traditional women's roles • families • marriage • separation and divorce • displaced homemakers • mothers and daughters • women and islam • women and catholicism • changing roles • isolation and solidarity
WORLDWIDE
Women of the World (1975)
Film
Made by Hubley Studio
Distributor: Pyramid Films (USA)
This is an animated film without narration presenting a playfully earnest history of the world from a feminist perspective. It emphasizes the evolution of women's role in civilization.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
A Sense of Honour (Egypt 1982)
Video, 50 min., color, in English
Distributor: BBC Enterprises Ltd. (England)
Dr. Nadia Atif, an Egyptian anthropologist, takes a sympathetic look at the role of women in Egypt and relates her findings to the current situation of women throughout the Islamic world. She sees a fundamental flaw in the western world's view of women throughout the Islamic world as restricted and subservient and attributes this to a misconception of the Muslim woman's sense of honor.
Village Women in Egypt (USA)
Film, 16 mm, 20 min., color, in English and Arabic
Made by Martha Stuart Communications
Distributor: Martha Stuart Communications (USA)
The film documents the discussion of a group of ten rural Egyptian women talking about their sex roles, family lives, traditions and family planning concerns. The women discuss their feelings about the customs and values they have grown up with.
Some Women of Morocco (England 1976)
Film, 16 mm; video, U-matic, 55 min., color, in English
Made by Melissa L. Davies
Distributor: Ver. Nederlands Filminstituut (VNFI) (Netherlands)
This film about women's lives in the old city of Marakesh. It focuses on Aisha and her friends. Married and working, Aisha is subject to strict Islamic rules.
Women of the Tou Bou (Africa)
Film, 16 mm
Distributor: Phoenix Films (USA)
This is a documentary on the African tribe known as the Tou Bou. It explains that the tribe revolves around a matriarchy and is extremely protective of their strong, enduring and graceful women.
Ramparts of Clay
Film, 85 min., in English
Distributor: Cinema-5 (USA)
This film examines the harsh routine of a young woman's life in an isolated village on the edge of the Sahara. The film presents a young woman who is unable to accept the subservient role that tradition demands of her. Her growing conflict with her community parallels the villagers' difficult awakening to their own exploitation. They live precariously because of their geographic isolation, unyielding environment, poor economy and lack of political power.
Ceddo (Senegal 1977)
Film, 16 mm, 120 min., color, in English
Made by Ousmene Sembene
Distributor: Third World Newsreel (USA)
This film was banned in Senegal because of its explicit treatment of taboo topics, such as African involvement in the provision of slaves for the Western Hemisphere, the low status of women in Africa, and "Islamic colonialism." One of its themes centers on the political kidnapping of a princess by a hunter and the attempts to rescue her Another theme deals with the "Ceddo" (the common people), who are forced to convert to the disciplines and rituals of the Islamic faith.
ASIA
Japanese Women (Japan)
Film, 30 min., in English
Made by Don Hopkins, John Tayler
Distributor: Studio D (USA), National Film Board of Canada (Canada)
A film that contrasts the changing roles and problems of women in Japan with those in North America. Archival footage describes the impact of General MacArthur's occupation on the status of women in postwar Japan while contemporary footage captures prevailing cultural attitudes.
Shakti-"She Is Vital Energy" (Canada)
Film, 56 min., color, in English
Made by National Film Board of Canada
Distributor: National Film Board of Canada (Canada)
This documentary portrays a woman of rural India and the traditions that shape her life. It illustrates the various stages of her evolution, from childhood to old age. Her marriage to a young man of her parents' choice is a turning point in her life, when she must leave her family to become a member of her husband's family.
The Hanawa Family (Japan 1979)
Film, 16 mm, 30 min., color, in English
Producer: NHK Promotion Service
Distributor: Audiovisual Department, The Japan Foundation (Japan)
The postwar constitution of Japan made sweeping changes in a social system that had traditionally been rooted in the hierarchical family structure. The extended family is still an element in Japanese life, but Japan's enormous economic growth and urbanization of the past 20 years has generated still other forces of change. How have the Japanese responded to these forces? What role does the family itself play in the life of the individual in present-day Japan? This film explores these questions as it focuses on four generations of the Hanawa family in the suburbs of Tokyo: their beliefs, their ways of working and living with each other, their hopes for the future.
Fusa Asaka: Medical Case Worker (Japan 1976)
Eighth in a ten-part series
Video, U-matic, 30 min., color, in Japanese, Chinese, and English
Director: Haruko K. Watanabe
Producer: HKW Video Workshop
Distributor: HKW Video Workshop (Japan)
Fusa Asaka, the pioneering medical social worker in Japan, discusses her family background and how she first became involved in medical casework in Boston, Massachusetts. She then makes some observations, as a case worker, on Japanese families. Finally she proposes a "new culture" in which both husbands and wives address and treat each other as equals.
