The Women' Studies AV collection is arranged here alphabetically within three groups: Documentary (D), Experimental (E), and Narrative (N). There is also a subject index into the collection.
ABORTION: FOR SURVIVAL (D). By Sally Jewett and Melissa Jo Peltier for the Fund for the Feminist Majority and narrated by Christina Pickles; VHS; 40 minutes; color; 1989. Shows how the denial of abortion affects women' lives in the United States and third world countries. Video is accompanied by a guide. USES: Women' Studies/Organizations
ADELANTE MUJERES! (D). Written by Mary Ruthsdotter for the National Women' History Project; VHS; 30 minutes; color with B/W sequences; 1992. Presents the major themes, events, organizations and individuals in Mexican-American women' history. USES: Ethnic Studies/Chicano Studies/Women' History
ANGOLA IS OUR COUNTRY (D). Jennie Morgan; VHS; 45 minutes; color; 1988. This film depicts the roles played by women in the socialist nation of Angola, and the ways in which South Africa' aggression and opposition factions within Angola impact on their lives. USES: Political Science/African Studies/Women' Studies
BORN TO BE SOLD: MARTHA ROSLER READS THE STRANGE CASE OF BABY $M (D). Martha Rosler and Paper Tiger Television; VHS; 35 minutes color, 1988. Using inventive graphics and wacky costumes, Rosler reveals class and gender bias in media and court treatment of "surrogate" mother Mary Beth Whitehead. USES: Bioethics/Communications/Law/Women' Studies
COMPLAINTS OF A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER (D). Deborah Hoffman; VHS; 44 minutes; color; 1994. Portrait of a daughter' response to her mother' various stages of Alzheimer' Disease. Done with compassion and humor, this Academy Award nominee is a life-affirming exploration of family, aging, memory, and love. USES: Social Work/Gerontology/Nursing/Women' Studies
FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY (D). Esther Shub; VHS; 90 minutes; B/W; 1991. Videorecording of 1927 motion picture portraying the fall of the Czarist regime and the rise of Communist rule, compiled from numerous films, including some from the Czar' family. ( In Russian with English subtitles and piano score) USES: Russian History/Film Studies/Women and Filmmaking
FUNDI: THE STORY OF ELLA BAKER (D). Joanne Grant; VHS; 48 minutes; color; 1986. A film biography of Ella Baker, civil rights activist. USES: U.S. History/Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies
GREAT GRANDMOTHER (D). Anne Wheeler and Lorna Rasmussen; 16 mm; 29 minutes; color; 1976. Archival photographs, re-enactments of material from old diaries, and interviews with some of the women involved portray the story of women who settled the western plains of Canada. USES: Women' Studies/Sociology/Canadian History
HALF THE KINGDOM (D) Francine E. Zuckerman and Roushell N. Goldstein, Kol Ishah Productions, Inc.; VHS; 58 minutes; color; 1989. Seven diverse Jewish feminists from Canada, Israel, and the United States strive to redefine their roles in Jewish life. The documentary intersperses interviews with scenes of a new ritual celebrating the birth of a baby girl, an Israeli women' peace demonstration, and "Women of the Wall" attempting to prayer together at the Western Wall holy site in Jerusalem. USES: Jewish Studies/Religious Studies/Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies
HEARTS AND HANDS (D) Pat Ferrero; VHS; 59 minutes; color; 1987. Using women' diaries, letters, photographs, and quilts, Ferrero has told the history of 19th century women from various areas ofthe United States by depicting how women put personal and political statements into their quilt patterns. USES: Women' Studies/History/Social Studies/Art
HELL TO PAY (D). Alexandra Anderson and Anne Cottinger; VHS; 52 minutes; color; 1988. This British-made film examines the human costs of the foreign debt burden in Bolivia, focusing on several poor working women. USES: Economics/Latin American Studies/Women' Studies
HOPI: SONGS OF THE FOURTH WORLD (D). Pat Ferrero; VHS; 53 minutes; color; 1983. This film depicts the lives of the Hopi Indians of Northeastern Arizona, emphasizing their rootedness in nature and religion, the cycle of the seasons, and the importance of mothers in the Hopi culture. USES: Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies/ Anthropology/ American History
