Grundtvig Partnership “Everybody can do it!” (ECDI)

Title

The Accused (1988)

The Ballad of Little Jo

1

Grundtvig Partnership “Everybody can do it!” (ECDI)

30 Feminist Film

Description

The Accused is a 1988 American drama film

Foster and Kelly McGillis, directed by

written by Tom Topor.

Loosely based on the real-life gang rape

that occurred at Big Dan's Bar in

Massachusetts, on March 6, 1983, this film was one of the

first Hollywood films to deal with rape in a direct manner,

and led to other films (including TV films and shows) on

the subject.

Jodie Foster, for her portrayal as Sarah Tobias, earned the

Academy Award for Best Actress

nomination. The Accused also became the first film to win

the Best Actress Academy Award without being nominated

in any other category since The Three Faces o

when Joanne Woodward won Best Actress, the film's sole

nomination.

The Ballad of Little Jo is a 1993 American

inspired by the true story of a society woman who tries to

escape the stigma of bearing a child out of wedlock by

going out to the West, and living disguised as a man.

Grundtvig Partnership “Everybody can do it!” (ECDI)

drama film starring Jodie

, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and

gang rape of Cheryl Araujo

that occurred at Big Dan's Bar in New Bedford,

this film was one of the

films to deal with rape in a direct manner,

and led to other films (including TV films and shows) on

, for her portrayal as Sarah Tobias, earned the

Academy Award for Best Actress, the film's sole

also became the first film to win

the Best Actress Academy Award without being nominated

The Three Faces of Eve in 1957,

won Best Actress, the film's sole

is a 1993 American western film

inspired by the true story of a society woman who tries to

escape the stigma of bearing a child out of wedlock by

, and living disguised as a man.

2

The Burning Bed (1984)

The Burning Bed is the name of both a non-fiction book by

Faith McNulty about battered housewife Francine Hughes,

and the TV-movie adaptation written by Rose Leiman

Goldemberg.

After thirteen years of domestic abuse at the hands of her

husband, James Berlin ("Mickey") Hughes, Francine

(Farrah Fawcett) set fire to the bed he was sleeping in at

their Dansville, Michigan home on March 9, 1977. Mickey

Hughes was killed and the house destroyed in the resulting

inferno.

The Circle (2000)

The Circle is a 2000 drama film by Iranian independent

filmmaker Jafar Panahi that criticizes the treatment of

women in Iran. The film has won several awards, including

the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, but it

is banned in Iran.

The Color Purple (1985)

The Color Purple is a 1985 American period drama film

directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Pulitzer Prize-

winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It was

Spielberg's eighth film as a director, and was a change from

the summer blockbusters for which he had become famous.

The film starred Danny Glover, Desreta Jackson, Margaret

Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong,

and introduced Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Harris.

Filmed in Anson and Union counties in North Carolina, the

film tells the story of a young African American girl named

Celie Harris and shows the problems African American

women faced during the early 1900s, including poverty,

racism, and sexism. Celie is transformed as she finds her

self-worth through the help of two strong female

companions.

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Private Banjamin (1980)

Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film starring

Goldie Hawn. The film was one of the biggest box office

hits of 1980 and also spawned a short-lived television

series.

Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is an American woman who

joins the U.S. Army after her new husband (Albert Brooks)

dies on their wedding night during sex. Duped by a sneaky

recruiting sergeant, Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton), who

lets her believe military life to be more glamorous than it is,

she has a rude awakening in boot camp. After getting in

trouble constantly, Judy wants to quit, and is astonished to

learn that she can't.

Silkwood

The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at

a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully

contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly

murdered to prevent her from exposing blatant worker

safety violations at the plant.

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher

G.I. Jane (1997)

G.I. Jane is a 1997 American action film directed by Ridley

Scott, starring Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen and Anne

Bancroft. The film tells the fictional story of the first

woman to undergo training in U.S. Navy Special Warfare

Group.

4

Gas Food Lodging (1992)

Gas Food Lodging is a 1992 movie directed by Allison

Anders about a waitress trying to find romance while

raising two daughters in a trailer-park. It stars Brooke

Adams, Ione Skye, and Fairuza Balk. The film was adapted

from the novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt by Richard

Peck. The title of the film is derived from road signs on

American interstate highways directing travelers to those

respective service establishments near highway exits.

The Group (1966)

The Group is a 1966 ensemble film directed by Sidney

Lumet based on the novel of the same name by Mary

McCarthy about a group of female graduates from a Vassar-

like college during the early 1930s.

