Anthropology
Africa is a Woman's Name A film by Ingrid Sinclair, Bridget Pickering & Wanjiru Kinyanjui, 2009, 52 min., Color AFRICA IS A WOMAN’S NAME provides an opportunity for three of Africa’s leading filmmakers to tell their own country’s stories through the lives of the...
Africa Rising A film by Paula Heredia, Produced by Equality Now, 2009, 62 min., Color Every day, 6,000 girls from the Horn of Africa to sub-Saharan nations are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). With fierce determination and ...
Amazon Sisters A film by Anne-Marie Sweeney, 1992, 60 min., Color AMAZON SISTERS portrays the vision and strength of women surviving in the hotly contested Amazon rainforests. While international attention has focus...
...And Woman Wove It in a Basket A film by Bushra Azzouz, Marlene Farnum, and Nettie Kuneki, 1989, 70 min., Color For the Klickitat Indians in Oregon, basketweaving is a way of reclaiming native forms and heritage. This evocative portrayal of basketweaver Nettie ...
Beirut: The Last Home Movie A film by Jennifer Fox, 1988, 120 min., Color BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE is an imaginative film which challenges documentary form and concepts of reality by exposing a personal response to a glob...
Black Women of Brazil Directed by Silvana Afram, 1986, 25 min., Color Despite official jargon to the contrary, Brazilians live in a racially segregated class system. This upbeat, sensitive and elegantly composed document...
Children of the Crocodile A film by Marsha Emerman, 2001, 52 min., Color This documentary tells the story of two young Timorese-Australian activists – one a high profile human rights worker, the other a performance artist a...
The Desired Number A film by Ngozi Onwurah, 1995, 28 min., 1 in series, Color THE DESIRED NUMBER uses the Ibu Eze ceremony in Nigeria to highlight how family planning issues often conflict with traditional family values. Nigeri...
Dish A film by Maya Gallus, 2010, 58 min., Color Why do women bring your food at local diners, while in high-end establishments waiters are almost always men? DISH, by Maya Gallus, whose acclaimed
Divorce Iranian Style A film by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini, 1998, 80 min., Color Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circums...
Dream Girls A film by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, 1993, 50 min., Color This fascinating documentary, produced for the BBC, opens a door into the spectacular world of the Takarazuka Revue, a highly successful musical theat...
Duhozanye: A Rwandan Village of Widows A film by Karoline Frogner, 2011, 52 min., Color During the 1994 genocidal campaign that claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans and committed atrocities against countless others, Daphrose...
Eat the Kimono A film by Claire Hunt and Kim Longinotto, 1989, 60 min., Color EAT THE KIMONO is a brilliant documentary about Hanayagi Genshu, a Japanese feminist and avant-garde dancer and performer, who has spent her life defy...
Four Women of Egypt A film by Tahani Rached, 1997, 90 min., Color Amina Rachid was raised in a non-religious, Westernized, aristocratic household before embracing Socialism and fighting for social justice. Another d...
Girls Still Dream A film by Ateyyat El Abnoudy, 1995, 24 min., Color In this engrossing new documentary, award-winning filmmaker Ateyyat El Abnoudy realistically portrays the challenges facing girls in a country where o...
Halving the Bones A film by Ruth Ozeki, 1995, 70 min., Color/BW Skeletons in the closet? HALVING THE BONES delivers a surprising twist to this tale. This cleverly-constructed film tells the story of Ruth, a half-...
Hidden Faces A film by Claire Hunt and Kim Longinotto, 1990, 52 min., Color Originally intended as a film about internationally renowned feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi, HIDDEN FACES develops into a fascinating portrayal of E...
The Hidden Story A film by Shikha Jhingan and Ranjani Mazumdar, 1995, 58 min., Color Its title referring both to women's hidden lives and the hidden work of creating ethnographic realities, this nuanced look at the lives of four rural ...
Highway Courtesans A film by Mystelle Brabbee, 2005, 71 min., Color/BW This provocative coming-of-age film chronicles the story of a bold young woman born into the Bachara community in Central India – the last hold-out of...
In My Father’s House A film by Fatima Jebli Ouazzani, 1997, 67 min., Color In this beautiful, poetic and deeply personal film, Moroccan filmmaker Fatima Jebli Ouazzani investigates the status accorded women in Islamic marriag...
Jenny and Jenny A film by Michal Aviad, 1997, 60 min., Color This moving, closely observed portrait of adolescence documents one summer in the lives of two 17 year old cousins named Jenny. As North African Jewi...
Knowing Her Place A film by Indu Krishnan, 1990, 40 min., Color A moving investigation of the cultural schizophrenia experienced by Vasu, an Indian woman who has spent most of her life in the U.S. Vasu's relationsh...
Latching On A film by Katja Esson, 2010, 36 min., Color After filmmaker Katja Esson’s sister gave birth in Germany, she was able to breastfeed her baby anywhere and at any time. Returning home to New York, ...
Miss Universe in Peru A film by Grupo Chaski, 1986, 32 min., BW Shot during the Miss Universe contest hosted by Peru in 1982, this documentary juxtaposes the glamour of the pageant with the realities of Peruvian wo...