IN OUR OWN IMAGE: POVERTY IN WISCONSIN (D). Jaime McBrady and the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative of the University of Wisconsin System Women' Studies Consortium; VHS; 23 minutes; color; 1996. A cross-section of single mothers, students, and workers living at or below the poverty level share their experiences and reactions to Wisconsin experimental welfare programs. The video challenges the stereotype of the "welfare mom." USES: Community Groups/Women' Groups/Sociology/Public Policy/Women' Studies
INDIA CABARET (D). Mira Nair; VHS; 60 minutes; color; 1985. Critiques the sexual double standard in India by exploring the professional and personal lives of night club dancers. USES: Sociology/Women' Studies/South Asian Studies
JOYCE AT 34 (D). Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill; 16 mm; 28 minutes; color; 1973. An autobiographical film documenting filmmaker Joyce Chopra' first year of motherhood with the related work vs. family struggles. USES: Women' Studies/Business/Careers [temporarily out of circulation]
JULIA DE BURGOS (D/E). Jose Garcia Torres; VHS; 27 minutes; color; 1975. A film biography of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos ( 1917-1953), incorporating readings of her poetry and poetic visual images. USES: Spanish/Literature/Women' Studies/Ethnic Studies
JUXTA (D). Hiroko Yamazaki; VHS; 29 minutes; B/W; 1989. A stark but poignant look at the racism faced by a girl with a Japanese mother and a white American father. USES: Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies/Sociology/Film Studies [temporarily Out of circulation]
KABABAIHAN: FILIPINA PORTRAITS (D). Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy; VHS; 40 minutes; color; 1989. Profiles of women activists in the Philippines, from grassroots community organizers to the heads of the national women' association, Gabriela. USES: Women' Studies/Sociology/Political Science/Asian Studies
A KISS ON THE MOUTH / BEIJO NA BOCA (D). Jacira Melo; VHS; 30 minutes; color; 1986. Interviews with street prostitutes in urban Brazil. In Spanish with English sub-titles. USES: Women' Studies/Sociology/Latin American Studies
LEMON GROVE INCIDENT (D). Frank Christopher; VHS; 58 minutes; color; 1985. Focusing on one of the earliest school desegregation cases, uses dramatizations, archival footage, and recollections of witnesses to examine the response of the Mexican-American community in Lemon Grove, California, to a 1930 school board attempt to create a segregated Mexican school in the district. USES: Education/Ethnic Studies/U.S. History
LIFE AND TIMES OF ROSIE THE RIVETER (D). Connie Field; VHS; 65 minutes; color; 1987 ( video of motion picture by Clarity Productions, 1980). During World War II both Black and white women heeded the call of the American government to fill war industry jobs vacated by men in the armed forces. Using archival footage and interviews with five former "rosies," the film documents their work and the effect on the lives of participants during and after the War, when the jobs were once again reserved for male workers. USES: U.S. History/Labor History/Women' History
LOTTE REINIGER COMPILATION (D/N). Lotte Reiniger and John Isaacs; VHS; 70 minutes; B/W with color; 1989 ( made in 1980). Five animated puppet plays from pioneer animator Reiniger ( 1899-1981), followed by an interview in which she talks about her techniques and life. The plays are Cinderella, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, The Little Chimney Sweep and The Three Wishes. The interview, The Art of Lotte Reiniger is the last seventeen minutes of the video. USES: Film Studies/Folklore
LOVE, WOMEN AND FLOWERS (AMOR, MUJERES Y FLORES) (D). Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva; VHS; 58 minutes; color; 1988. In Spanish with English sub-titles. A beautiful and powerful documentary on the Colombian cut flower industry and its 60,000 women workers. Cut flowers are Colombia' third largest export, but the flowers are treated with pesticides and fungicides resulting in serious health consequences for the women and detriment to the environment. The film includes testimony from the women workers and documents their efforts to organize. USES: Environmental Studies/Economics/Latin American Studies/Women' Studies [temporarily out of circluation]
