grassroots organizing • urban poor • squatters • rural women and food production • appropriate technology • income generation • mutual aid • literacy
WORLDWIDE
Women Power: Equality and Development
Film, 27 min., in English, Arabic, French and Spanish
Distributor: Sterling Educational Films (USA)
This film examines the relationship of development to the changing status of women. At the first International Women's Conference convened by the UN, delegates from all over the world speaking out on the conditions of women in their countries found remarkable similarities. Issues raised at the conference are illustrated through a visit to Tunisia, where the Personal Status Code granted women greater equality before the law. New national and international programs are needed to ensure full integration of women in the total development effort.
What Rights Has a Woman? (Italy 1977)
Film, 40 min., color, in English and Spanish
Made by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
Distributor: FAO (Italy) or UNESCO (France)
The film examines the problems of rural women in the three main areas of the developing world-Africa, Asia and Latin America. Although the problems which confront women in rural areas and restrict their role in rural development are different in each case, the film sees as universal the problem of women struggling for full equality in education and participation in the economic and social life of their communities.
La Mujer en el Tercer Mundo (Spain 1984)
(Women in the Third World)
Film, 16 mm; video, 54 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Carmen Sarmiento
Producer: T.V.E. Radio Television Espanola
Distributor: Carmen Sarmiento
Produced for Spanish television, La Mujer en el Tercer Mundo is part of a ten-segment series titled "Los Marginados." Here, the filmmaker analyzes the condition of women subject to economic, political and/or religious oppression all over the world, from Haitian landless laborers to Afghan refugees, Sioux Indians and Jamaican Restafaris - all from a feminist perspective. It also deals with the way women of color are drawn into and exploited by international tourism and prostitution rings, and how local prostitution affects women in Jamaica and Brazil. The film also deals with conditions for indigenous women in Mexico and Guatemala.
Women - Dynamic Dimension in Development
Film, 10 min., in English
Distributor: UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) (Dominican Republic)
The objective of this film is to increase awareness of the importance of women s role in the development process. It is addressed in particular to the decision makers, planners and field officers in charge of development projects and programs.
Outside the GNP (USA)
Film, 16 mm, 9 min., in English
Distributor: United Nations Development Program, Division of Information (USA)
This film shows that women's labor in subsistence agriculture and in the home is excluded from gross national product figures. It also shows what this deletion means to the planner, to the whole society and to women in particular.
As Strong as the Land (USA)
Filmstrip, 19 min., color, in English
Distributor: The United Methodist Church Women's Division (USA)
This filmstrip discusses rural women food producers and development policies. It clearly sets out the facts about women's involvement in agriculture in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well as in the United States and shows how development programs have affected women in both negative and positive ways. It also shows the global nature of policies and problems and brings up issues of control and power.
Womenpower: The Hidden Asset
Film, 17 min., in English
Distributor: Sterling Educational Films (USA)
Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are mainly agricultural, with 85% of their people living off the land. Half of all this "manpower" is womanpower but so far, women's economic contributions have been largely ignored while their labor has been taken for granted. The women of Sri Lanka are trying to change this. The film depicts a community where girls aged from 18 to 21 grow passion fruit for export and operate a silk farm and a coconut fiber cooperative. High school students, boys and girls, discuss how they feel about the changing status of women in Sri Lanka.
The Role of Women in Food Security (Italy)
Film, 30 min., in English, Spanish, French and Arabic
Made by The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Distributor: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Italy)
The key message of this film is that Third World rural women play a major role in the entire "food process," although their contribution is, in fact, undervalued, undersupported and underutilized.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Daughters of the Nile (Netherlands 1981)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 73 min., color, in Dutch
Made by Hillie Molenaar and Joop van Wijk
Distributor: Cinemien (Netherlands)
This film shows the lives of Egyptian women in both rural and urban areas. The position of women is very slowly improving, especially in the rural areas. This film emphasizes aspects in the lives of Egyptian women that might seem foreign to outsiders.
Women of Africa (France)
Made by UNESCO
Distributor: UNESCO (France)
This audiovisual traces the role of African women in the development of their countries from tribal societies to modern states.
Abosoma (Netherlands 1981)
Documentary film, 32 min., color, in Dutch
Made by Jolyn Tichelaar-Willemse
Distributor: Voorlichtingsdienst Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VDO) (Netherlands)
An impression of the daily life of rural women in Ghana, this film asks: What impact do development projects have on the position of women? What does emancipation really mean in this Third World country? An accompanying brochure goes more deeply into these questions.