Can You Hear Us? (Malaysia 1984)
Video, VHS, 60 min., in English, Malay, Chinese and Hindi
Made by Asian Cultural Forum on Development
Distributor: Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD) (Thailand)
This video provides a forum for three Malaysian women to speak about the struggle they must endure each day. They talk about their situations in the family, about the violence they suffer, about their work. The video is accompanied by an illustrated booklet which includes the script, dialogues, questions for discussion and action, background and other information.
Three Generations of Javanese Women (USA)
Videocassette, 29 min., color, in English
Made by Martha Stuart Communications
Distributor: Martha Stuart Communications (USA)
The video explores some of the changing roles of village women, through rare first-hand accounts of rural life in Java by women from three generations of Javanese families - grandmothers, mothers, and granddaughters.
Japanese Young Women (Japan)
Video, 28 min., color, in English
Made by Martha Stuart Communications
Distributor: Martha Stuart Communications (USA)
Twelve young Japanese women talk energetically and excitedly about the changes taking place in their lives and their families.
Another Beginning (Korea 1984)
Film, 16 mm, 40 min., in Korean with English subtitles
Made by the Education and Training Division, KWDI with the technical cooperation of the Korea Film Production Co.
Distributor: Korean Women's Development Institute (Korea)
This film shows the unfair situation of Korean women reflected through the lives of three women: grandmother, mother and daughter. The process of self-realization comes through coping with grief and unfair treatment throughout their lifetimes.
AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC
This Woman Is Not a Car (Australia 1982)
Film, 23 min., color, b/w, in English
Made by Margaret Dodd
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
A mother, isolated in an outer Adelaide suburb, drives a station wagon full of children to a distant beach. Imagination and reality fuse. Her sense of herself is assaulted by car fetishists in a rural service station. Memory, fear and fantasy are interwoven as the film takes woman's assigned role in the "Australian Dream" to its absurd conclusion.
Paralysis (Australia 1977)
Film, 16 mm, 10 min., b/w, in English
Made by Barbara Levy
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
Most people experience a state of emotional impasse at some time in their lives. In this film the filmmaker herself is the subject, exposing her own emotional dependence on a romantic fantasy. She charts the psychic journey back through this mire in order to break the stranglehold of paralysis and begin the process of personal liberation.
The Ice Cream Factory (Australia 1977)
Film, 16 mm, 11 min., b/w, in English
Made by Naomi Christie
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film takes a subjective look at a day in the life of a young woman who works as packer in an ice-cream factory. It shifts between reality, dreams, memories and flashes of the future. The day is one of relevation and leads to a great change in her life.
Southern Run (Australia 1980)
Film, 16 mm; video, 3/4 in., 23 min., color, in English
Made by Cynthia Connop
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
Lyn, a single mother, work as a stewardess for a railway between Sydney and Junee. The film takes us on a roundtrip during which we become aware of Lyn's life and aspirations, her struggles as a single mother and her attempts to balance the various forces in her life.
Women Returning to Study (Australia 1977)
Video, 3/4 in. U-matic, 25 min., b/w, in English
Made by Sandra Alexander
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
A group of women discuss their experiences in coming to university after years in the home, caring for young children, the reactions of family and friends, and the effect on the women, their children and their marriages. A tape to open up discussion of the issues confronting women who decide to return to education or the workforce.
Stations (Australia 1983)
Film, 22 min., b/w, in English
Made by Jacki McKimmie
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film is an articulation of romance and desire and their ramifications for Dora, a young woman in the steamy Brisbane of 1953. The film recounts her relationship with a young man whom she meets at a local ballroom. Her becoming pregnant interrupts the flow of this affair. What follows is a painful and deliberate account of women's resilience in the face of the dilemmas and social constraints of Australia in the fifties.
The Singer and the Dancer (Australia 1976)
Film, 60 min., color, in English
Made by Gillian Armstrong
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film portrays an aging, embittered woman who is treated as helplessly senile by her daughter. She is, however, very much alive and capable. Her main pleasure in life is to get out once a week and sit in the sun by a creek. She has had a lonely life with an uncaring and unfaithful husband whom she loved. She develops a friendship with a young girl from the city who has difficulties with her unfaithful boyfriend. The older woman advises the girl to leave him and keep her emotional independence. The young girl is in love and cannot make up her mind. Will she end up like the older woman?