MASTER SMART WOMAN (D). Jane Morrison with photographer Peter Namuth; VHS; 28 minutes; color; 1984. Nineteenth century writer Sarah Orne Jewett is the subject of this portrait film, which depicts major events in her life, critiques her works, and portrays her as mentor to such writers as Ellen Glasgow and Edith Wharton. USES: Women' Studies/American Literature
MIJA (D). Hei Sook Park; VHS; 30 minutes; color; 1989. This slow-moving video effectively conveys the sense of alienation and loneliness that characterizes the life of its central character, a young, divorced Korean American woman, whose mother is deceased, living in a boarding house with a "family" of other immigrants. USES: Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies/Sociology
NEVER TURN BACK: THE LIFE OF FANNIE LOU HAMER (D). Bill Buckley; VHS; 60 minutes; color; 1982. Pays tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer, nonviolent motivator in the civil rights movement. Includes an interview with her, comments from individuals who knew her or her work, and scenes of her galvanizing civil rights workers. USES: U.S. History/Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies. [temporarily out of circulation]
OLYMPIAD (D). Leni Riefenstahl; VHS; 115 minutes; B/W; 1995 English version of 1938 film. Documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Third Reich filmmaker Riefenstahl. "Despite its underlying Nazi ideology, this film contains some of the finest blending of image, sound, and music ever achieved in film" ( Kaye Sullivan, FILMS FOR, BY AND ABOUT WOMEN, Scarecrow Press, 1980, p. 239.) USES: Film Studies/Holocaust Studies/History/Sports
ONE FINE DAY (D). Martha Wheelock and Kay Weaver; VHS; 6 minutes; B/W and color; 1984. "My road is a little easier 'cause she was here," begins the chorus of One Fine Day, sung by Kay Weaver, while over one hundred images of nineteenth and twentieth century American women parade across the screen. Accompanied by a study guide. USES: American History/Women' History/Community Programs
POSITIVE IMAGES (D). Julie Harrison and Harilyn Rousso; VHS; 58 minutes; color; 1989. Portraits of three successful women with disabilities: Carol Ann Roberson, Director of the Mayor' Office for the Handicapped in New York City, attorney and disability rights activist Diedre Davis, and Barbara Kannapell, an instructor at Gallaudet College. USES: Diversity Workshops/Women' Studies
RICHLAND COUNTY WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY (D). Dorothy Thompson; VHS; 45 minutes; color; 1992. Four segments describe and explore the position and problems of women living in the rural economy of southwestern Wisconsin: "A Richland County Profile," presented by county extension home economist Carol Roth; "What' Good for Women is Good for the Economy," featuring economist Emil Haney; "Women in the Rural Economy," with sociologist Wava Haney; and "Balancing Work and Family," discussed by psychologist Margaret Armstrong. USES: Women' Studies/Economics/Rural Sociology
REEL WOMEN VIDEOS (D). Ally Acker; VHS; color; 9 videos of varying length; 1991. Based on Acker' book Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema 1896 to the Present ( 1991), the videos each take up a different aspect of women and filmmaking. Please request by tape title:
RUNNING MATE: GENDER AND POLITICS IN THE EDITORIAL CARTOONS (D). Elaine K. Miller; VHS; 46 minutes; 1993. This video examines gender imagery in editorial cartoons from the vice-presidential campaign of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. Includes interviews with Ferraro and editorial cartoonists. USES: Gender Studies/Communications/Political Science/Women' Studies
QUILTS IN WOMEN'S LIVES (D). Pat Ferrero; 16 mm; 28 minutes; color; 1980. Interviews with seven contemporary quiltmakers who display their work and explain the importance of their art to their lives as well as how their daily experiences influence their art. USES: Women' Studies/Art/Careers
SAY AMEN SOMEBODY (D). George T. Nierenberg and Karen Nierenberg; VHS; 92 minutes; 1983. Follows gospel singer Willie Mae Ford Smith from home to lively church services to a galvanizing singing convention. USES: African American Studies/Music/Religious Studies
SLAYING THE DRAGON (D). Deborah Gee and Asian Women United; VHS; 60 minutes; color; 1988. A chronicle of Hollywood images of Asian and Asian American women with film clips of stereotypes, from "dragon lady" to seductive Suzy Wong and subservient geisha girl. Includes interviews with Asian American actors, media critics and others. USES: Asian American Studies/Film Studies/Women and Film/Women' Studies