The cast of this social satire includes Candice Bergen, Joan

Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Jessica Walter,

Kathleen Widdoes, and Joanna Pettet. The film also features

small roles for Hal Holbrook, Carrie Nye, James Broderick,

Larry Hagman and Richard Mulligan. For its time, the

movie touched on some controversial topics, such as free

love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism and mental illness.

The Hours (2002)

The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen

Daldry, and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne

Moore and Ed Harris. The screenplay by David Hare is

based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same

title by Michael Cunningham.

The plot focuses on three women of different generations

whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf: a New Yorker preparing an award party

for her AIDS-stricken long-time friend and poet, a pregnant

1950s California housewife with a young boy and an

unhappy marriage and Virginia Woolf herself (Kidman) in

1920s England, who is struggling with depression and

mental illness whilst trying to write her novel.

5

If These Walls Could Talk

If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made-for-cable film,

broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different

women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the

three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years apart:

1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written

by Nancy Savoca. Savoca directed the first and second

segment while Cher directed the third. The women's

experiences in each vignette are designed to demonstrate the

popular views of society on the issue in each of the given

decades.

The Life and Times of Rosie

the Riveter (1980)

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter is a 1980

documentary film by Connie Field about the American

women who went to work during World War II to do "men's

jobs". In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United

States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as

being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The film's title refers to "Rosie the Riveter", the cultural

icon that represented women who manned the

manufacturing plants which produced munitions and

material during World War II.

Little Women (1994)

Little Women is a 1994 drama film directed by Gillian

Armstrong. The screenplay by Robin Swicord is based on

the Louisa May Alcott novel of the same name.

The film focuses on the March sisters - beautiful Meg (Trini

Alvarado), tempestuous Jo (Winona Ryder), tender Beth

(Claire Danes), and romantic Amy (Kirsten Dunst) -

growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during and after the

American Civil War. With their father away fighting in the

war, the girls struggle with major and minor problems under

the guidance of their strong-willed mother, affectionately

called Marmee (Susan Sarandon). As a means of escaping

some of their problems, the sisters revel in performing in

romantic plays written by Jo in their attic theater.

6

Matrubhoomi: a Nation

Without Women (2003)

Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women is a 2003 Indian

film written and directed by Manish Jha. The film examines

the impact of female foeticide and female infanticide on the

gender balance and consequently the stability and attitudes

of society.

Its storyline bears some resemblance to real-life instances

of gender imbalance and economics resulting in fraternal

polyandry and bride buying in some parts of India. It

depicts a future dystopia in an Indian village populated

exclusively by males due to female infanticide over the

years.

Norma Rae (1979)

Norma Rae is a 1979 American drama film that tells the

story of a factory worker from a small town in North

Carolina, who becomes involved in the labor union

activities at the textile factory where she works.

The film stars Sally Field in the title role, Beau Bridges as

Norma Rae's husband, Sonny, and Ron Leibman as union

organizer Reuben Warshowsky.

North Country (2005)

North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by

Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was

inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois

Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual

Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy

Gansler, which chronicled the case of Jenson v. Eveleth

Taconite Company.

7

Not for Ourselves Alone: The

Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton &

Susan B. Anthony (1999)

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady

Stanton & Susan B. Anthony is a 1999 documentary by Ken

Burns produced for National Public Radio and WETA. The

documentary explores the movement for women's suffrage

in the United States in the 19th century, focusing on leaders

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. and on VHS

November 9, 1999.

The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

The Portrait of a Lady is a 1996 film adaptation of Henry

James's novel The Portrait of a Lady directed by Jane

Campion.

The film stars Nicole Kidman, Barbara Hershey, John

Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, Shelley

Duvall, Richard E. Grant, Shelley Winters, Viggo

Mortensen, Valentina Cervi, Christian Bale, and John

Gielgud.

The film tells the story of Isabel Archer (Kidman), an

innocent young woman of independent means who is

manipulated by her "friend" Madame Merle (Hershey) and

the devious Gilbert Osmond (Malkovich).

Ruby in Paradise (1993)

Ruby in Paradise is a 1993 film written, directed, and

edited by Victor Nuñez, and starring Ashley Judd, Todd

Field, Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, and Dorothy

Lyman. It is a homage to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The film is a character study, proceeding at a leisurely pace

with Ruby's introspective comments interspersed with

routine scenes at the souvenir store or conversations with

her friend Rochelle (played by Dean), or the men she dates

(played by Field and Mitchum).