Mum's the Word (Australia)
Film, 16 mm, 23 min., color, in English
Director: Carol Kostanich
Producer: Carol Kostanich
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film looks at three single mothers living on Social Security benefits or pensions and at how they maintain their family lives. These women raise fundamental questions about single parenthood and the Australian Social Security system. Some of the issues examined are living below the poverty line; invasion of privacy; the assumption that living with a man means he's supporting you; living alone and sharing; single parent/child relationships; sharing the parenting; who wins in the Family Law Court; the lack of the childcare; and whose needs come first - the mother's or the kids'?
Single Mothers Speak Out (New Zealand)
Video, U-matic, 50 min., b/w, in English
Made by Women's Community Video
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
Made in conjunction with the Council for the Single Mother and her Child, the tape documents a discussion between single mothers and analyzes the attitudes of society and institutions toward them.
Cradle Song (Australia 1978)
Film, 16 mm, 27 min., color, in English
Made by Gilly Coote
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This dramatic film shows the other side of mothering - fatigue, isolation, and loss of identity - caused by social factors which dictate the nuclear family, with a working male and a housebound female. It is only by identifying these factors and gaining courage to articulate needs that situations can change. Anne feels half alive, with a five-month-old baby and a singing career behind her. When she is asked to do some concerts, she begins to break her silence and say what she wants. This is an optimistic film made for screenings to people expecting babies, highschool students and student groups as a discussion starter on role stereotypes, particularly that of wife/mother.
Maidens (Australia 1978)
Film, 16 mm, 33 min., color, in English
Made by Jeni Thornley
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film is a documentary of the filmmaker's maternal family, using old photographs, slides, home movies and excerpts from some historical women's films. The film traces the development of the extended family on the land through its changes and disintegration into a yet-to-be-defined form. The soundtrack uses original family letters, excerpts from the Three Marias' New Portuguese Letters and original music from a number of sources. The film maybe interpreted in many ways and on many different levels and is suitable for use in women's groups, women's studies programs and film history classes. Its material covers sexuality, psychoanalysis, feminism, separatism, abortion, men, homosexuality, war, marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, and the family.
EUROPE
Real Lies (England 1981)
Film, 16 mm, 45 min., color, in English
Made by Audrey Summerhill, Caroline Spry, Fern Present
Distributor: Cinema of Women (England)
Real Lies takes the familiar central premise of a woman dissatisfied with the constrictions of her life but unwilling to take the risk of change. Here familiarity ends, as the film explores this subject through a metaphorical adventure story involving entrapment, imprisonment and trial in a strange other world.
Taking Place (England 1980)
Film, Super 8, 15 min., color, in English
Made by Emma Henrion, Jenny Lovell and Gwyn Kirk
Distributor: Jenny Lovell and Gwyn Kirk (England)
The film unveils the ways in which architecture controls our lives. Traditionally, western urban architecture separates and isolates women and children, sticking them in housing units or forcing them into tower block apartments or dark alleys. Designed primarily by men, our daily living space is geared to the needs of the nuclear family, without taking other living situations (cooperative, single-parent, etc.) into account and reinforcing the division between home space and work space, despite the fact that most women work in the home.
Who Needs Nurseries? We Do (England 1978)
Film, 16 mm; video, 11 min., color, in English
Made by Leeds Animation Workshop (A Women's Collective)
Distributor: Leeds Animation Workshop (England)
This film presents the serious facts about nursery provision in an entertaining and accessible way. The story is told from the viewpoint of four-year-old Tracy who discovers for herself the benefits of nursery education. Feeling hemmed in by family life, she runs away and goes to a meeting of children presided over by three "chairbabies." They discuss their problems arising from a lack of nursery places. In the end the children decide to take action.
Maeve (Northern Ireland/England 1981)
Film, 110 min., color, in English
Made by Pat Murphy, John Davies and Robert Smith
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
"Men's relationship to women is just like Britain's relationship to Ireland. You are in possession of us. You occupy us like an army." A feature film produced by the British Film Institute and radio Telefis Eireann, Maeve presents a confrontation between Republican and feminist politics and the dilemmas of being an Irish woman today. Set against the atmosphere of a city under siege - bleak streets, armed soldiers and the ever-present threat of violence - the intricately constructed dialogue and characterizations extend our understanding of Northern Ireland's complex cultural and political history.
Funny Valentine (England 1979)
Film, 2.5 min., color, in English
Made by Maya Brandt
Distributor: Cinema of Women (England)
The film is a humorous animated short, a cautionary tale of romance and married life using plastic figures. Useful for promoting discussion on marriage and its connotations for women.
L'Une Chante, l'Autre Pas (France 1976)
(One Sings, the Other Doesn't)
Film, 35 mm, 120 min, color, in French
Made by Agnes Varda
Distributor: Gaumont (France)
Describes a friendship between two women from different backgrounds who discuss their feelings about motherhood and their male partners.