THE SONGS ARE FREE: BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON WITH BILL MOYERS (D). Gail Pellett; VHS; 57 minutes; 1991. Bill Moyers speaks with the leader of Sweet Honey in the Rock singers about the significance of music for African Americans from slavery to the present. USES: African American Studies/Music/Religious Studies
SPEAKING OUR PEACE (D). Bonnie Klein and Terri Nash; VHS; 55 minutes; color; 1985. Interviews with women involved in the peace movement explore questions about the arms race and environmental pollution. Includes some footage from the demonstrations at Greenham Common. USES: Women' Studies/Peace Studies/U.S.-Soviet Relations/Environmental Studies
STILL KILLING US SOFTLY: ADVERTISING' IMAGE OF WOMEN (D). Jean Kilbourne; VHS; 32 minutes; color; 1987. Discusses the manner in which women are portrayed by advertising and the effects this has on women and their images of themselves. Updates Kilbourne' classic feminist documentary, Killing Us Softly ( 1979). USES: Women' Studies/Communication Arts/Business [temporarily out of circulation]
SUDESHA (D). Deepa Dhanraj ( India); VHS; 30 minutes; color; 1983. Made by India' leading woman director, the film is about Sudesha, a woman who lives in the foothills of the Himalayas, and her attempt, along with other women of the village, to save the forests that have been threatened by timber merchants. USES: Women' Studies/International Studies/Environmental Studies [temporarily out of circulation]
SUN, MOON AND FEATHER (D). Bob Rosen and Jane Zipp; VHS; 30 minutes; color; 1989. Three Native American sisters who perform together as Spiderwoman theatre present the customs of their family and reminisce about their childhood in an Italian neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1930s and 1940s. They call attention to stereotyping and commercializing of Native Americans through satire and drama. Some of their dialog comes from Chekhov' Three Sisters. USES: Native American Studies/Ethnic Studies/Performance Studies
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (D). Leni Riefenstahl ( Germany); VHS; 80 minutes; B/W; 1936. Documentary of a Nazi party solidarity rally in Nuremburg in 1934. Riefenstahl' role as a propagandist for the Nazi regime is controversial, but film critics agree that her documentaries merit her a place in the history of filmmaking. ( German dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women and Film/German History
UNION MAIDS (D). Julia Reichert, James Klein, and Miles Mogulescu; VHS; 48 minutes; B/W; 1976. Details the struggles of the early 1930' labor movement by using interviews with three women who were active union organizers. The interviews are combined with film footage from the 1930' . USES: U.S. History/Social Studies/Political Science/Women' Studies/Labor Studies
A VEILED REVOLUTION (D). Marilyn Gaunt and Elizabeth Fernea; VHS; 26 minutes; color; 1982. Examines the motivations of present-day Egyptian women who are returning to traditional veiled Islamic dress. USES: Women' Studies/Middle Eastern Studies/Religion and Society [temporarily out of circulation]
WATSONVILLE ON STRIKE (D). Jon Silver; VHS; 65 minutes; color; 1989. Relates events during a strike of Mexican American frozen food workers ( primarily women) in Watsonville, California, commencing September 1985 and lasting eighteen months. USES: Labor Studies/Social Studies/Women' Studies/Ethnic Studies [temporarily out of circulation]
WHO WILL CAST THE FIRST STONE (D). Sabiha Sumar and Ahmed A. Jamal; VHS; 52 minutes; color; 1989. Examines the impact of Pakistan' zina ordinances on women. Interpreting Islamic law strictly, the laws punish adultery with penalties ranging from public flogging to death by stoning. USES: Sociology/Women' Studies/Law/Political Science
WITH BABIES AND BANNERS(D). Lorraine Gray; 16 mm; 45 minutes;color; 1978. A recounting of the support organized by the Women' Emergency Brigade for the 1937 General Motors sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. Juxtaposes current interviews with some of the women involved with film footage from the 1930' . USES: Women' Studies/U.S. History/Social Science/Political Science/Labor Studies
