Browse Films

Array
(
    [id] => 278
    [title] => The Basement Girl
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/the-basement-girl
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/the-basement-girl/320x-cbe_c523.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => Abandoned by her lover, a young woman finds comfort and safety in her basement apartment.  Mundane routines, a diet of junk food and the warmth of the television insulate her from the pain and betrayal of her ill-fated relationship.  Eventually,  THE BASEMENT GIRL emerges—transformed and ready to "make it on her own".   This latest film by Midi Onodera (TEN CENTS A DANCE, SKIN DEEP) breaks new cinematic territory by employing multiple formats from traditional 16mm film to toy cameras including a modified Nintendo Game Boy digital camera and the Intel Mattel computer microscope.

"Midi Onodera's latest film is a witty and wonderful meditation on how women translate the images that surround them (from Bionic Woman to That Girl!, from Barbra Streisand to Maya Deren).  The film is funny and touching at the same time, as it looks at familiar texts in new contexts.  For anyone interested in women and visual culture, this is an absolute must-see." Judith Mayne, Ohio University
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/the-basement-girl/cbe_c523.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 287
    [title] => Writing Desire
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/writing-desire
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/writing-desire/320x-writed_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => "Ursula Biemann’s WRITING DESIRE is a video essay on the new dream screen of the Internet and how it impacts on the global circulation of women’s bodies from the third world to the first world.  Although under-age Philippine 'pen pals' and post-Soviet mail-order brides have been part of the transnational exchange of sex in the post-colonial and post-Cold War marketplace of desire before the digital age, the Internet has accelerated these transactions.  Biemann provides her viewers with a thoughtful meditation on the obvious political, economic and gender inequalities of these exchanges by simulating the gaze of the Internet shopper looking for the imagined docile, traditional, pre-feminist, but Web-savvy mate. WRITING DESIRE delights in implicating the viewer in the new voyeurism and sexual consumerism of the Web.  However, it never fails to challenge pat assumptions about the impossibility for resistance and the absolute victimization of women who dare to venture out of the third world and onto the Internet to look for that very obscure object of desire promised by the men of the West.  This film will promote lively discussion on third world women, the sex industry, mail order brides, racism and feminist backlashes in the West, and on women’s sexuality, desire, and new technologies." --Gina Marchetti, Ithaca College
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/writing-desire/writed_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 295
    [title] => My Left Breast
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/my-left-breast
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/my-left-breast/320x-cbe_myleft_lores2.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => “Every once in a while someone comes up with a film that sends us a clear signal that it's time to re-evaluate our lives. The film MY LEFT BREAST is not just for women living with breast cancer--it's for everyone.” – Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.  Incorporating a unique blend of wit, wisdom and resilience, filmmaker Gerry Rogers bravely recounts her story of breast cancer survival to share with the world that life, indeed, can continue with full force and vigor.  Shortly after being diagnosed at age 42, Rogers began to document her ordeal on camera in an attempt to confront her own questions and fears about breast cancer. Rather than present a somber and morose meditation on this difficult experience, she decides to invoke humor to frankly reflect on the meaning of this disease on her life, as well as on the lives of her friends and family.  The result is a one-of-kind approach to positively coping with a potentially fatal disease. 