Mondi e Racconti (Italy 1984)
(Different Worlds, Different Stories)
Video (PAL), 80 min., color, in Italian
Made by Elisabetta Lodoli and Daria Menozzi
Distributor: Centro Documentazione Ricerca e Iniziativa delle Donne - Bologna (Italy)
This video is a series of conversations with a number of 18 to 20-year-old Italian women who discuss their pasts, lifestyles, self-images and expectations. Interviewed against a sheer backdrop by an invisible and inaudible interlocutor, the women address such issues as their attitudes toward work, school, the family, independence, equality and their relations with men and other women.
Douze Fois Impure (France)
(Twelve Times Impure)
Film, 16 mm, 40 min., b/w, in French
Made by Monica Fillieres and Anita Perez
Producer: Monica Fillieres and Anita Perez
Distributor: ISKRA (France)
Twelve women from different social backgrounds ranging in age from 14 to 77 discuss their feelings about work, motherhood, education and loneliness.
The Decision (England 1981)
Film, 16 mm, 33 min., color, in English
Distributor: Circles: Women's Film and Video Distribution (England)
The Decision is the story of "Any Princess" whose tale is told through a mix of live action and animation. Beginning and ending with a story heard on the radio, the film translates Any Princess's problem into a series of explosive images which explore a whole world ranging from housework to psychoanalysis to production-line society and woman as victim of sexual desire.
I Timi Tis Agapis (Greece 1984)
(The Price of Love)
Film, 35 mm, color, in Greek with English subtitles
Made by Tonia Marketaki
Producer: Andromeda - Greek Film Center
Distributor: Andromeda - Greek Film Center (Greece)
Set in turn-of-the-century Corfu, this film is about a young girl of humble origins whose lover - a fisherman and a member of the island's rising bourgeois class – abandons her on grounds that her dowry is too small for him to pay back his family's numerous debts. Pregnant and dishonored in the face of both her family and the townspeople, to whom virginity and marriage remain sacred institutions, the heroine of the film supports herself by working in a factory, thanks to which she is able to conquer a difficult and lonely independence.
Tue Recht und Scheue Niemand (West Germany 1975)
(Do What's Right and Don't Be Afraid)
Film, 16 mm, 60 min., b/w, in German
Made by Jutta Bruckner, Francisco Alcala Toca, Abisig Tulman, and Jutta Brandstaedter
Producer: Jutta Bruckner Films
Distributor: Jutta Bruckner Films (West Germany)
Caught between work and family, Gerda leads an anonymous existence in a petit-bourgeois environment in post-World War I Germany. One day, she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her for some time, and the world crumbles around her. She thinks back over her entire life and decides to start all over again on her own. This film is made entirely out of photographs from an old family album of Jutta Bruckners' plus various period photographs.
Heller Wahn (West Germany)
Film, 105 min., color, in German
Made by Margarethe von Trotta
Producer: Bioskop-Film GmbH
Distributor: Filmverlag der Autoren (West Germany)
The film chronicles the friendship between two women, Olga, a strong and well-organized person who has managed to divide her time between her professional and personal commitments, and Ruth, a shy and sensitive woman who escapes from an oppressive marriage into a private world of daydreams and nightmares. Olga's rational efforts to draw Ruth out of her isolation lead the two of them into a mutual analysis that uncovers a whole network of emotional inhibitions, dependencies and pressures. This voyage into their inner self ends in a terrifying moment of truth, as Ruth finally decides to shoot her husband, leaving both women in a state of guilt and anxiety over the future of their friendship.
The All-Round Reduced Personality (West Germany)
Film, 16 mm, 35 mm, 98 min., b/w, in German with English subtitles
Director: Helke Sander
Distributor: The Cinema Guild (USA)
This feature film debut by German filmmaker Helke Sander is a portrait of the challenges facing a young woman who has decided to run her own life and must cope with the conflicting demands of home and career. In a sardonic reversal on the phrase "the all-round realized Socialized personality" heard repeatedly on East Berlin radio broadcasts, the protagonist considers herself an "all-round reduced personality," devoted to a number of causes and commitments but only half-good at any of them.
Erikas Leidenschaften (West Germany 1976)
(Erika's Passions)
Film, 16 mm, 64 min., b/w, in German
Made by Ula Stockl and Thomas Mauch
Producer: Ula Stockl Film Produktion
Distributor: Ula Stockl Film Produktion (West Germany)
After a long time of not seeing one another, Erika and Franziska get together in a house they once used to share. As they piece together memories from their relationship, old feelings of hate and love come to the surface again. Locking themselves in the bathroom, they begin to analyze their friendship more deeply, exploring the deeper motivations that underlie their behavior. The film concludes with a liberating embrace.