Mohawk Girls A film by Tracey Deer, 2005, 53 min., Color In MOHAWK GIRLS, filmmaker Tracey Deer intimately captures the lives of three exuberant and insightful Mohawk teenagers as they face their future. Lik...
Monday’s Girls A film by Ngozi Onwurah, 1993, 50 min., Color This fascinating documentary, by the filmmaker of THE BODY BEAUTIFUL, follows two young Nigerian women’s different experiences of a traditional rite o...
Mother of Many Children A film by Alanis Obomsawin, 1977, 58 min., Color Composed of a series of vignettes featuring Native women from different first nations, this classic work by Alanis Obomsawin, an Abenaki, reflects a p...
Naked Spaces Produced by Jean-Paul Bourdier
Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1985, 135 min., Color Shot with stunning elegance and clarity, NAKED SPACES explores the rhythm and ritual of life in the rural environments of six West African countries (...
Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night A film by Sonali Gulati, 2005, 27 min., Color/BW In this insightful documentary, filmmaker Sonali Gulati explores complex issues of globalization, capitalism and identity through a witty and personal...
Navajo Talking Picture A film by Arlene Bowman, 1986, 40 min., Color In NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE film student Arlene Bowman (Navajo) travels to the Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother. The film...
Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China A film by Yue-Qing Yang, 1999, 59 min., Color In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation. But in Jian-yong county in ...
Out of Phoenix Bridge A film by Li Hong, 1997, 110 min., Color This groundbreaking work from Li Hong, China’s first independent female documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the cou...
Paradise Lost A film by Ibtisam Salh Mara'ana, 2003, 56 min., Color Arab Israeli filmmaker Ibtisam Salh Mara'ana grew up in Paradise (Fureidis in Arabic), a small fishing village overlooking the Mediterranean. One of t...
A Place Called Home A film by Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri, 1998, 30 min., Color Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri grew up in pre-Revolution Tehran daydreaming about an ideal life in the West. Nineteen years later, after living and working ...
The Price of Sex A film by Mimi Chakarova, 2011, 73 min., Color An unprecedented and compelling inquiry, THE PRICE OF SEX sheds light on the underground criminal network of human trafficking and experiences of traf...
Reassemblage Co-produced by Jean-Paul Bourdier
Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1982, 40 min., Color Women are the focus but not the object of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s influential first film, a complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a c...
Runaway A film by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini, 2001, 87 min., Color “RUNAWAY is a powerful and heart-breaking documentary about a group of young runaway girls who are taken to a women's shelter in Tehran, Iran. The fil...
Selbe A film by Safi Faye, 1983, 30 min., Color This revealing documentary offers a rare view of daily life in West Africa. Shot in Senegal, SELBE focuses on the social role and economic responsibil...
Sidet: Forced Exile A film by Salem Mekuria, 1991, 60 min., Color During the past two decades, more than two million refugees have left Ethiopia. Famine, poverty and political strife as well as the religious persecut...
Skydancer A film by Katja Esson, 2011, 75 min., Color Renowned for their balance and skill, six generations of Mohawk men have been leaving their families behind on the reservation to travel to New York C...
Stigmata A film by Leslie Asako Gladsjø, 1991, 27 min., Color STIGMATA is a riveting look at body modification such as tattooing, cutting, piercing and branding, practices which are becoming increasingly popular ...
Sweating Indian Style A film by Susan Smith, 1994, 57 min., Color The appropriation of Native American traditions by non-Natives comes under thoughtful scrutiny in this insightful documentary. As it follows the New A...
Transnational Tradeswomen A film by Vivian Price, 2006, 62 min., Color Inspired by organizers at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, former construction worker Vivian Price spent years documenting the current and his...
Umoja A film by Elizabeth Tadic, 2010, 32 min., Color UMOJA (Kiswahili for “unity”) tells the life-changing story of a group of impoverished tribal Samburu women in Northern Kenya who turn age-old patriar...
Visitors of the Night A film by An van Dienderen, 1998, 34 min., Color The failures of the ethnographic endeavor to discover “reality” are revealed in this expository and experimental film. The narrator-ethnographer emba...
Voices Heard Sisters Unseen A film by Grace Poore, 1995, 75 min., Color VOICES HEARD SISTERS UNSEEN is a powerful and inspirational film showing how survivors of domestic violence are working to change the way the system t...
Warrior Marks A film by Pratibha Parmar
Executive produced by Alice Walker, 1993, 54 min., Color WARRIOR MARKS is a poetic and political film about female genital mutilation from the director of A PLACE OF RAGE, presented by the Pulitzer Prize win...
Weapon of War A film by Femke & Ilse van Velzen, 2009, 59 min., Color In no other country has sexual violence matched the scale of brutality reached in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During nearly two decades of...
The Women’s Kingdom A film by Xiaoli Zhou, Produced by Xiaoli Zhou & Brent E. Huffman, 2006, 22 min., Color Keepers of one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, Mosuo women in a remote area of southwest China live beyond the strictures of mainstrea...
Women's Lives and Choices Produced by Daniel Riesenfeld for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 1995, 200 min., 3 in series, Color This important and timely series deals with women's health and the social, cultural and economic factors underlying reproductive choices. VENTRE LIVR...
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