WOMEN IN TRANSITION: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY (D) VHS; color. Part One: Myths and Stereotypes ( 24 min.), Part Two: Taking the First Step ( 17 min.), and Part Three: Snakes and Ladders ( 25 min.). Video made by the Outreach Project on Women and the Economy, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, on the benefits to women on welfare of higher education as a conduit to economic self-sufficiency. Along with facts and figures, the video features women who tell in their words what motivated them to surmount the barriers and succeed in obtaining degrees. USES: Vocational and Career Advising/Education/Economics/ Women' Studies
WOMEN OF EL PLANETA / MUJERES DEL PLANETA (D). Maria Barea; VHS; 30 minutes; color; 1984. Shows Quechua women in a squatters' shantytown outside Lima, Peru, as they organize for better living conditions. USES: Women' Studies/Sociology/Latin American Studies
WOMEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES (D). Jane Monnich; VHS; 56 minutes; B/W with color sequences; 1990. Rare film clips and stills trace the careers of filmmakers Alice Guy Blache, Ida Lupino, Ruth Ann Balwin, Cleo Madison, Leni Riefenstahl, Lois Weber, and others. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film/Women' Studies
WOMEN' STUDIES CONFERENCE ( 16TH: 1991: MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN) (D) VHS, color. Four videotapes from the sixteenth annual state Women' Studies Conference, held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, October 17-19th, 1991. Sponsors of the Conference: University of Wisconsin System Women' Studies Consortium, Wisconsin Humanities Committee, University of Wisconsin System Institute on Race and Ethnicity, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Center for Women' Studies. Conference participants included gender scholars from the ( now former) Soviet Union. Contents: V. 1: "The Economic, Political and Legal Status of Women in the United States and the Soviet Union" ( 87 min.), a panel featuring Zoya Khotkina and Valentina Konstantivona, Senior Research Fellows at the Center for Gender Studies; Ninel Maslova, Soviet Women' Committee Public Commission; and Galina Negrustveva, Soviet Women' Committee. V. 2: "No Crystal Stair: the Process, Pedagogy, and Politics of Doing" ( 47 min.), plenary session talk by Cheryl Johnson-Odim, Assistant Professor of History, Loyola University, Chicago. V. 3: "Women and the Women' Movement in the Soviet Union" ( 83 min.), with Marianna Kozintseva, Ukrainian journalist of women' issues; Ninel Maslova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Social Science; Olga Romashko, Soviet Biophysics Institute, Health Ministry; Olga Voronina, Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences. V. 4: "Women and Leadership: the Need, the Promise, and the Pitfalls" ( 60 min.), a talk by Judith Goldsmith, Special Consultant to the Chancellor for Equity and Affirmative Action, UW-Stevens Point, and former national President, National Organization For Women ( NOW). Request individual videotapes by volume number, or the entire set as "volumes 1-4." USES: Women' Studies/Slavic Studies/Ethnic Studies.
YUDIE (D). Mirra Bank; 16 mm; 20 minutes; B/W; 1974. Yudie, a relative of Mirra Bank, tells of her life as a young immigrant growing up on New York' lower East Side. She reveals aspects of her work, her marriage, and divorce, her union activities and her feelings about living alone. USES: Jewish Studies/Women' Studies/Aging
BRAINS ON TOAST: THE INEXACT SCIENCE OF GENDER (E). Joyan Saunders in collaboration with Liss Platt; VHS; 26 minutes; color; 1992. A humorous experimental video questioning popular assumptions about gender and sexual orientation. Seven characters are connected through an unorthodox seminar on science, gender, and sexuality. USES: Women' Studies/Women and Science/Sociology
DAUGHTER RITE (D/E). Michelle Citron; 16 mm; 53 minutes; color; 1979. An exploration of the dynamics of the nuclear family and an examination of mother/daughter as well as sibling/sister relationships. USES: Women' Studies/Women and Film/Film Studies
ILLUSIONS (N/E). Julie Dash; VHS; 34 minutes; color; 1982. This story is about three women in the year 1942 - Mignon Dupree, a black woman studio executive who appears to be white and Ester Jeeter, a black woman who is the singing voice for a white Hollywood star. The film follows the struggles of the women as well as the use of film in wartime Hollywood. USES: Women and Film/Film Studies