Rather than merely chronicling how one copes with an infirmity, MY LEFT BREAST serves as a model for overcoming every challenge and obstacle in life with clarity and honesty.  In the same vein as the most highly regarded films on health, such as COMPLAINTS OF A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER, this powerful film intimately embraces the emotional challenges of disease, demonstrates acceptance and, above all, affirms life.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/my-left-breast/cbe_myleft_lores2.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 276
    [title] => 900 Women
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/900-women
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/900-women/320x-cbe_900women.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => “The Louisiana Correctional Institute is located in the swamps of southern Louisiana in the small town of St. Gabriel. Built in 1970 to house an increasing population of female convicts, today it houses the state's most dangerous female prisoners and often exceeds its population capacity of 900.  75% of these are mothers and one fourth of them are serving sentences of fifteen years or more. The prison compound has a surreal quality; there are no searchlight-capped towers or barbed wire fences. Filmmaker Khadivi delivers a striking, sensitive portrait of life in this deceptively peaceful atmosphere, which is filled with stories of life on the streets, abuse, freedom, childbirth and motherhood. Six women - a grandmother, a young high school student, a pregnant woman, a recovering heroin addict, a prison guard, and the only woman on death row - were brave enough to share their frustrations and hopes. Produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Jonathan Stack ("The Farm").”  - Human Rights Watch Film Festival Catalogue
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/900-women/cbe_900women.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 277
    [title] => Grrlyshow
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/grrlyshow
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/grrlyshow/320x-cbi_grrly-show.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => An 18 minute explosion of fringe feminism and print media, The GRRLYSHOW is a powerful and rebellious message from new voices often left unheard.  Filmmaker Kara Herold examines the girly Zine revolution and culture in such a way that the film intellectually and stylistically addresses anyone's question concerning whether or not feminism has reached it's 3rd wave: the postmodern.  By interweaving head-shot interviews, clips from the zines and 1950's television-esque vignettes, Herold clearly illustrates feminism's ability to exist subversively within a system that generally doesn't give women their own voice .  The GRRLYSHOW successfully brings to the surface alternative voices and projects that are vital to the continuation and expansion of feminism.  An excellent film for mass communication, women's studies and pop culture courses.

"A perky peek at the alternative media community where self-publishing gals are doin' it for themselves. Aware, irreverent, entertaining, even brilliant, these zine creators relish the irony that to speak in one's unique unfettered voice is to touch others more powerfully than with the traditional blanded-down mainstream mag approach. Viva the grrly zines!"  Al Hoff, Pittsburgh City Paper & Creator, Thrift Score zine
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/grrlyshow/cbi_grrly-show.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 280
    [title] => Gaea Girls
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/gaea-girls
            [title] => more
        )

    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => "This fascinating film follows the physically grueling and mentally exhausting training regimen of several young wanna-be GAEA GIRLS, a group of Japanese women wrestlers. The idea of them may seem like a total oxymoron in a country where women are usually regarded as docile and subservient. However, in training and in the arena, the female wrestlers depicted in this film are just as violent as any member of the World Wrestling Federation, and the blood that’s drawn is very real indeed. One recruit, Takeuchi, endures ritual humiliation not seen on screen since the boot camp sequences of FULL METAL JACKET. In DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE, Kim Longinotto cinematically explored the previously unexplored world of the Tehran divorce courts. Working with co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto has been given access to shoot an insider’s verité account of this closely guarded universe." - Chicago Film Festival
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/gaea-girls/c525.JPG
    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/gaea-girls/320x-c525.JPG
)

Array
(
    [id] => 289
    [title] => New Directions: Women of Guatemala
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/new-directions-women-of-guatemala
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/new-directions-women-of-guatemala/320x-cbe_wog_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => Available only as part of the series New Directions.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/new-directions-women-of-guatemala/cbe_wog_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 279
    [title] => A Boy Named Sue
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/a-boy-named-sue
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/a-boy-named-sue/320x-cbe_boysue_catalogbox.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2000
    [text] => Julie Wyman's compelling documentary chronicles Theo's transformation from a woman to a man over the course of six years. The film successfully captures Theo's physiological and psychological changes during the process, as well as their effects on his lesbian lover and community of close friends. Taking full advantage of the unlimited access she received into an extraordinarily personal process, Wyman carefully composes a moving story about gender identity, relationships, and how even things that seem permanent can change.