Eine Frau mit Verantwortung (West Germany 1977)
(A Woman with Responsibilities)
Film, 16 mm, 72 min., color, in German
Made by Ula Stockl, Jutta Bruckner and Mario Masini
Producer: Eikon Film
Distributor: Ula Stockl Film Produktion (West Germany)
A young girl living in West Germany is taught to take over the household chores from her mother - a role she considers normal for a person of her age and sex. Later she becomes pregnant. Her father opposes her decision to have an abortion while her boyfriend refuses to marry her. Exhausted by her struggle with these two authority figures, she ends up in a psychiatric ward.
Animation for Live Action (England 1978)
Film, 25 min., color, b/w, in English
Made by Vera Neubauer
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
This film opens with images of a woman's journey to work - in the street, at the laundromat. But this external reality is soon subverted by an internal universe. The film constructs a lively feminist critique of everything from psychoanalysis to abortion, from erotic dreams to thoughts of suicide. Neubauer's multilayered cartoon collage rejects the standard conventions of graphic line and employs a variety of modes (including live action, childlike scrawls and intertitles) to play out her self-exploratory adventure.
En el Nombre de la "Mamma" y del Hijo y del Espiritu Santo, Amen (Italy 1984)
(In the Name of the Mother and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen)
Video, PAL/SECAM, VHS, 1/2 in., 20 min., in Italian with Spanish subtitles
Made by Ximena Prieto
Distributor: Ximena Prieto (Italy)
This video seeks to point out similarities in the everyday behavior and movements of a mother and a prostitute, highlighting the kind of mechanization and alienation that characteristizes both types of work. The filmmaker plays on the symbolic meanings of certain common materials and colors to stress the contradiction between the roles of mother and prostitute as seen through the eyes of traditional morality, while at the same time revealing the actual connections and similarities between the two roles.
Mais qu'est-ce qu'elles veulent? (France 1975)
(What Do They Want, Anyway?)
Film, 35 and 16 mm, 90 min., color, in French
Made by C. Serreau
Distributor: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (France)
This film looks into conditions for women from different social classes and professions, including peasant women; workers in the confectioners' industry and their boss, a middle class woman; an actress who occasionally stars in porno films and her director; a young woman who is obsessed with her looks; a young shepherdess and a poor widow.
Levanta Mas la Pierna (Spain 1984)
(Raise Your Leg Higher)
Film, 16 mm, 10 min., b/w, in Spanish
Made by Dolores Payas
Distributor: Instituto de la Mujer - Taller de Audiovisuales (Spain)
A dramatized educational production, this film tells the story of three Spanish women, stressing both their sexuality and their feelings of solitude.
In the Beginning... Of the End - A Voyage of Women Becoming (Denmark 1981)
Multimedia (slideshow with film), 1 hour, color, in English with French subtitles
Made by Maj Skadegard, Renate Stendhal and Iben Haahr
Distributor: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France)
The film is an ironic analysis of both patriarchy and visions of matriarchy, and looks at such diverse materials as myths, fairy tales, religion and politics. It suggests the need for a reexamination of all contemporary social and sexual values and can serve as a consciousness-raiser for women, encouraging them to love and identify with one another.
Le Madonnare (Italy 1982)
Documentary slideshow, 40 min. (with intermission), color, in Italian
Made by Maria Eugenia Jelincic
Distributor: Maria Eugenia Jelincic (Italy)
The "Madonnare" are a group of women from Rome's poorer neighborhoods who, ever since the 16th century, have been getting together in the local taverns to celebrate an annual women-only festival in honor of the Virgin Mary. More than just a religious occasion, the women look forward to this day as a rare chance to rest and have fun - "a day with no house, no work and no unhappiness," as one of them puts it. Sitting around the table, or drinking, dancing, and singing, the women talk about their age-old problems. "I've had twenty-two abortions," one of them says; "I get up at four-thirty in the morning and don't get to bed til ten," adds another. Tough but tender, raucous but playful, the women turn this day of devotion into a day of freedom and transgression. But without the protective shelter of the Virgin's blue mantle, such a "ritual" would be very hard to arrange indeed.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
La Familia: Vivero de una Nueva Sociedad (Dominican Republic)
(The Family: Seedbed of a New Society)
Slideshow, 18 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Centro de Estudios Dominicanos de la Educacion (CEDEE)
Distributor: CEDEE (Dominican Republic)
This slideshow depicts the institution of the family as a microcosm of society and as the principal source of individual conformity, showing how it internalizes and reinforces all of society's values and inequalities.
