58m; U.S.
Director: Glenn Scott
Synopsis: An oral history of 4 women union activists in Texas from 1934 – 1950’s.
Contact: Glenn Scott glenns1048@yahoo.com The collective: People’s History in Texas, Inc.
Director: Bann Roy
60m
What if your gender barred you from applying for a job, and once you were allowed to apply, the rules changed to make it impossible for you to qualify? What if you took legal action to be considered fairly for the job but then faced overwhelming discrimination and hostility from your co-workers? Welcome to the world of Captain Brenda Berkman and the first women to join one of the most celebrated—and macho—lifesaving organizations in the world: the New York City Fire Department.
TAKING THE HEAT: The First Women Firefighters of New York City tells the story of Berkman and the small group of women who dared to want a “man’s job.” Through one-on-one interviews, filmmaker Bann Roy exposes the loneliness, violence and even sexual abuse these women endured to serve their communities.
Home and educational video copies of TAKING THE HEAT: The First Women Firefighters of New York City are available from:
Anjali Films
Email: yoon@takingtheheat.com
55m; U.S.
Director: Ermena Vinluan
Synopsis: Chronicle of the first three Asian women to become members of the NYPD.
Contact: Ermena Vinluan teaandjustice@yahoo.com c: (212) 729-0148 http://www.teaandjustice.com/ touchbaseproductions@yahoo.com 212-729-0148 (Cell)
21m; U.S.
Director: Carolyn M. Scott
Cast: Peter Coyote, Kinnu Krishnaveni and Patsy Northcutt
Synopsis (IMDB): Portrait of Diane Wilson, local shrimper turned activist in Seadrift, Texas, along Highway 185 where giant petrochemical companies make Calhoun County the nation’s most polluting. Wilson has engaged in hunger strikes seeking changes in companies’ behavior, and she has embarrassed Dow/Union Carbide by entering their plant and hanging a banner from atop a tower. We meet a neighbor, see the vacant Seadrift main street (the fishing industry is virtually gone), and hear from talking heads about Texas’s environmental policies since George W. Bush was governor. We see Wilson’s mock commercial for “Texas Gold,” the local undrinkable water. Wilson remains cheerful and tough.
88m;
Director: Elizabeth Holder, Xan Parker
Cast: Umber Ahmad, Maria Bartiromo and Roslyn Dickerson
Synopsis (IMDB): While there have been many movies about Wall Street, there has been little attention given to the specific challenges and stresses of the high-ranking women who work there. Risk/Reward is an insider’s view of the demands and sacrifices that working mothers have in a typically high-powered, male- dominated industry. This film was selected for the 2003 Tribeca, Hot Docs and Full Frame Film Festivals (among others) and will air on the Oxygen network.
Director: Marcelo Silva
Synopsis: Raimunda: A Quebradeira is a Brazilian documentary about the women who struggle for survival collecting babaçu nuts in the Amazon. It is an inspiring story of resistance and triumph in the Brazilian forest, where War on Want partner organisztion MIQCB supports the 300,000 women who make their living from the nuts. The film provides a rare and intimate look at this remote community of women, whose ecologically sound way of life is under threat, both from the Brazilian government and big business moving in.
Contact: Brought to our attention in 2010 by: Nicola Seyd for London Socialist Film Co-op nseyd@hotmail.com
80m; France
Director: Jean-Louis Bertuccelli
Cast: Leila Shenna, Kricheche and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Synopsis (IMDB): In 1962, change comes to a Tunisian village on the edge of the Sahara. An entrepreneur sets up a salt mine, hiring village men. When he pays only half the wages agreed upon, they sit down in a field of rocks. The boss calls the army, who encircle the strikers. The women watch, sacrifice a sheep, pray, ululate. During the second night, a young woman hides the bucket and rope of the town’s well to keep water from the army. The strike galvanizes her: she’s learning to read and has studied a city woman who visits the village. Now, as she removes her traditional dress and rejects a ritual to cast out her new rebellious spirit, will she gain independence as did Tunisia and the strikers
20m; U.S.
Director: Karin T. Mak
Synopsis: The incredible story of resistance, courage and hope by women workers in China battling cadmium poisoning and demanding justice from the local government and their employer, a multi-national battery manufacturer.
91m; China
Director: Yimou Zhang
Cast: Li Gong, Wen Jiang and Rujun Ten
Synopsis (IMDB): In 1930s China a young woman is sent by her father to marry the leprous owner of a winery. In the nearby red sorghum fields she falls for one of his servants. When the master dies she finds herself inheriting the isolated business
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