JOURNEYS FROM BERLIN/1971 (E). Yvonne Rainer; VHS; 124 minutes; color; 1971. Uses separation of sound from image in an exploration of woman' subjectivity and how personal experience is related to the social and political institutions in which women live. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film/Feminist Film Theory
MAYA DEREN: COLLECTED EXPERIMENTAL FILMS (E). Maya Deren; VHS; 76 minutes; B/W; 1976. Several of Deren' films transferred to videorecording, exemplifying her avant-garde work in the 1940s and 1950s: Meshes of the Afternoon ( 1943), At Land ( 1944), A Study in Choreography For Camera ( 1945), Ritual in Tranfigured Time ( 1945), Meditation on Violence ( 1948), and The Very Eye of Night ( 1952-59). USES: Women and Film/Film Studies
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (E). Maya Deren; 16 mm; 20 minutes; B/W; 1943. From one of America' foremost experimental filmmakers, Meshes is a very personal vision/statement involving suggestions of split personality and images of death. The imagery in the film is quite remarkable. USES: Women and Film/Film Studies
MY MOTHER THOUGHT SHE WAS AUDREY HEPBURN (E/D). Sharon Jue; VHS; 17 minutes; color; 1989. A humorous, irreverent personal statement about growing up Asian American but being taught to emulate icons of white society. Suzanne, the protagonist, comes to accept her ethnic identity. USES: Asian American Studies/Ethnic Studies/Women and Film
NEW YEAR (E). Valerie Soe; VHS; 20 minutes; color; 1987. In the first part of this video, the artist uses coloring book characters to recall her feelings of alienation as the only Chinese child in school. In the second part, she uses clips from television programs, Hollywood films, and comic books to illustrate the dominant stereotypical images of Asian Americans. USES: Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies/Film Studies/Women and Film/Popular Culture
PERCEPTUAL LANDSCAPES : FILMS OF BARBARA HAMMER: (E). Barbara Hammer; VHS; 54 minutes; color; 1981-1983. Barbara Hammer has been producing experimental films since the early 1970' . This film contains four works that explore personal landscapes - Pools, Pond and Waterfall, Stone Circle, and Best Time. USES: Women and Film/Women' Studies
REASSEMBLAGE (D/E). Trinh T. Minh-ha; 16 mm; 40 minutes; color; 1982. Focuses on the people of several villages in Senegal, particularly on the women and their daily work. The film also critiques the standard anthropological approach to study of other cultures, as well as standard documentary filmmaking. USES: Film Studies/Women' Studies/Women and Film/ Anthropology/African Studies
SARI RED (E). Pratibha Parmar; VHS; 12 minutes; color; 1988. This expressive, symbolic film examines the murder of a young Indian schoolgirl, thus providing insight into the colonial legacy of racism and its impact on the public and private lives of Indian women in Britain. USES: Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies/Film Studies/Sociology
THE SMILING MADAME BEUDET (E). Germaine Dulac ( France); 16 mm; 20 minutes; B/W silent; 1922. Filmed by French filmmaker and feminist G. Dulac, this experimental film with its use of slow motion photography and other special effects presents a psychological picture of a woman in an oppressive middle class marriage. USES: Women and Film/Women' Studies/Film Studies
THRILLER (E). Sally Potter ( Great Britain); 16 mm; 34 minutes; B/W; 1979. A retelling of Puccini' opera La Boheme from a feminist perspective. Explores woman' psychological position in society, her material position, and her position in classic narrative. USES: Women and Film/Film Studies/Feminist Film Theory.
VIDEOS BY SADIE BENNING, VOL. 2 (E). VHS; B/W; 1991-1992. Three autobiographical works by a young award-winning filmmaker who uses her bedroom as setting, and toys, drawings, and teenage diary entries as props to reveal her lesbian identity. Includes A Place Called Lovely ( 14 minutes), about violence; It Wasn't Love ( 20 minutes), a lustful encounter with a "bad girl" with a clip from the Hollywood feature The Bad Seed; and Girlpower ( 15 minutes), Benning' vision of the radical girl of the '90s. All are shot with a Fisher-Price toy video camera. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film/Psychology/Women\' Studies.