Memoria de Ellas (Mexico 1984)
(Their Memory)
Video, NTSC, 27 min., in Spanish
Made by Colectivo Cine Mujer and Colectivo Hilvan
Distributor: Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
In this video, the second in a four-part series, a group of housewives in a poor neighborhood of Mexico City talk about their lives, including how they live, what they want, what love means to them and their relationships with their husbands. The main topic of discussion is relationships between couples.
Tantas Vidas, Una Historia (Chile 1983)
(Many Lives, One Story)
Video, NTSC, 3/4 and 1/2 in., 26 min., color, in Spanish
Director: Tatiana Gaviola
Producer and Distributor: Filmocentro (Chile) and SUR (Chile)
This video tells the stories of members of a poor women's organization in an outlying district of Santiago. Relegated to the margins of society, these women try to make sense of the lives they are leading. Together, they discuss their past, only to discover that many of them have suffered through the same difficult experiences. In the end, each woman's account merges with the others to form a single story about daily life, marriage, work and society.
Las Vecinas (Chile 1983)
(Neighbors)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Ana Maria Arteaga and Magali Maneses
Distributor: Ana Maria Arteaga (Chile)
This audiovisual is made up of a sequence of high-quality drawings made by Magali Meneses. In it, two poor women talk about their daily lives. Each frame is designed to stimulate viewer discussion on a number of different themes, including roles and authority within the family, women's work and child-rearing.
Yo, Tu, Ismaelina (Venezuela)
(Me, You, Ismaelina)
Documentary film, 16 mm; video, Betamax, NTSC, 35 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Grupo Feminista Miercoles
Distributor: Grupo Feminista Miercoles (Venezuela)
This film takes place in Lomas Bajas, a town inhabited by women only where production is solely in the hands of women artisans and potters. The film is based on the story of Ismaelina, a 43-year-old woman who dies of a hemorrhage during her 24th pregnancy. Ismaelina expressed both women's creative capacity and their tragic submission to an ideology they are enslaved by. A look at the conditions of the other women in the film reveals that each one of them is, in her own way, another Ismaelina.
Lobe Histori (Colombia)
(Love Story)
Slideshow, in Spanish
Made by El Taller
Distributor: contact Cine Mujer (Colombia)
A satire about marriage.
Balzaquianas (Brazil 1981)
(Sprightly Middle-Aged Women)
Film, 16 mm, 19 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Eliane Bandeira and Manila de Andrade
Producer: Barca Filmes
Distributor: Cinema Distribucao Independente (CDI) (Brazil)
An ironic sketch of the "darker side" of marriage. Following a series of interviews with women from different social classes, an actress plays the part of five different women, reenacting situations that reveal their subordinate role as "good wives."
Vicios de la Cocina (Mexico 1978)
(The Evils of the Kitchen)
In Spanish
Made by Beatriz Mira
Distributor: contact Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A day in the life of a Mexican woman who is oppressed by her triple role as housewife, mother and wife. Like most other women in her situation, the protagonist is hemmed in by a double standard for men and women that both represses her sexuality and keeps her from developing a clear identity.
Desde el Cristal Donde Se Mira (Mexico 1983)
(From the Mirror Onward)
In Spanish
Made by Maricarmen de Lara
Distributor: contact Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A housewife discovers how lonely she is and begins to explore her own fantasies.
Advento (Brazil 1979)
(Advent)
Film, 16 mm, 12 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Susana Sereno
Distributor: Grupo Femenino de Pesquisa Cinematografica (Brazil)
Made in Rio de Janeiro, this film describes the daily life of the average woman city-dweller, including her work, her feelings about love, her loneliness and her inability to communicate with others.
Simplemente Jenny (Bolivia)
Film, 16 mm, 35 min., color, in Spanish or English
Director: Helena Soldberg-Ladd
Producer: International Women's Film Project
Distributor: The Cinema Guild (USA)
Simplemente Jenny is a film about image and reality, the models of society and the facts of poverty and violence. Three adolescent girls in a Bolivian reformatory tell their stories of rape and forced prostitution and describe their fantasies of wealth, marriage and happiness. The film shows how the Spanish conquest fostered a mentality of submission and introduced the model of purity of the Virgin Mary. The media have also become a new religion, promoting ideals, patterns of behavior and luxury products remote from the reality of most people's lives. Scenes of urban slums, abandoned children and broken homes in Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico are juxtaposed against romanticized media images. Some women have rejected these models, however, and one group of Argentine women talk about organizing politically for the necessities of a decent life.