Reassemblage (Senegal 1983)
Film, 16 mm, 40 min., color, in English
Made by Trinh T. Minh-ha
Distributor: Circles: Women's Film and Video Distribution (England)
Scarcely twenty years were enough for two billion people to define themselves as underdeveloped, says expatriate Vietnamese filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha at the outset of Reassemblage. From this perspective she launches her meditation on Senegal and colonialism, challenging the traditional ethnographic documentary style in this rich and complex visual study of women in Senegal
Souls in the Sun
Film, 27 min., in English, Spanish and French
Distributor: University of Illinois Film Center (USA) or Marlin Motion Pictures Ltd. (Canada)
The film shows the plight of women and children in Senegal. In Senegal, as in many African countries, development efforts have been concentrated in the cities, leaving rural women to farm and rear children under relentlessly harsh conditions with little access to education or medical services.
Working for a Change (Zimbabwe 1985)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in English
Made by Wien De Smit
Distributor: Zimbabwe Women's Bureau (Zimbabwe)
This slideshow evaluates the development projects of the Zimbabwe Women's Bureau through discussions with three women field workers.
Awakening: Vukani: Mukai (Zimbabwe)
Film, 27 min., color, in English
Made by the Ranche House College, Zimbabwe
Distributor: Ranche House College (Zimbabwe)
The documentary follows three Zimbabwean women involved in three different projects in communal, resettlement and urban areas. The three projects serve to show the structural constraints in problems of poverty and underdevelopment and to highlight the role played by training in assisting the process of change.
Widening the Circle of Development (USA 1982)
Film, 16 mm, 23 min., color, in English and French
Made by Decade Media Inc.
Distributor: African Training and Research Center for Women (ATRCW) (Ethiopia)
The purpose of this film is to promote and publicize the role of national mechanisms (i.e., structures, organizations and government bodies) in integrating women in development in Africa and the role of the African Training and Research Center for Women in strengthening such mechanisms. The film shows excerpts from the regional seminar on National Mechanisms for the Integration of Women in Development in Africa and the activities of such agencies in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Senegal.
ASIA
Small Intervention: The Role of Women in India's Development (USA)
Slideshow, 13 min., color, in English
Made by Oxfam America
Distributor: Oxfam America (USA)
The slideshow gives background on Oxfam's involvement with women's projects in India. While focusing primarily on the organization's activities, it also offers a feminist analysis of women's projects, stressing the importance of income-generating schemes and the need for women to take control over their own lives.
A Day of Plane Hunting (USA)
Film, 16 mm, 20 min., b/w, in English
Made by Third World Newsreel
Distributor: Development Education Center (DEC) (Canada)
This film shows the total extent of Vietnamese women's participation in production, education and combat, as well as the new methods of cooperation developed around day-care and other forms of community work.
We Thai Women (Thailand)
Slideshow, 20 min., color, in Thai and English
Made by Siriporn Skrobanek for Friends of Women Group and Women's Information Center
Distributor: Women's Information Center (Thailand)
This slideshow depicts the struggle of the 80% of Thai women who live in rural areas, the situation of their life and work, and how traditional values affect women.
Women in Development (Philippines)
Slideshow, in English
Made by Kahayag Foundation
Distributor: Kahayag: The Foundation for Development Support Communication (Philippines)
A slideshow about women in a squatter area of Cebu city who resisted a move to demolish their homes by organizing themselves through a local Mother's Club.
Small Happiness: Women of a Small Chinese Village
Film, 16 mm, 58 min., color
Made by: Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon
Distributor: Long Bow Group (USA)
A Chinese woman recounts her leadership of a labor strike against the local workshop. Another women, a grandmother, tells the story of her life and her past, describing her conservative, traditional husband and her son and daughter-in-law, whom she loves. Their stones suggest the massive social, political and economic changes that have affected their lives.
AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC
East Sepik Women's Network (Papua New Guinea)
Slideshow, 45 min., in English
Made by Gavien Women's Development Group
Distributor: Gavien Women's Development Group and the East Sepik Council of Women (Papua New Guinea)
This slideshow shows the ten-year history and progress of a women's agricultural self-help organization and the process of growth and networking among local village leadership. It shows both the positive and negative aspects of this kind of work, emphasizing the group's failures and successes.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Relaciones Comunitarias (Argentina)
(Community Relations)
Slideshow, 10 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Jenny Chartier, Lilian Rica and Maria Jose Navarro
Distributor: Asociacion Mutualista de Ayuda a la Mujer (Argentina)
Documents the activities and internal group (Women's Mutual Aid Association), a grassroots women's group in Buenos Aires that functions as a living cooperative and day-care center. The slideshow suggests ways in which collectives can overcome internal conflicts through discussion and special therapeutic practices.