ADOPTION (N). Marta Meszaros ( Hungary); VHS; 89 minutes; B/W; 1975. Meszaros has been making films for three decades. Adoption is a mixture of documentary techniques and fictional techniques as it tells the story of a childless middle-aged woman who befriends a younger woman. ( Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women' Studies/Women and Film
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE: A FILM (N). Jane Campion; VHS; 157 minutes; color; 1991. Based on the troubled life of gifted New Zealand writer Janet Frame. USES: Women' Studies/English/Psychology
ANGRY HARVEST (N). Agnieszka Holland ( Germany); VHS; 102 minutes; color; 1986. The film takes place during the German occupation of Poland. In a raid on the ghetto, a young Jewish woman escapes and is given refuge by a Christian farmer. The story tells of the relationship that develops from this situation. Holland is one of Germany' leading directors. ( German dialogue with English subtitles)USES: Women and Film/European History/Jewish Studies
BE GOOD, MY CHILDREN (N). Christine Chang; VHS; 47 minutes; color; 1992. Using drama and musical comedy, Chang takes an irreverent look at the different ways each member of a Korean family adapts to life in New York City. Be Good, My Children raises issues confronted by many immigrant groups, including inter-generational conflict and racism. It also treats media representation of Asian Americans. USES: Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Film Studies, Sociology
BREAKING PAN WITH SOL (N). Nancy De Los Santos; VHS; 28 minutes; color; 1993. On her thirtieth birthday a California Latina named Sol breakfasts with her immigrant father, lunches with her Anglo best friend and dines with her boy friend. Conversations with each lead her to reassess who she is. USES: Chicano Studies/Ethnic Studies/Women' Studies
CAMILA (N). Maria Luisa Bemberg ( Argentina); VHS; 90 minutes; color; 1984. A young Catholic socialite rebels against patriarchal authority by falling in love and running away with a young Jesuit priest. An examination of the male power structure as seen in another culture. ( Spanish dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women and Film/Latin American Studies/Spanish
CANNED HARMONY (N). Alice Guy Blache; 16 mm; 6 minutes; B/W silent; 1912. Filmed by the first woman director in film history, Canned Harmony is a one-reel silent film about a young man who pretends to be a violinist to impress the father of the girl he loves. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film
A CHAPTER IN HER LIFE (N). Lois Weber; VHS; 70 minutes; B/W silent; 1923. One of Weber' later, full-length films which tells of a household composed of a bitter aging man and his widowed daughter-in-law unable to escape to another life. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film
DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (N). Dorothy Arzner; VHS; 89 minutes; B/W musical; 1940. A couple of ambitious chorus girls compete with the men in their lives as well as for the chance to make it big in the world of show business. Screenplay by Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis. Stars Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball. USES: Film Studies/Popular Culture
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (N). Julie Dash; VHS; 113 minutes; color; 1992. Visually stunning saga of a Gullah family living on the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia in 1902. Five women in the Peazant family reflect on their lives during a family picnic. Their dialect is a mixture of West African languages, Creole, and English, and understanding is enhanced if the viewer consults the screenplay, which is found in Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman' Film, by Julie Dash, with Toni Cade Bambara and bell hooks ( 1992). African American Studies/Ethnic Studies/Linguistics/Women and Film
DISCONTENT (N). Lois Weber; 16 mm; 20 minutes; B/W silent; 1916. Filmed by one of America' first and most important woman directors, Discontent is about an old soldier who is taken out of a retirement home to come live with wealthy relatives. After creating chaos in this new home, he decides to return to the Old Soldier' Home and his buddies. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film
FILMS OF JANE CAMPION (N/E). Jane Campion; VHS; B/W and color. Three early shorts on one tape by the director of The Piano. A Girl' Own Story, 27 min., B/W, is a drama of growing up in the sixties. Passionless Moments, 13 min., B/W, is a series of brief life encounters; and Peel, 9 min., color, depicts a family outing on a hot summer day. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film/Women' Studies
