poets and poetry • filmmaking • dance • music • theater • sculpture • feminist folktales
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Weaving Our Lives (Canada)
Slideshow, 26 min., color, in English
Made by Participatory Research Group
Distributor: Participatory Research Group (Canada)
Since 1974, the women of Oodi, a small village in Botswana in Southern Africa, have been weaving tapestries that portray different aspects of their lives. Each tapestry sheds light on the joys, hardships, concerns and strengths of African society through the eyes of its women.
ASIA
Qiu Jin (China 1983)
Film, in Chinese
Made by Xie Jin
Distributor: Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (France)
Portrays the life of well-known Chinese poetess Qui Jing. Living at the end of the Ching dynasty in the early 20th century, Qui Jing (a pen name) grew up in a feudal environment where women were subject to severe legal and social repression. Spurred by the emerging climate of political change and incipient emancipation for women brought about by the invasion of the Japanese, she later joined the movement for westernization and modernization in her country and used her writing to oppose foreign domination. An outspoken woman and leader. Qui Jing was later executed before a firing squad at the age of 29.
Yaeko Nogami: Novelist (Japan 1976)
Last 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)
Yaeko Nogami, 91-year-old novelist and winner of the Order of Cultural Merits, the highest award in arts and sciences in Japan, speaks about her impressions of her alma mater, the Meiji Girls' school, and the feminist Raicho Hiratsuka. She tells how she relaxes by cooking her own meals. She also discusses her first autobiographical novel, The Forest, in which she depicts people as trees and the world as a forest.
AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC
Climbers (Australia 1980)
Film, 16 mm, 29 min., color, in English
Made by Rosalind Gillespie
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
An allegory in contemporary dance of the international struggle for women's liberation. The theme of the dance is drawn from the Japanese women's ascent of Mount Everest in 1975, filmed in dramatic form to highlight the emotional qualities of the dance.
Ailsa: A Woman Sculptor (Australia 1977)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 8 min., b/w, in English
Made by Sarah Gibson and Diana Simpson
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
A documentary about Ailsa O'Connor, an Australian woman sculptor from Melbourne. The film examines the relationship between the artist's politics and creativity, showing us many of her sculptures of women as well as some of her early paintings.
EUROPE
In Our Own Time (England 1981)
Film, 21 min., color, in English
Made by Women in Moving Pictures
Distributor: Cinema of Women (England)
This film about a group of women in the city of Bristol who make music, traces the source of their musical learning and experiences to their self-awareness as women. By exploring music's political underpinnings, the film challenges the idea of music as a male-defined activity, showing the kind of joy and release it has brought to this particular group of women.
Sois Belle et Tais-Toi (France 1977)
(Look Pretty and Shut Up)
Video, 1/2 in., 115 min., b/w, in French
Made by Delphine Seyrig
Producer: Delphine Seyrig
Distributor: Centre Audiovisual Simone de Beauvoir (France)
This video is made up of interviews with 24 actresses from France and other countries, who discuss their acting roles and relations with their directors.
Evelyne Aiello, Chef d'Orchestre (France 1983)
(Evelyne Aiello, Orchestra Director)
Video, 3/4 in., 18 min., color, in French
Made by Claire Atherton
Producer: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir
Distributor: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France)
In this video, French orchestra director Evelyne Aiello discusses her career. The production includes footage from interviews and from orchestra rehearsals.
Lotte Eisner (France)
Video, 3/4 in., 30 min., color, in French
Made by Michel Celemenski, Carole Roussopoulos, Carine Varene
Producer: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir
Distributor: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France)
In this video, Lotte Eisner (1915-1983), a 1930s German film and theater critic and cofounder of the Cinematheque Francaise, recalls her meetings with Louise Brooks, Fritz Lang and other filmmakers, including such major exponents of the young German cinema as Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders.
Gisele Freund (France 1979)
Film, 16 mm, 14 min., color, in French
Made by Elizabeth Lennard
Producer: Service des Relations Exterieures
Distributor: Elizabeth Lennard c/o Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France)
A portrait of well-known French photographer Gisele Freund.
Carlotta Ikeda, Danseuse de Buto, Danseuse de Toute la Peau (France 1984)
(Carlotta Ikeda, Buto Dancer, Dancer Through and Through)
Video, 3/4 in., 31 min., color, in French
Made by Anna-Celia Kendall
Producers: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) and Thalie Productions
Distributor: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (France)
This video combines footage from the rehearsals and performances of well-known Buto dancer Carlotta Ikeda.
Femme de Couleurs, Portrait de Catherine Viollet (France 1983)
(Catherine Viollet, Woman of Colors)
Video, 3/4 in., 26 min., color, in French
Made by Thierry Bourcy
Producers: Thierry Bourcy, Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir, and Centre National des Arts Plastiques
Distributor: Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France)
Painter Catherine Viollet talks about her work, including her materials, colors, tastes and sources of inspiration.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Parahyda Mulher Macho (Brazil 1983)
(The Tough Woman of Parahyda)
Film, 35 mm, 80 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Tizuka Yamasaki
Distributor: Embrafilme (Brazil)
This film deals with the life of poetess Anayde Beiriz, a woman who struggled to make her ideas heard and to assert herself in a "man's" world.
Eh Pagu Eh! (Brazil 1982)
Film, 16 mm, 20 min., b/w, in Portuguese
Made by Ivo Branco
Distributor: Cinema Distribucao Independente (Brazil)
This film is about Brazilian feminist Patricia Galvao, a novelist, poet and member of the Brazilian Communist Party in the 1930s.