"A BOY NAMED SUE is one of the best videos to date on female-to-male trans[gender] experience. Wyman spent six years taping Sue's transformation into Theo and then organized a huge archive of material into a moving, informative and smart rendering of what a difference sex reassignment surgeries can make not only to the transgender individuals but also to all those in their immediate circle. Theo is a great subject and Wyman is a talented and imaginative documentarian."  Judith Halberstam, University of California, San Diego
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/a-boy-named-sue/cbe_boysue_catalogbox.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 248
    [title] => Performing the Border
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/performing-the-border
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/performing-the-border/320x-cbe_ptb_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => A video essay set in the Mexican-U.S. border town of Ciudad Juarez, where U.S.  multinational corporations assemble electronic and digital equipment just across from El Paso, Texas. This imaginative, experimental work investigates the growing feminization of the global economy and its impact on Mexican women living and working in the area.  Looking at the border as both a discursive and material space, the film explores the sexualization of the border region through labor division, prostitution, the expression of female desires in the entertainment industry, and sexual violence in the public sphere.  Candid interviews with Mexican women factory and sex workers, as well as activists and journalists, are combined with scripted voiceover analysis, screen text, scenes and sounds recorded on site, and found footage to give new insights into the gendered conditions inscribed by the high-tech industry at its low-wage end.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/performing-the-border/cbe_ptb_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 255
    [title] => Hollywood Harems
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/hollywood-harems
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/hollywood-harems/320x-cbi_hollywood-harems-1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => "Tania Kamal-Eldin has once again produced a stunning video, a half-hour documentary, this time taking critical aim at Hollywood's abiding fascination with and fantasies about all things east. Juxtaposing film clips from the 20s through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Kamal-Eldin explores the organization of gender, race, and sexuality in Hollywood's portrayal of the exotic east an indiscriminate fusion of things Arab, Persian, Chinese and Indian. She argues, convincingly, that in abridging cultural plurality and difference, these technicolor fantasies have worked both to shape and reinforce often derogative assumptions about  peoples of the east  while at the same time reinscribing the moral, spiritual, and cultural supremacy of  the Anglo-European west. HOLLYWOOD HAREMS is skillfully crafted, well-paced technically adept production versatile and especially suitable for use in a variety of classroom settings." 
Dr Valerie Hartouni, Director, Critical Gender Studies Program, University of California at San Diego
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/hollywood-harems/cbi_hollywood-harems-1.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 283
    [title] => Seven Hours To Burn
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/seven-hours-to-burn
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/seven-hours-to-burn/320x-SevenHours_Burn_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => "A visually expressive personal documentary that explores a family's history.  Filmmaker Thakur mixes richly abstract filmmaking with disturbing archival war footage to narrate the story of her Danish mother's and Indian father's experiences.  Her mother survives Nazi-occupied Denmark while her father experiences the devastating civil war in India between Hindus and Muslims.  Both émigrés to Canada, they meet and marry, linking two parallel wars.  Their daughter lyrically turns these two separate histories into a visually rich poem linking past and present in a new singular identity."  Doubletake Documentary Film Festival Catalogue
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/seven-hours-to-burn/SevenHours_Burn_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 246
    [title] => Made In Thailand
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/made-in-thailand
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/made-in-thailand/320x-cbi_made-in-thailand.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => In Thailand, women make up 90 percent of the labor force responsible for garments and toys for export by multinational corporations. This powerful, revealing documentary about women factory workers and their struggle to organize unions exposes the human cost behind the production of everyday items that reach our shores.  Probing the profound impact of the New World Order on the populations that provide the global economy with cheap labor, MADE IN THAILAND also profiles women newly empowered by their campaign for human and worker's rights. Several of these women are survivors of the 1993 Kader Toy Factory fire, one of the worst industrial fires in history.  Today they are highly effective leaders in the grass-roots movement mobilizing workers in their recently industrialized country.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/made-in-thailand/cbi_made-in-thailand.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 281
    [title] => Black Sheep
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/black-sheep
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/black-sheep/320x-cbe_Black Sheep.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => Lou Glover grew up in New South Wales repeating the same homophobic and racist taunts she heard around her. Though she was raised in a white family, she was dark-haired and dark-eyed and was often asked if she was Aboriginal--a suggestion she vehemently denied.  It wasn't until she came out as a lesbian and left the racist and homophobic environment in which she was raised that she began to explore her ancestry. And that's when she uncovered the secret that her father's family had been hiding for three generations. In this upbeat film from Australia, Lou Glover tells her own story as lesbian, one-time police officer, and recently-discovered Aboriginal woman.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/black-sheep/cbe_Black Sheep.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 288
    [title] => The Day You Love Me
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/the-day-you-love-me
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/the-day-you-love-me/320x-cbe_thedayyouloveme_catalogbox.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => A close-up look at the varieties and complexities of domestic violence, THE DAY YOU LOVE ME takes us into the daily life of policewomen and social workers in one of the Police Commissaries for Women and Children in Nicaragua's capital city of Managua.  Women of different ages, as well as children and young adults, come there seeking help against abusive husbands, lovers and parents. They also talk freely about their experiences and their sometimes conflicting desires for change.  The men in their lives come to the station to respond to the charges against them by defending themselves, justifying their actions, arguing their own grievances, or even admitting their wrongs.  Actively engaged in the life of the community around the Commissary, the policewomen and social workers demonstrate their  responsiveness and skill in dealing with a range of situations and abuses.  In the course of documenting their day, this important film records the essential and empowering process that breaks the traditional law of silence aiding and abetting domestic violence in its many forms.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/the-day-you-love-me/cbe_thedayyouloveme_catalogbox.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 368
    [title] => CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/corpus-a-home-movie-for-selena
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/corpus-a-home-movie-for-selena/320x-corpus.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => This classic rerelease from award-winning filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (Señorita Extraviada, Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo ) is a complex tribute to Selena, the Tejana superstar gunned down in 1995 at the age of 23 by the president of her fan club, just as she was on the brink of blockbuster crossover fame. While the story of her murder, which was filled with sex, glamour and betrayal, caught the attention of many outside the Chicano community, this film moves well beyond the sensational to present a nuanced feminist analysis of Selena's story.

