As a result of the Holocaust and later, AIDS, the male homosexual community has sustained bitter losses and, according to Praunheim, lesbian women have now placed themselves at the head of the so-called queer movement. The female protagonists in the film represent two different generations; they also incorporate the past and present status of homosexuals in society.
Some time after her death, film director Jill Craigie (1911- 99), re-opens an old suitcase, prompting memories of the extraordinary life and loves of this forceful, charismatic woman, whose work has been long neglected. Craigie was one of the first women to direct documentaries. Working outside the British Documentary Movement in the 1940s and early 1950s, her films such as To Be Woman (1951), on equal pay, and Out of Chaos (1944), the first film about artists at work, featuring Henry Moore and Paul Nash, tackled new subjects for the cinema through a unique blend of drama, polemic and humour. Independent Miss Craigie uses the director’s unseen papers, and her films, to reveal her energetic struggles to get her radical projects made and distributed, including her last one, on the Yugoslav conflict, made when she was 83, with her husband, former Labour leader, Michael Foot.
Triggered by congressman Jair Bolsonaro’s homage to the torturer Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, during president Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment hearing in 2016, Inês, a 70 year-old actress, starts a fragmented narrative of her own history, transforming the memories of her youth as an artist and guerrilla fighter during the military dictatorship into performances. Using as a starting point her participation in Teatro Oficina's 1967 production of the play "King of The Candle", by Oswald de Andrade, Inês creates a manifesto in defense of art's political strength, intertwined with memories of lost love and resistance.
An intimate study of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century tracking feminist icon Susan Sontag’s seminal, life-changing moments through archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, as read by Patricia Clarkson.
TOMBOY explores the obstacles that young girls encounter on the recreational stage, the stereotypes, language issues and cultural disparities that follow, and ultimately the insufficient media coverage and compensation that afflicts elite professional athletes seeking full recognition for their talents. The journey of the female athlete is often discouraging, and despite progress achieved during the Title IX era, gender equity in athletics has a long way to go.
The people of Antiquity had little problem with nudity and would not find graphic depictions of sexual acts as morally suspect or obscene. But Christianity changed perspectives, bringing in notions of shame and the negation of the body. This documentary looks at the erotic in art over the last two thousand years.
VALKYRIES
Mısra and Defne are close friends and duet partners who met each other through synchronized swimming. After failing to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, they set a shared goal, the 2020 Olympics. Not too long after, their esteemed coach Natalie is fired by the federation with no explanation. What follows is an emotional devastation and disruption of scheduled practices, which in turn leads to a decline in their performances. Political tremors in Turkey and the global pandemic lead the duet to make a decision on whether to keep the fight or to find new paths in life.
ane´ma
A portrait of the leading female Bolshevik (and later Worker’s Opposition) revolutionary leader Alexandra Kollontai using her own words.
"Nobody told us that they would kill us, but neither did they tell them they would not silence us". Women journalists from several parts of Mexico who cover the beat of hard news, reveal the challenges they face when doing their work with various actors: their sources, law enforcement officers, drug trafficking and the state. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in which to practice journalism. Several reporters have been assassinated since 2000. Within this context, female journalists face a double challenge: firstly, to work in a country with a high level of anti-press, violence, and, secondly, the state and situation of their gender in a country riddled with femicide.
Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?
Rosemarie Blank made this film, which focuses on women aged around fifty, in collaboration with the organisation VIDO (Dutch: Vrouwen in de Overgang/Women in the Menopause). An all but invisible group of housewives who have spent their lives putting themselves last to ensure that their husbands and children can reach their full potential.
Documentary about the role of women in rural northern Swedish society.
This documentary profiles economist and writer Marilyn Waring. In extensive interviews, Waring details her feminist approach to finances and challenges commonly accepted truths about the global economy. The filmmakers detail Waring's early rise to political prominence and her successful protests against nuclear arms. Waring also speaks candidly about wartime economies, suggesting that government policies tend to marginalize the fiscal contributions of women.
Alliances Terrestres
Breaking a centuries-old taboo, Ava stands as the first woman in Iran to master the male-dominated craft of carpentry. Within the grit and clamor of the workshop, she confronts a society that deems her presence forbidden. This observational documentary captures her daily battle against physical hardships and social judgment.
Provocative, feminist critique of man’s technological progress.
In the Arab world, women are fighting a two-front war against repressive internal constraints and intrusive Western interference. In this program, a feminist delegation composed of author Nawal Saadawi and other renowned activists from the Middle East and North Africa gathers at the UN, on college campuses, and in church basements to speak out about deterioration of women's rights in the Arab states in an effort to heighten awareness of the Arab feminist struggle for equality--and the effects of U.S. foreign policy on their efforts.
Guest speakers from "Women In Motion" Conference, Vancouver, B.C. 1975.