Mulheres de Cinema (Brazil 1976)
(Women in the Movies)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 36 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Ana Maria Magalhaes
Distributor: Grupo Femenino de Pesquisa Cinematografica (Brazil)
A film about women's changing role in Brazilian cinema over the past eighty years, Mulheres de Cinema documents the changeover from a time when women could only find work as actresses to their current, growing involvement in production and other technical aspects of filmmaking. Finally, the film shows how women today are able to use cinema to express their thoughts, opinions and questions.
Leila Diniz (Brazil 1977)
Video, 60 min., b/w, in Portuguese
Made by Ana Maria Magallanes
Distributor: Grupo Femenino de Pesquisa Cinematografica (Brazil)
This video introduces us to the rebellious and free-thinking Brazilian actress Leila Diniz, using a combination of family photographs, old movie segments and personal testimonies.
Coyoacan (Mexico 1983)
Made by Claudia Magli
Distributor: contact Centro de Mujeres para la Produccion Audiovisual (Mexico)
A woman recounts what has just happened to a friend of hers, an actress starring in a farce about love and passion.
The Life and Poetry of Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico)
Film, 16 mm; video, 28 min., color, Spanish dialogue with English subtitles
Director: Jose Garcia Torres
Distributor: The Cinema Guild (USA)
This docudrama portrays the life and work of the great Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. She was considered by many, including the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, to be the greatest contemporary Latin American poet, yet she died in anonymity on the streets of New York at the age of thirty-six. Shot on location in Puerto Rico and New York, the film depicts the prolific career and tragic death of Juliaa de Burgos - from her impoverished childhood in Carolina, Puerto Rico, to her political involvement as a young woman in the Puerto Rican nationalist movement, to her subsequent exile in Cuba and New York where she died in 1953. It also features pictorial interpretations of her major poems.
Poema a Julia Burgos (Dominican Republic)
(Poem for Julia Burgos)
Slideshow, 13 min., color, in Spanish
Made by Centro Dominicano de Estudios de la Education (CEDEE)
Distributor: CEDEE (Dominican Republic)
This slideshow is a visual rendition of a poem by the famous Puerto Rican poet Julia Burgos. In it, Burgos contrasts the role that society imposes on women with their true spirit of unity and creativity.
NORTH AMERICA
Four Women Artists (USA)
Film, 16 mm, 25 min., color, in English
Distributor: Center for Southern Folklore (USA)
The film explores the works of four women artists from Mississippi: novelist Eudora Welty, quilt maker Pecolia Warner, embroiderer Ethel Mohamed and the late folk painter Theora Hamblett. Interviews with the four women are included.
But Then, She's Betty Carter (USA)
Film, 50 min., in English
Made by Michelle Parkerson
Distributor: Black Film Institute (USA)
Using a series of still photographs, this film provides a unique perspective on the life of famous jazz singer and performer Betty "Be-Bop" Carter. Matched by Carter's own commentary on her life and her art, the film is a portrait of a woman artist striving to be the best.
I Be Done Been Was Is (USA 1983)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 60 min., color, in English
Made by Debra Robinson
Producers: Debra Robinson and Leslie Holder
Distributor: Black Filmmaker Foundation (USA)
A look at the careers of four Black comediennes (Alice Arthur, Rhonda Hansome, Jane Galvin Lewis and Marsha Warfield), this film describes the kinds of problems faced by Black women in the U.S. theater industry. A combination of interviews and stage footage, the film describes these women's charged and often difficult relationship with their audiences, with their agents, with traditional "white" and "Black" humor, with men, and with racism as it manifests itself both on and off the stage.
Concepts/Window (USA 1980-83)
First 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 is a video translation of the stage production by Linda Mussman, founder of the Time and Space Limited Theatre. Video effects by Doris Chase enable the viewer to witness the visual impact of memory on language and one woman's words.
Concepts/Skyfish (USA 1980-83)
Fourth in an eight-part series
Video, 3/4 in., VHS, Beta, 30 min., in English
Made by Doris Chase
An exploration of a woman as artist and creator, this video was written and performed by Lee Nagrin, a producer, director, actress, and painter who has toured extensively with Meredith Monk. As Nagrin paints, Chase uses video special effects to visualize her subconscious mind and make the painting come to life. In this way, we are able to watch and understand the emotional and intellectual underpinnings of artistic creation.
Three-Story Suite (USA 1983)
Last in an eight-part series
Video, 1/2 in., VHS, Beta, 30 min., in English
Made by Doris Chase
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
Three-Story Suite is a trio of feminist folktales from Iran, Africa and Polynesia, performed by storyteller Laura Simms. "Fetnah" tells how an intelligent and beautiful woman taught wisdom and humility to a king; "Spirit Basket" is the story of a goddess struggling to teach humanity the treasures of the spirit; and "Hina" is a Polynesian myth in which a woman escapes earthly life by transforming her daily work into moonbeams and stars.
Shades of Red (Canada 1982)
Film, 40 min., color, in English
Distributor: Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (Canada)
A document of three dances choreographed by Paula Ross entitled "Shades of Red," "Apart" and "Coming Together." The film is accompanied by Ross's comments on dance and how it both affects and reflects her life. In addition, the film also suggests the kind of collaboration that exists between the choreographer and dancers and between dance and film.
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.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Empowering Women for Development
Grupo Creativo de la Mujer (Chile)
Our Work
Carmer Carrascal (Colombia)
Migrants and Refugees
Going Home (Chile)
NORTH AMERICA
Migrants and Refugees
Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian-American Poets (USA)