Clips of rare home movies, family photos, and glossy music videos from later in Selena's career are interspersed with lively conversations with her father, sister and Latina intellectuals that shed light into just who Selena was and what makes her such a powerful figure today. Staying true to the “home movie” feel, Portillo interviews ordinary people in Selena's hometown of Corpus Christie, including starry-eyed teenaged fans and tearful strangers who visit her grave. With a compassionate lens, Portillo places Selena's life and legacy in a cultural context, revealing powerful social forces that transformed a popular entertainer into a Chicana cultural icon turned modern-day saint.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/corpus-a-home-movie-for-selena/corpus.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 239
    [title] => Zyklon Portrait
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/zyklon-portrait
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/zyklon-portrait/320x-cbe_zyklon.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => Elida Schogt's moving portrait of her family's experience during the Holocaust. Available only as part of Elida Schogt Trilogy.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/zyklon-portrait/cbe_zyklon.JPG
)

Array
(
    [id] => 253
    [title] => Black Women On: The Light, Dark Thang
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/black-women-on-the-light-dark-thang
            [title] => more
        )

    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => BLACK WOMEN ON: THE LIGHT, DARK THANG explores the politics of color within the African-American community.  Women representing a variety of hues--from honey-vanilla to brown-sugar chocolate--speak candidly about the longstanding "caste system" that permeates black society.  These women share provocative, heart-wrenching personal stories about how being too light or too dark has profoundly influenced their life and relationships--from childhood on and  throughout their adult years.  Originating in a culture of slavery, the "light, dark thang" still persists.  Even today it haunts black women's  individual and collective memories.  Both entertaining and transformative viewing, BLACK WOMEN ON: THE LIGHT, DARK THANG combines personal interviews and historical footage with literary and dramatic vignettes.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/black-women-on-the-light-dark-thang/c479.JPG
    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/black-women-on-the-light-dark-thang/320x-c479.JPG
)

Array
(
    [id] => 272
    [title] => Nobody Knows My Name
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/nobody-knows-my-name
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/nobody-knows-my-name/320x-cbe_nobodyknowsmyname.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME tells the story of women who are connected by their love for hip-hop music.  Despite the fact that these talented female artists exist within a culture that revolves around self-expression, the subjects of Raimist’s documentary must struggle to be heard.  