Centros Productivos (Bolivia)
(Production Centers)
Documentary slideshow, 20 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Maria Elena Canedo and Centro de Servicios para el Desarrollo (CENSED)
Distributor: CENSED (Bolivia)
This audiovisual describes the organization of a production center by women from the Alto Cochabamba neighborhood of Cochabamba and their efforts to encourage other groups to do the same.
Marcellina (Netherlands 1977)
Documentary, video, U-matic, 15 min., color, in Dutch
Made by Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers
Distributor: Kijkhuis (Netherlands)
Marcellina is a social worker in Bolivia who helps the people to plant vegetable gardens and build latrines, fostering a consciousness-raising process in the people about their own development.
Women Streetsweepers of La Paz (Netherlands 1977)
Documentary, video, U-matic, 10 min., color, in Dutch
Producer: Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers
Distributor: Kijkhuis (Netherlands)
A poor shoemaker in La Paz gives free literacy lessons in the evenings to women street cleaners, who go to work at three o'clock every morning, often with a baby on their backs. But their foremen stop the women from studying because they are afraid of being surpassed.
Caminhada de um Povo (Brazil 1980)
(A People's Path)
Slideshow, 140 slides, color, with Portuguese text
Made by Instituto de Acao Cultural (IDAC) and Comissao Arquidiocesana de Pastoral dos Direitos Humanos e Marginalizados de Sao Paulo
Distributor: IDAC (Brazil) and Comissao Arquidiocesana de Pastoral dos Direitos Humanos e Marginalizados de Sao Paolo (Brazil)
This slideshow tells the story of a group of poor people living in Sao Paulo and recounts their struggle to improve living conditions in their community, documenting their involvement in various popular mobilizations up until the year 1980. The slideshow's viewing time is flexible, as it can be shortened or shown in its entirety, to suit the requirements of the audience.
Lajes, A Forca do Povo (Brazil 1982)
(Lajes, the Strength of the People)
Film, in Portuguese
Made by Tete Porcincula Moraes
Distributor: Cinema Distribucao Independente (Brazil) and Embrafilme (Brazil)
The protagonists of this film live in Lajes, one of the biggest and most densely populated cities of the state of Santa Caterina in Brazil. Recently, a number of programs have been organized to promote education and self-empowerment among the city's inhabitants, here portrayed by the filmmaker. While it does not deal specifically with women, the film nevertheless focuses on programs and situations where women have a visible role, in such areas as health, education and cultural activities.
Mulheres Numa Creche (Brazil)
(Women in the Day-Care Center)
Photographs, color
Made by Associacao de Mulheres de Mato Grosso
Distributor: Asociacao de Mulheres de Mato Grosso (Brazil)
These photographs depict women from poor urban neighborhoods who are struggling to obtain day-care centers for their children.
O Mundo Era Muito Maior Que a Minha Casa (Brazil 1976)
(The World Was Much Bigger than My House)
Film, 35 mm, 22 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Eunice Gutman
Producer: Movimiento Brasilero de Alfabetizacion de Adultes (MOBRAL)
Distributor: Eunice Gutman
"The world is much bigger than my house!" marvels a peasant woman, who at age 77 is just beginning to learn how to read. Made in Miracena, a rural area in the state of Rio de Janeiro, this film is based on a series of lively conversations with peasant men and women at work.
Grupo Creativo de la Mujer (Chile 1984)
(Creative Women's Group)
Slideshow, 20 min., color, in Spanish and English
Director: Patricia Mora
Producer: Centro de Atencion del Nino y la Mujer (CEANIM) (Chile) and United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (Chile)
Distributor: Patricia Mora, UNESCO (Chile)
With help from CEANIM, women from the neighborhood of Macul, a poor section of Santiago, are running a community kindergarten. Using discarded materials, they start to organize educational games. "It makes one feel useful to turn a simple jar into a nice puppet," one of them says. Since a majority of them are retired, the women then decide to set up an artists' workshop. They defend their right to carry out their own activities against their husbands' wishes. As a result, their relationship with their children improves and the women themselves become friends, whereas before, they had only exchanged passing glances in the street.
Tenemos Nuestras Manos (Chile 1984)
(We Have Our Hands)
Video, 1/2 in. VHS, NTSC, 26 min., color, in Spanish and English
Made by Cecilia Montedo and Juan Carlos Sandoval
Producer: Promujer
Distributor: Promujer (Chile)
This video describes the daily life of women in Pudahuel, a poor neighborhood of Santiago, focusing on their strengths, hopes and problems.