A Menina e a Casa da Menina (Brazil 1981)
(The Girl and Her House)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 10 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Maria Helena Saldanha
Distributor: Grupo Femenino de Pesquisa Cinematografica (Brazil)
This film is about an eleven-year-old girl living in the outskirts of Sao Paulo who takes care of household duties and looks after her seven younger siblings while her parents are away at work.
De Cierta Manera (Cuba 1974)
(One Way or Another)
Film, 78 min.
Made by Sara Gomez
Distributor: Third World Newsreel (USA)
Sara Gomez's only feature film was completed shortly before her tragic death in 1974. De Cierta Manera portrays a value system in transition. Yolanda identifies very strongly with the new status of women, while Mario, her lover, clings to prerevolutionary attitudes about women's role and position in society. Class and racial tensions abound while the couple attempts to resolve their interpersonal, social and sexual chauvinism shaped by centuries of exploitation.
Lejos de las Fiestas (Mexico 1983)
(Far from the Celebrations)
Made by Olga Caceres
Distributor: contact Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
Describes the long and painful process of a breakup between a man and a woman.
Paraiso Artificial (Colombia 1980)
(Artificial Paradise)
Film drama, 16 mm and 35 mm, 12 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Cine Mujer - Colombia
Distributor: Cine Mujer (Colombia)
This film describes the experience of a middle-aged woman in the midst of a marriage crisis. The crisis ends with the breakup of her marriage, after which the woman recovers her strength and sense of self.
Y Por Que No? (Mexico 1983)
(And Why Not?)
Made by Maria Eugenia Tames
Distributor: Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A woman who has recently separated from her husband must take on responsibility for their young son. This film describes how she deals with this new situation from an economic, social and emotional standpoint.
Conozco a las Tres (Mexico 1983)
(I Know All Three)
In Spanish
Made by Maryse Sistach
Distributor: contact Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
This audiovisual tells the story of three women who, while facing different circumstances and problems, still manage to overcome life's obstacles, thanks to their vitality, sense of humor and solidarity with one another.
The Lady of Pacaembu: A Portrait of Brazil (Brazil)
Video, 3/4 in., 36 min., color, b/w, in Portuguese or in English
Made by Rita Moreira and Maria Luisa Leal
Distributor: Rita Moreira (Brazil)
The film portrays a Brazilian woman who despite the poverty and oppression she experiences in her country, still carries on her life with dignity. She is funny, energetic and intelligent - many women in one.
Hotel Villa Goerne (Mexico 1982)
In Spanish
Made by Bussy Cortes
Distributor: contact Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A sketch based on the interaction between three women and the filmmaker.
NORTH AMERICA
The Spring and Fall of Nina Polanski (Canada)
Film, 6 min., in English
Made by Kathleen Shannon and Len Chatwin
Distributor: Studio D (USA), National Film Board of Canada (Canada)
An animated story about an efficient housewife who finds herself metamorphosing into the appliances she uses every day. An open-ended tale that raises questions about work and its relationship to personal identity.
Who Remembers Mama? (USA)
Film, 16 mm; video, 3/4 in., in English
Producer: Women in Communications, Dallas Chapter and KERA-TV
Distributor: Women in Communications, Dallas Chapter (USA)
This documentary examines the aftermath of divorce for middle-aged women: court battles over child custody, child support and property; emotional devastation; and economic impoverishment. Millions of such women have been displaced from their roles as homemakers, left with broken lives and unmarketable skills.
Wanda (USA 1970)
Film, 16 mm, 101 min., color, in English
Made by Barbara Loden
Distributor: American Cultural Center (USA)
The film talks of a woman who originally comes from a mining town in Pennsylvania. Rejected by her husband, this poor, lonely and timid woman fell under the control of a thief who forced her to take part in their exploits. Wanda is a woman bound by an environment surrounded by a paralyzing passivity.
Janie's Janie (1971)
Film, 16 mm, 20 min., b/w, in English
Distributor: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) (USA)
The film follows the life of a white working class woman through a year after the breakup of her marriage. It shows how she discovered herself and found a place with her children in the community. It focuses on the issues faced by a woman bringing up a family and the changes she goes through in her perception of being a woman.
Joint Custody - A New Kind of Family (USA 1983)
Film, 16 mm, 85 min., color, in English
Made by Josephine Hayes Dean
Producer: Josephine Hayes Dean
Distributor: New Day Films (USA)
In most cases of divorce, mothers are awarded custody of their children. More and more, however, shared or joint custody is becoming a legal option which ideally enables both parents to share the joys and difficulties of parenting. This film explores this approach to child custody by profiling three different arrangements where divorced or separated couples take equal responsibility for raising their children and where the children divide their time between two homes.