Asia One has found a niche as an organizer of the B-Boy Summit, but longs for a sense of female community.  DJ Symphony is the sole female member of the The World Famous Beat Junkies.  Leaschea lives a turbulent life, even though she has been signed by a major label.  Lisa married in the hip-hop lifestyle, and now raises a hip-hop family.  Medusa is the successful queen of the L.A. hip-hop underground.  T-Love, an ex-Cripette, hopes her creative talents will help her change her lifestyle.  

Through the candid study of these women, documentarian Raimist explores a fascinating and diverse feminist community, which yearns to find a place in a male-dominated subculture that is, in itself, marginalized.  Ultimately, Raimist succeeds in empowering these self-actualized women by giving them the voice for which they struggle.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/nobody-knows-my-name/cbe_nobodyknowsmyname.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 242
    [title] => Up in the Sky: Tracey Moffatt in New York
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/up-in-the-sky-tracey-moffatt-in-new-york
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/up-in-the-sky-tracey-moffatt-in-new-york/320x-cbe_upsky2.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => "UP IN THE SKY scans the universe created by the provocative and talented photographer and filmmaker Tracey Moffatt, Australia's answer to Cindy Sherman and with even more of an edge, if that's possible.  An important figure in the Australian postcolonial avant-garde, Moffatt started out with visually compelling (and often disturbing) photographs and films such as NICE COLOURED GIRLS, NIGHT CRIES, and BEDEVIL that explore her own Aboriginal heritage and the complex ways that power, race and gender intersect, often violently, in everyday life.  More recently, her work draws on sources as diverse as Pasolini and Mad Max films, or Victorian photography.  Jane Cole's documentary is an insightful portrait of Moffatt and her work,  and an invaluable framework for anyone interested in the work of this cutting edge artist."  
Faye Ginsburg, Director, The Center for Media, Culture, and History,  New York University
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/up-in-the-sky-tracey-moffatt-in-new-york/cbe_upsky2.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 251
    [title] => Artist
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/artist
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/artist/320x-cbe_art_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => Internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Tracey Moffatt takes the viewer on a fast-paced journey through Hollywood's depiction of the artist.  Using a wealth of clips from classic cinema bio pics and popular television sitcoms, the voyage spans centuries of art and art-making to reveal how five decades of mainstream media have perceived the creative process and creators themselves.  A lively music track underscores the fervor and passion we have come to associate with artists and their typical one-dimensional representations on the large and small screen.  Punctuated by recurrent gestures--the confident whisk of the paint brush, the futile laugh of frustration, and the violent destruction of one's own work--this amusing, thought-provoking array of well-known images paints an incisive portrait of the artist as a total Hollywood fabrication.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/artist/cbe_art_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 247
    [title] => Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/nu-shu-a-hidden-language-of-women-in-china
            [title] => more
        )

    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1999
    [text] => In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation.  But in Jian-yong county in Hunan province, peasant women miraculously developed a separate written language, called Nu Shu, meaning "female writing."  Believing women to be inferior, men disregarded this new script, and it remained unknown for centuries.  It wasn't until the 1960s that Nu Shu caught the attention of Chinese authorities, who suspected that this peculiar writing was a secret code for international espionage. Today, interest in this secret script continues to grow, as evidenced by the wide critical acclaim of Lisa See's novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, about Nu Shu.

NU SHU: A HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF WOMEN IN CHINA is a thoroughly engrossing documentary that revolves around the filmmaker's discovery of eighty-six-year-old Huan-yi Yang, the only living resident of the Nu Shu area still able to read and write Nu Shu.  Exploring Nu Shu customs and their role in women's lives,  the film uncovers a women's subculture born of resistance to male dominance, finds a parallel struggle in the resistance of Yao minorities to Confucian Han Chinese culture, and traces Nu Shu's origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered women's creativity.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/nu-shu-a-hidden-language-of-women-in-china/cbi_03-nushew.jpg
)