The Woman's Film

Dublin Core

Title

The Woman's Film

Subject

feminist, activist, racism, documentary, collective, consciousness raising, woman director

Description

This is a critical contribution to the history of feminist documentary, as it is situated within activist film. It links the women's movement to contemporaneous organizing and thinking about class and race, and understands access to filmmaking and control of the image as part of this struggle. The film is a corner stone to the first class I ever taught, Women and Documentary, and to my ongoing thinking about feminist documentary more broadly.

Creator

Third World Newsreel

Date

1971

Abstract

Produced collectively by women, this documentary is a valuable historical document of the origins of the modern women's movement in the United States. The film delves into the lives of ordinary women from different races, educational levels and class Filmed mostly in small consciousness-raising groups, from which the women's movement grew, the women talk about the daily realities of their lives as wives, home-makers, and workers. They speak, sometimes with hesitancy, often with passion, about the oppression of women as they see it. THE WOMAN'S FILM was made entirely by women in San Francisco Newsreel. It was a collective effort between the women behind the camera and those in front of it. The script itself wsa written from preliminary interviews with the women in the film. Their participation, their criticism and approval were sought at various stages of production. Third World Newsreel’s historical Newsreel collection provides contemporary audiences with a vast archive of political documentary films chronicling the social movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Preserved with support from the Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film & Television. - Third World Newsreel

Moving Image Item Type Metadata

Duration

41 mins

Director

San Francisco Newsreel

URL

https://brooklyn-cuny.yuja.com/V/Video?v=11129156&node=49560903&a=118573842

Files

Citation

Third World Newsreel, “The Woman's Film,” VHS Activism Archive , accessed June 19, 2025, https://activismvhs.omeka.net/items/show/664.

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