Buscando Caminos (Colombia)
(Looking for New Ways)
Video NTSC (and other video types), 3/4 and 1/2 in., 20 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Cine Mujer - Colombia
Distributor: Cine Mujer (Colombia)
Describes the work and activities of women's groups in the poor neighborhoods of Bogota.
Las Mujeres Trabajando con y por las Mujeres (Colombia)
(Women Working with and for Women)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in Spanish
Made by "Si Mujer," Fundacion de Servicios Integrales para la Mujer
Distributor: "Si Mujer" (Colombia)
Describes the activities of the "Si Mujer" (Women: Yes) Foundation, an organization founded and managed by women to promote work with and for other women.
Aprendiendo con Luisa (Dominican Republic)
(Learning with Luisa)
Slideshow, 7 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Centro Dominicano de Estudios de la Educacion (CEDEE)
Distributor: CEDEE (Dominican Republic)
A peasant woman, who at age 31 has learned to read thanks to the PAACA method (an approach that teaches both literacy and social self-awareness), describes what the experience has meant for her.
Construccion de Hornos y Estufas
(Building Stoves and Heaters)
Videocassette, in Spanish
Distributor: contact Mujeres en Desarrollo Dominicano Inc. (MUDE) (Dominican Republic)
Describes appropriate technology for rural women.
Construccion de Estufa Lorena (Dominican Republic 1983)
(Building a Lorena Stove)
Video, 3/4 in., 15 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Mujeres en Desarrollo Dominicana Inc. (MUDE)
Distributor: MUDE (Dominican Republic)
A how-to video that demonstrates the construction of a Lorena stove, a small, easy-to-build and fuel-efficient cooking unit.
En el Agua y en el Barro (Ecuador)
(In the Water and Mud)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Corporacion Ecuatoriana para el Desarrollo de la Comunicacion (CEDECO) and Comision Ecumenica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU)
Distributor: CEDECO (Ecuador)
While not specifically about women, this audiovisual is important in that it depicts the dramatic living conditions that many Latin American women and men face every day, focusing on the social, political and environmental conditions of the suburbs of Guayaquil. The slideshow designed to encourage people to organize in order to find common solutions to their problems, criticizes the reformism and opportunism of a number of Ecuador's political parties. It is accompanied by a flyer which can be used to stimulate reflection and discussion.
Mujeres del Centro de Accion de Mujeres (Ecuador)
Documentary slideshow, 30 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Centro de Accion de Mujeres (CAM)
Distributor: CAM (Ecuador)
Starting with the situation of poor women living in the city of Quito, this slideshow goes on to describe the activities of the Centro de Accion de Mujeres, including both activities carried out within the group and its efforts to promote self-empowerment among women in the community.
Las Campesinas de Montealegre (Honduras)
Filmstrip in two parts, in Spanish
Director: Nelson Gonzales
Distributor: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Italy)
A dramatized story of a young peasant couple, the struggle for self-improvement of the wife against the wishes of her conservative husband. It is also the story of how the wife joins a rural women's cooperative, through which women manage to organize; study bee-keeping and horticulture; and produce food to market and to improve the families' diet.
Women and Appropriate Technology: The Guyana Experience (Guyana 1980)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in English
Distributor: International Women's Tribune Center (USA)
This slideshow provides an overview of the various news technologies, training activities and needs for technology identified by women at the Women, Appropriate Technology and Rural Development Workshop in Guyana in 1980. The use of appropriate technology as a basis for income generating activities for women is emphasized.
Comedor Popular Rosa Alarco (Peru)
(The Rosa Alarco Public Cafeteria)
Slideshow, in Spanish
Made by Taller de Capacitacion e Investigacion Familiar (TACIF)
Distributor: TACIF (Peru)
This slideshow describes the experience of a group of women from poor urban neighborhoods such as Husaca and Cantogrande in the local public cafeteria.
Vida de Angel (Mexico 1982)
(The Life of an Angel)
Film, 16 mm, 45 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Angeles Necoechea
Distributor: Centro de la Mujer para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A group of women from Mexico City's poor neighborhoods talk about their situation. The discussion focuses on domestic work, as the women recount their daily struggle to survive and maintain their sense of dignity in the face of poor working conditions, lack of social services, smog, overcrowding and cramped or nonexistent housing. The film was produced in cooperation with a community groups in two outlying areas or "colonias" surrounding the nation's capitol.
