutes
Distributor First Run/Icarus Films
Comments: In Niger, a country where only 50 thousand of its nearly 9 million inhabitants are salaried workers, the work done in the "informal sector," where revenues are very meager, is essential to the survival of thousands of Nigerien families. The women of the Sahel region are the pillars of this informal sector, which accounts for more than half of Niger's economy. While their men are often away in search of seasonal work in bordering countries, the women must struggle to help their families survive. Women Of The Sahel visits with a number of these women as they make peanut oil, extract salt from earth, and turn gypsum into plaster. The film also introduces the craftswomen who create marvelously decorated pottery, beautifully woven straw mats, and intricate leather work. All this is done in the hope of earning a few dollars per week. As these women are shown at work, and as some of the cooperative organizations they've organized to mete out loans or to sell product to wholesalers and exporters are introduced, Women Of The Sahel reveals one example of the hidden economic infrastructure so important in the developing world.
Director:
Year: 2004
Subject: Documentary
Language:
Running Time: 40 minutes
Distributor: Third Wave Television, Inc.
Comments: Women who are experts in the areas of the economy, health, education, terrorism and security,and the environment give their perspectives. The video is designed to promote debate and encourage women to vote in November, 2004.
Director:
Subject: Documentary
Language:
Running Time: 51 minutes
Distributor: www.films.com
Comments: Women who kill are a rare breed. Even rarer is a woman who kills the man she loves. This documentary tells the story of five women who killed their partners. They describe how they endured years of violent sexual and emotional torture before they finally snapped. The program focuses on their intensely personal experiences and on their fight for justice within the British legal system—a legal system very different from America’s and yet identically sexist. The program features the case of Kiranjit Ahzuwahlia, who was jailed for murdering her husband after years of mental and physical abuse. After an intense campaign, she was finally freed, and so her case shows that the courts are prepared to recognize the experience of battered women—or at least this particular case.
Year 1992
Subject Documentary
Language English
Running Time 54 minutes
Distributor Women Make Movies
Comments: Women Who Made the Movies traces the careers and films of such pioneer women filmmakers as Alice Guy Blaché, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Ida Lupino, Leni Riefenstahl, Dorothy Davenport Reid, Lois Weber, Kathlyn Williams, Cleo Madison, and many other women who made a lasting contribution to cinema history with their films. Featuring clips from the films, rare archival footage and stills,Women Who Made The Movies brings to life the works of these remarkable women. Critical viewing for all those interested in the history of cinema.
Director Mariposa Film Group: Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Silver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, and Lucy Massie Phenix
Year 1977
Running Time 130 minutes
DistributorNew Yorker Video
Comments: Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives is just that: interviews with 26 very diverse people -- ranging in age from 18 to 77, in locales from San Francisco to New Mexico to Boston, in type from a beehived housewife to a sultry drag queen--who speak tellingly and movingly of their experiences as gay men and women in a way that destroys decades worth of accumulated stereotypes.
Directors Joe Fuegi and Jo Francis
Year 1995
Subject Documentary
Running Time 52 minutes
Distributor Arthur Cantor Films Narrator Ian Redford
Comments: This definitive documentary was shot in England as Sissinghurst Castle with its world-famous garden; the 365-room Knole mansion; the rooms at Cambridge where Virginia gathered material for A Room of One's Own; London and Richmond, Charleston and Monk's House, legendary locations in Bloomsbury history. Among those interviewed on camera are Virginia's niece and nephew, Angelica Garnett and Quentin Bell; Vita Sackville-West's son and Nigel Nicolson, and Bloomsbury notables like Frances Partridge and poet-novelist Stephen Spender. With archival footage, paintings of the period, and haunting family photos of a Victorian childhood of both beauty and abuse, the film interweaves the personal story of Virginia Woolf's life and loves with the turbulent times she lived in. Rare documents, never filmed until now, include the document in her handwriting used to establish the League of Nations, newly-discovered letters to her beloved Vita, and the Gestapo list where she and Leonard were marked for arrest.
Director:
Year: 2000
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 60 minutes
Distributor: CD Universe
Comments: This film explores twentieth-century art by women, focusing on nine of thirteen artists whose works compose the Gihon art collection: Works by Women. The artists provide the dialogue, about artistic techniques employed, family background, philosophy of art, self-criticism, and success. Artists featured in the film are: Lynda Benglis, Nancy chambers, Clyde Connell, Janet Fish, Hermine Ford, Dorothy Hood, Mary McCleary, Gail Stack and Dee Wolff.
Director: Sut Jhally and Jackson Katz
Year:2002
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 60 minutes
Distributor: Media Education Foundation
Comments: Drawing the connection between professional wrestling and the construction of contemporary masculinity, the video shows how so-called “entertainment” is related to homophobia, sexual assault and relationship violence. The creators of this video argue that to not engage with wrestling in a serious manner allows cynical promoters of violence and sexism an uncontested role in the process by which boys become “men.” Designed to engage the wrestling fan as well as the cultural analyst.
Director: Ursula Biemann
Year: 2000
Subject: Documentary
Running Time: 25 minutes
Comments: A video essay on the new dream screen of the Internet and how it impacts on the global circulation of women’s bodies from the third world to the first world. Although under-age Philippine 'pen pals' and post-Soviet mail-order brides have been part of the transnational exchange of sex in the post-colonial and post-Cold War marketplace of desire before the digital age, the Internet has accelerated these transactions. 'Writing Desire' delights in implicating the viewer in the new voyeurism and sexual consumerism of the Web. However, it never fails to challenge pat assumptions about the impossibility for resistance and the absolute victimization of women who dare to venture out of the third world and onto the Internet to look for that very obscure object of desire promised by the men of the West.
Director:
Year:
Subject Documentary
Running Time 60 minutes
Distributor Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Comments: They come from diverse backgrounds and represent a cross-section of global culture, yet they all share a passion for the written word. In this documentary, authors Gloria Steinem, Doris Lessing, Amy Tan, Isabel Allende, Bharati Mukherjee, Harriet Doerr, June Jordan, and Mona Simpson speak out about their personal lives and openly share their thoughts and feelings on the themes of childhood; love, marriage, and children; starting out as writers; the creative process; publishing; politics; philosophy; success; and motivation. This delightful program is an essential part of any curriculum involving women's studies, creative writing, or contemporary literature.
