Menarca

Tilly, Miah and Safa are three young women who endure debilitating period pain. Following an adolescence with little menstrual education, support or relief, they navigate the physical and emotional toll of intensely painful periods while trying to maintain a normal life.

The manifesto of a body that bleeds by nature, the reconnection with the ancestors and the self-portrayed voice of a woman who seeks to break with the oppression that has forced us to experience menstruation with fear, shame and rejection.

As millions of women and girls take shots and pills to stop their periods, the meaning of menstruation changes. Current marketing of hormonal birth control (Depo-Provera, Seasonale, Seasonique, Lybrel, Anya) attracts customers by promising freedom from monthly periods. For many consumers, menstrual suppression eliminates painful monthly flow, giving them more control in their lives. For others, menstrual suppression represents a frightening shift in thinking about the human body and another dangerous experiment on woman’s health. Period: The End of Menstruation? interrogates the cultural and medical side effects of suppression before 'the curse' disappears.

Jagoda and Zuzia giggle in the opening scenes in the way that only 11-year-old girls can. Together they are the center of their own changing world. On the face of it, not much happens in the lives of these Polish best friends, but big changes are on the way. The end of primary school is in sight, and the girls are impatiently awaiting first love, budding breasts and first periods.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns from the Thupten Choling monastery in the Himalayan foothills discuss their mentruation practices.

A basic sex education film designed for young engaged couples.

After several farmyard analogies featuring chicks and calves, the well-spoken narrator and director of the film, Winifred Holmes, considers the subject of girls and how they reach adulthood and readiness for the 'important job of motherhood.

This is an educational short released by the Los Angeles Public Library explaining what to expect when you get your first period.

Short film about the menstrual cycle

A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".

Two sisters return home after a stay in a mental institution, only to face disturbing events and a strained relationship with their stepmother. As eerie occurrences unfold, dark family secrets begin to surface, blurring the line between reality and nightmare.

In the throes of a zombie apocalypse, a troubled woman from Las Vegas with a dark past, finds herself stranded in the desert with a lone and ravenous zombie on her tail.

While roller-skating, Sam, a sensitive teenage girl, hears about her small town's local legend: the Boogeywoman.

Delphyne (meaning ‘womb’) discusses the stigma around menstruation. Addressing shame and acceptance, taboos around menstrual blood are told through a fabric-themed metaphor, and the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship; to find a shared unity and language to beat the conflict which projects itself in the shame metaphor that they’ve unwound and removed from their life. The historical connotations of staining, feminine purity and the divide between private and public space as well as ownership of the body come into play. The coming of age theme is reflected in reference to her struggle with the self (alter-ego), struggle with the ‘other’ (male influence) and struggle with the home (her Mother).

A grandmother discusses past and present attitudes toward menstruation.

Upon realizing the extent to which women are affected by their menses, a man sets out to create a sanitary pad machine and to provide inexpensive sanitary pads to the women of rural India.

A sophomore struggles to get passed embarrassment when she receives her menstrual cycle in front of her fellow students. Emotions run high, as growth chases her physically and mentally.

A young Arab-American girl struggles with her sexual obsession, a bigoted Army reservist, and her strict father during the Gulf War.

Unable to afford proper menstrual products, Chloe is constantly faced with anxiety and humiliation; this is not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last. 'Absent' is based on multiple true stories and made in association with Freedom4girls. It aims to raise awareness around period poverty in the UK.

The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger's wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right. Now Brigitte must save her sister and save herself.