By the Skin of Our Teeth (Canada 1980)
Video, 28 min., color, in English
Made by Ottawa Tenants Council
Distributor: Women in Focus Arts and Media Centre (Canada)
A thought-provoking documentary examining the harsh realities of life for single mothers and their children who receive family benefits and live below the poverty line. The tape exposes government insensitivity to single mothers through a careful examination of government spending in the areas of social and child welfare.
Concepts/Glass Curtain (USA 1980-83)
Second in an eight-part series
Video, 3/4 in., VHS, Beta, 30 min., in English
Made by Doris Chase
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
This video explores a woman coping with the dimming mind of her mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Written by Doris Chase and expertly performed by Jennie Ventriss, it is a beautiful and poignant portrayal of the ties which bind mother and daughter. In addition, it explores the problems aging and illness present for those whose loved ones suffer.
Travels in the Combat Zone (USA 1980-83)
Seventh in an eight-part series
Video, 3/4 in., VHS, Beta, 30 min., in English
Made by Doris Chase
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
This video explores Third World women's views of life in the city, as well as their travels through the combat zone of relationships between men and women.
Daughter Rite (USA 1979)
Film, 16 mm, 50 min., color, in English
Made by Michelle Citron
Distributor: Cinema of Women (England)
A film which explores mother/daughter and sibling relationships from the perspective of the daughters. It looks at the emotional contradictions of anger, love, grief, betrayal and manipulation in the nuclear family. The film provides an opportunity for women to reach a greater understanding of their relationships with their mothers and sisters.
Women and Men Relating (USA)
Slideshow; video, U-matic, Beta I, VHS, 3/4 in. and 1/2 in., 21 min., color, in English
Made by Location Images: Edie French and Paul Auguston
Distributor: Commission on Women, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (USA)
The role of women in the church is an issue that should concern all people committed to the life and vigor of the church today. This presentation reflects that sexism has no place in a church where all have equal worth before a loving God, and that reflection leads through the pain to hope, a virtue transcending the limitations of human vision.
SEE ALSO
Other resources that address the themes of this chapter are listed below. The chapters where they may be found are given in boldface type.
See these entire chapters:
Our Work (especially domestic work and nontraditional employment)
Images of Women
Lesbian/Gay Liberation
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Women in Struggle
What About the Women?
Empowering Women for Development
Abosoma (Netherlands)
Our Work
The Price of Change (USA)
ASIA
Reclaiming Our History
Power to the Women in Us (Philippines)
Women in Struggle
Women Activists in Asia
Women of Afghanistan (Afghanistan)
Women in China
Migrants and Refugees
So Far from India (USA)
Our Work
We Thai Women (Thailand)
After the Difficulties
Children of the World (Korea)
Sexual Violence
Idi Katha Mathramena (India)
Ourselves and Our Bodies
Kalji Ghyayachi (India)
AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC
Our Work
The Best Man for the Job May Be a Woman
EUROPE
Women in Struggle
El Lugar de la Mujer
Scuola Senza Fine (Italy)
Yvonne Netter, Avocate (France)
Waging Peace
Helen John (England)
Against Apartheid and Racism
Burning an Illusion (England)
Migrants and Refugees
The Price of Love (Sweden)
Our Work
The Amazing Equal Pay Show (England)
The Craft of Culture
In Our Own Time (England)
Sexual Violence
Marion's Story (England)
Ourselves and Our Bodies
Well Woman/Depression (England)
This Isn't Wonderland (England)
Edith's Diary (West Germany)
Accouche! (France)
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Women in Struggle
Mujer Explotada (Peru)
Sin Venda ni Bozal (Dominican Republic)
Rompiendo Cadenas (Dominican Republic)
Empowering Women for Development
Women Streetsweepers of La Paz (Bolivia)
Tantas Vidas, Una Historia (Chile)
Las Campesinas de Montealegre (Honduras)
Our Work
Mujer, Unete a la Lucha (Colombia)
Mariela, Roberto y Julio (Chile)
The Craft of Culture
Parahyda Mulher Macho (Brazil)
Ourselves and Our Bodies
Como Nace y se Hace la Sexualidad (Colombia)
Nuestra Sexualidad (Mexico)
Conversaciones en el Taller (Chile)
NORTH AMERICA
Waging Peace
Genesis/Genocide (USA)
Against Apartheid and Racism
Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker (USA)
Our Work
I Am Somebody (USA)
Breaking Through (Canada)
Sexual Violence
Kate Millett: Women and Violence (Canada)
A Rule of Thumb (Canada)
Why Women Stay (USA)
A Common Assault (Canada)
To Have and to Hold (USA)
Ourselves and Our Bodies
The Yellow Wallpaper (USA)