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Searching for Debra Winger

(2002)

Searching for Debra Winger is a 2002 American

documentary film conceived and directed by Rosanna

Arquette. It presents a series of interviews with leading

actresses who discuss the various pressures they face as

women working in the film industry while trying to juggle

their professional commitments with their personal

responsibilities to their families and themselves.

Sisters of '77(2005)

Sisters of '77 is a documentary film that chronicles an

unprecedented event in women's history, the first National

Women's Conference in Houston, Texas in November 1977.

The purpose of the National Women's Conference was to

end discrimination against women and promote their equal

rights. The conference was the first federally funded

women's conference, and brought together over 20,000

women and men from around the United States.

Sisters of '77 provides a look at a pivotal weekend that

changed the course of history and the lives of the women

who attended. The film incorporates rare archival footage

and interviews of leaders relating this history to the present.

The conference attendees included former first ladies Lady

Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter.

The Smiling Madame Beudet

(1922)

La Souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame

Beudet) is a short French silent film made in 1922, directed

by famed surrealist director Germaine Dulac. It is

considered by many to be one of the first truly "feminist"

films. It tells the story of an intelligent woman trapped in a

loveless marriage.

9

Strike (2006)

Strike is a Polish language film produced by a mainly

German group, released in 2006 and directed by Volker

Schlöndorff. The film is broadly a docudrama. It covers the

formation of Solidarity. The action centers around work and

labor organizing in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.

The film follows the life of Agnieszka Kowalska (Katharina

Thalbach) in about three segments covering first her life as

a dedicated worker in communist Poland of the early Sixties

(DVD chapters 1-4), then following events leading to the

Polish 1970 protests (chapters 5-10), and finally the early

Eighties including the dedication of the Monument to the

Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the Gdańsk Agreement,

and Martial law in Poland (chapters 11-15).

Swing Shift (1984)

Swing Shift is a 1984 feature film directed by Jonathan

Demme and produced by and starring Goldie Hawn with

Kurt Russell. It also starred Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and

Ed Harris.

During the Second World War, Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn)

is a woman who has been assigned to work in an armaments

factory in California while her husband Jack (Ed Harris), a

Leading Seaman, is overseas in naval service.

Lonely and vulnerable, Kay falls for the charms of another

man, a musician named Lucky (Kurt Russell), and befriends

her embittered neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti), a former

singer. The three of them enjoy their time together until

Kay's husband comes home and realizes what has occurred.

Swings Or Roundabouts

(1953)

Jacke wie Hose (English-language title: Swings Or

Roundabouts) is an East German comedy film, directed by

Eduard Kubat. It was released in 1953.

After a new government law forbids women to operate

heavy machinery in steel factories, a group of female

workers that is determined to lift the ban proposes a

competition to their male counterparts: those who will

produce the greatest quantity of steel will win. The men are

certain that they will be victorious. One of them, Ernst

Hollup, is angered by his wife's involvement with the other

team, and he demands that she will resign and become a

housewife. The women develop a wagon that carries the

molten iron to the steel furnace and greatly simplifies their

work. They win the competition, as well as the respect of

the men. The government lifts the ban.

10

An Unmarried Woman

(1978)

An Unmarried Woman is a 1978 American comedy-drama

film written and directed by Paul Mazursky.

It tells the story of the wealthy New York wife Erica Benton

(Jill Clayburgh) whose “perfect” life is shattered when her

stockbroker husband Martin (Michael Murphy) leaves her

for a younger woman. The film documents Erica's attempts

at being single again, where she suffers with confusion,

sadness, and rage. As her life progresses, she begins to bond

with several friends and finds herself inspired and even

feels happier by her renewed liberation. The story also

touches on the overall sexual liberation of the 1970s. Erica

eventually finds love with a rugged, yet sensitive British

artist (Alan Bates).

Whale Rider (2002)

Whale Rider is a 2002 drama film directed by Niki Caro,

based on the novel of the same name by Witi Ihimaera. The

film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a

12-year-old Maori girl who wants to become the chief of the

tribe. Her grandfather Koro believes that this is a role

reserved for males only.

Women without Men (2009)

Women Without Men is a 2009 film adaptation of a

Shahrnush Parsipur novel, directed by Shirin Neshat.

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and photographer

whose work explores gender issues in the Islamic world.

Women without Men is Neshat's first dramatic feature.

Neshat, banned from even visiting Iran since 1996, lives

and works in New York City. Neshat left Iran in 1979, just

before the Islamic Revolution that drove the Shah into exile.

The film profiles the lives of four women living in Tehran

in 1953, during the American-backed coup that returned the

Shah of Iran to power.