'Trailblazers in Habits' is an intimate portrait of a group of American Catholic nuns, the Maryknoll Sisters, who have accompanied the disenfranchised in their struggle for social justice. By turns tragic and joyous, yet always inspirational, this insightful documentary is a revealing portrait of these courageous women. A moving and absorbing chronicle that spans 100 years and several continents, the film celebrates the intelligence and tenacity; the love, compassion and generosity of these early feminists.
Narrator (voice)
08 Sep 2011
Loosely based on Charles Dicken’s book “A Tale of Two Cities”, Working Class tells the tale of underground street artists Mike Giant and Mike Maxwell and their decade long friendship that started with a tattoo. The story is told through the cities they call home by, cutting back and forth between the neighborhoods of San Francisco and San Diego, as the artists talk about their life philosophies and the work they create.
01 Jan 1963
No overview found
20 Apr 2018
From the personal to the political, the experiences of diverse women speak of how masculinized and violent the streets still are nowadays. In three insightful conversations with female friends, collaborators and high school students, the director looks for a discourse about fear that is not fearsome, a discourse on violence that is not violent. Direct cinema, horizontal process, self-criticism and narrative breaks. Mostly, this is a tale of universal sorority.
04 Jun 1987
Set in 1592 and based on a true story, a Spanish nun flees the convent and lives an adventurous life disguised as a man.
27 Oct 2006
Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment
10 Sep 1972
No overview found
26 Aug 1997
With quiet intelligence and wry humour, retired documentary filmmaker Kathleen Shannon takes us through the arc of her life and career. Beginning with childhood, moving through her formative years, to her overwhelming desire to give women a chance to tell their stories, this film paints a vibrant portrait of one woman who blazed the way. It's a story of struggle, persistence, and success… and of course, of the NFB's Studio D.
06 Jan 1973
A docu-drama shot in 1970, but not completed until 1973, the film sought to encapsulate in an experimental form issues that were under discussion within the Women’s Liberation Movement at this time and to thus contribute to action for change. In its numerous community screenings, active debate was encouraged as part of the viewing experience.
15 Sep 2017
A documentary about the Swedish rapper and artist Silvana Imam.
01 Jan 1976
No overview found
01 Jan 1977
No overview found
01 Jan 1976
Delphine Seyrig reads passages from a Valerie Solanas’s SCUM manifesto.
08 Mar 1986
Combining Documentary, Black Comedy and Musical genres, this genuine film, done in collaboration with the Women and the Law collective, shows some of the ways in which, during history, states have designed their systems to promote women's economic dependency towards men.
16 Sep 1987
A feminist activist organization determined to bring attention to superficiality and the rampant objectification of women in modern American society chooses the 1985 Miss California Beauty Pageant as the site for its disruptive guerrilla demonstration. The group meets in Santa Cruz, Calif., and orchestrates its own competition -- one that attracts media attention and shocks passersby with its thought-provoking and satirical alternate reading of the institution of the American beauty pageant.
13 May 2019
No overview found
09 Feb 2008
As a result of the Holocaust and later, AIDS, the male homosexual community has sustained bitter losses and, according to Praunheim, lesbian women have now placed themselves at the head of the so-called queer movement. The female protagonists in the film represent two different generations; they also incorporate the past and present status of homosexuals in society.
30 Jun 2023
A short animated documentary featuring archival recordings of the filmmaker's Volga-German Great-Great-Grandmother, Mary Frank Lind, in which she recalls key memories of childhood—her father's windmill, warm rains, wolf sightings, bone trading, and her passion for carpentry, which broke gender norms but was supported by her father.
01 Mar 2018
In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France as telephone operators to help win the Great War. They swore Army oaths, wore uniforms, held rank, and were subject to military justice. By war's end, they had connected over 26 million calls and were recognized by General John J. Pershing for their service. When they returned home, the U.S. government told them they were never soldiers. For 60 years, they fought their own government for recognition. In 1977, with the help of Sen. Barry Goldwater and Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, they won. Unfortunately, only a handful were still alive.
Delphyne (meaning ‘womb’) discusses the stigma around menstruation. Addressing shame and acceptance, taboos around menstrual blood are told through a fabric-themed metaphor, and the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship; to find a shared unity and language to beat the conflict which projects itself in the shame metaphor that they’ve unwound and removed from their life. The historical connotations of staining, feminine purity and the divide between private and public space as well as ownership of the body come into play. The coming of age theme is reflected in reference to her struggle with the self (alter-ego), struggle with the ‘other’ (male influence) and struggle with the home (her Mother).
25 Jan 2021
The road from the kitchen to parliament was long and rocky for Swiss women - four generations had to fight for the male electorate to grant women the right to political participation. Stéphane Goël's documentary traces this path with sensitivity and humor.