Tigres y Gatos (Mexico)
(Tigers and Cats)
Slideshow, color, in Spanish
Distributor: contact Comunicacion, Intercambio y Desarrollo Humano en America Latina (CIDHAL) (Mexico)
This slideshow deals with contemporary political and economic problems and can be used to stimulate critical discussion among grassroots level groups.
Mujeres Yataltecas (Mexico 1983)
Slideshow, 20 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Sonia Fritz
Distributor: Comunicacion, Intercambio y Desarrollo Humano en America Latina (CIDHAL) and Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
This slideshow describes women's lives and varying forms of association and organization in a small town in the Zapoteca Sierra of Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest states.
Las Amas de Casa (Mexico 1984)
(Housewives)
Video, NTSC, 27 min., in Spanish
Made by Colectivo Cine Mujer and Colectivo Hilvan
Distributor: Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
The third in a four-part series, this video is about a group of women from a poor neighborhood in the center of Mexico City who have set up a tenants' organization. The organization has been active for eleven years, but the landlords in the area have continued their efforts to evict local families. Members of this group agreed to put on a play in front of the video camera to dramatize how these evictions are carried out, as well as present various ways to prevent them.
Mujeres en Lucha (Mexico 1984)
(Women in Struggle)
Video, NTSC, 20 min., in Spanish
Made by Colectivo Cine Mujer and Colectivo Hilvan
Distributor: Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
The last in a four-part series, this video is about a women's group in a poor and highly mobilized neighborhood in the outskirts of Mexico City. It shows an encampment filled with recently arrived squatters getting ready to divide up an occupied site for homeless families. While government officials try to lure the newcomers away, the women stand by to defend the group's integrity.
Women of the Sierra (Italy)
Slide-tape show, 75 slides with recorded text on cassette or 3/4 in. tape, with accompanying printed text in English or Spanish; also available in filmstrip form in Spanish or English; comes with accompanying color booklet
Made by the World Food Program of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Distributor: FAO (Italy)
This audiovisual describes the situation of rural women in the Peruvian Andes. It suggests ways in which food and other forms of external aid could be used more effectively to advance the situation of women, especially in the fields of education, employment and health.
Las Mujeres lo Hicimos (Peru)
(We Women Did It)
Slideshow, 68 slides, 11 min., in Spanish
Made by Marisa Godinez and Pilar Cantella
Distributor: Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan (Peru)
In this slideshow, a group of women squatters from Lima's poor neighborhoods describe how they occupied one of the city's outlying neighborhoods, setting up a new system of communal living for themselves and other inhabitants.
Nosotras, las Mujeres de los Barrios Populares del Cusco (Peru)
(We, Women from the Poor Neighborhoods of Cusco)
Slideshow, 20 min., color, in Spanish
Made by the protagonists with support from Associacion Amauta
Distributor: Asociacion Amauta (Peru)
This audiovisual describes an interesting experience in popular communication. Following a series of meetings, a number of women's groups from Cusco's poor neighborhoods decide to produce an audiovisual that will describe their way of life. In order to do this, they begin photographing and tape-recording each other in the course of their daily activities. The themes they choose to focus on include domestic and unpaid work, childcare responsibilities, male-female relationships and women's participation in society as a whole.
Caribbean Women on the Move 1980 (USA 1980)
Slideshow, 15 min., color, in English
Distributor: International Women's Tribune Center (USA)
This slideshow illustrates the efforts of Caribbean women to become more actively involved in their countries' development process. Major issues and struggles of Caribbean women are highlighted within the international context of women's role in development.
Dema Doe Sranan (Netherlands 1977)
Video, U-matic, 20 min., color
Made by Meatball Production
Distributor: Kijkhuis (Netherlands)
This video shows how the Women's Action Center, founded in 1975 in Paramaribo, is working to improve the situation of Surinamese women through programs of literacy, community organization, childcare, information, culture and more.
Circulos Femeninos Populares (Venezuela)
(Popular Women's Circles)
Slideshow, 20 min., in Spanish
Distributor: Centro al Servicio de la Accion Popular (CESAP) (Venezuela)
This slideshow describes conditions for poor women in Venezuela, as well as the prospects for improving them through organization. It also explains how the Women's Circles (Circulos Femeninos) operate throughout the country.
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.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
The Craft of Culture
Weaving Our Lives
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Identity, Roles and Relationships
Memoria de Ellas (Mexico)
Tantas Vidas, Una Historia (Chile)
Ourselves and Our Bodies
Case de Salud (Mexico)