FIRES IN THE MIRROR (N). Anna Deavere Smith' one-woman play as broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service' American Playhouse; VHS; 90 minutes; color; 1993. Smith assumes the personalities of twenty-eight characters involved in the inter-ethnic conflict that erupted in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, following the death of an African-American child and the stabbing of a Hasidic rabbinical student. USES: African-American Studies/Jewish Studies/Ethnic Studies/Performance Studies/Theater Studies
A HOUSE DIVIDED (N). Alice Guy Blache; 16 mm; 10 minutes; B/W silent; 1913. Blache was the first woman director in history. A House Divided is a domestic comedy of misunderstandings and eventual reconciliation. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film
I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING (N). Patricia Rozema; VHS; 82 minutes; color; 1987. An offbeat Canadian comedy about the relationship between a chic art gallery owner and a new klutzy employee. USES: Film Studies/Women and Film
KISS GRANDMAMA GOODBYE (N). Debra J. Robinson; VHS; 70 minutes; B/W; 1992. This drama about an African American family is set in the midwest in the 1960s. A young girl, Gail, resolves the death of her friend and mentor, Grandmama. USES: African American Studies/Ethnic Studies/Social Work
LOYALTIES (N). Anne Wheeler; VHS; 98 minutes; color; 1986. Psychological drama set in a remote Canadian village where a marriage is tested. USES: Women' Studies/Film Studies
LUMIERE (N). Jeanne Moreau ( France); VHS; 101 minutes; color; 1976. Filmmaking debut of one of France' leading actresses. The film focuses on the lives of four women and circumstances that occur in one night to change their lives. ( French dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women and Film/Women' Studies/French
MAEDCHEN IN UNIFORM (N). Leontine Sagan ( Germany); VHS; 89 minutes; B/W; 1931. Considered a film classic, Maedchen in Uniform was directed by a woman, was based on a play written by a woman, and has an all-female cast. The movie takes place in an authoritarian boarding school and juxtaposes the Prussian values of the school and the headmistress against the humanitarian values of a young schoolgirl and her teacher. ( German dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women and Film/Film Studies/German
MARIANNE AND JULIANE (N). Margarethe von Trotta ( Germany); VHS; 106 minutes; 1981. Set in Germany in the 1970s, this film tells the story of the relationship between two radical sisters. Juliane works within the system on a feminist journal, but Marianne becomes a terrorist. Her character is modelled on a member of the Baader-Meinhof gang. ( German dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Film Studies/German/Women and Film
MARIA' DAY (N). Judit Elek ( Hungary); VHS; 113 minutes; 1989. An aristocratic Hungarian family gahers to celebrate the youngest daughter' Name Day seventeen years after the failed revolution of 1848. ( Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles) USES: History/Central European Studies
MRS. SOFFEL (N). Gillan Armstrong; VHS; 113 minutes; color; 1985. Based on a true story of a prison warden' wife ( played by Diane Keaton) who aids a murderer ( played by Mel Gibson) to escape. USES: Women' Studies/Criminal Justice
A QUESTION OF SILENCE (N/E). Marleen Gorris ( Netherlands); VHS; 92 minutes; color; 1983. Three women, all strangers to each other, commit a murder. An examination of the crime reveals women' frustrations from living in a male-dominated society. Thought-provoking, discussion-provoking film. ( In Dutch with English subtitles) USES: Women and Film/Women' Studies/Film Studies
THE PIANO (N). Jane Campion writer/director; VHS; 121 minutes; color; 1995 ( 1992 release). One mute woman, one child, two men, and a contest for sex, love, happiness -- and a piano. Set in New Zealand [in process September 1996] USES: Women and Film/Women' Studies
SUGARCANE ALLEY (N). Euzhan Palcy ( Martinique); VHS; 107 minutes; color; 1983. Story of a young high-spirited boy and his forceful grandmother who live in a sugar plantation shantytown and their struggle to find happiness. One of the new films directed by a black woman. ( French dialogue with English subtitles) USES: Women' Studies/Women and Film/Ethnic Studies/French
TELL ME A RIDDLE (N). Lee Grant; VHS; 94 minutes; color; 1988 video of 1980 feature film. Based on a Tillie Olsen novella by the same name, the narrative tells of the rekindling of love between a couple married forty-seven years after they learn that the wife has cancer. USES: English/Gerontology/Women' Studies
ZORA IS MY NAME! (N). VHS; 90 minutes; color; 1990. PBS American Playhouse dramatization of the life of African American writer Zora Neale Hurston, starring Ruby Dee and Louis Gossett, Jr. USES: African American Studies/American Literature Women' Studies