Maya Angelou Resource Library: Women's Studies films

"This gripping program describes the massive human rights abuses that have been escalating since the withdrawal of the Soviet forces, as seen through the eyes of women who have survived years of rampant gender and religious intolerance."

From August 30 to September 15, 1995 two parallel events took place in China: the NGO (Non-governmental organization) Forum on Women in Huairou, and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This film looks at the Conference's attempts to complete the platform document, at the various workshops held, and particularly at the individual NGO Forum projects, such as 'Women weaving the world together'.

Academy award winner, Susan Sarandon, hosts and narrates this documentary series in which women from all walks of life around the world speak out to reveal their hearts and minds.

A transgendered youth starts living as a man, and assumes the name Brandon Teena. He moves to a tiny Nebraska town and begins making new friends under his new identity. All goes well until his new friends discover his secret. Based on a true story about hope, fear, and the courage it takes to be yourself.

Documentary sketching international look at question of equality for women in area of work: opportunity, pay, career and family, value placed on traditional activities, exploitation, self-employed women, househusbands.

Documents the ritual of female genital mutilation (female circumcision), practiced among some African groups. This video also explores its roots in myth; and discusses movements underway to ban the practice.

Recounts the experiences of Canadian lesbian women in the 1950's and 1960's who sought romance in gay beer parlours and bars. Their stories are interwoven with a fictional love story and set against the tabloids and pulp novels of the time and illustrate the stereotypes and intolerance they faced.

This program looks at the different ways women define themselves and are defined by others in diverse cultures.

On October 5-8, 1990, Boston, over 1,000 women from 22 countries came to celebrate and honor Audre Lorde at this conference. This video covers the welcome by Jacqui Alexander and many poetry readings.

Set in different decades in the same house, these stories of three lesbian couples each reflect a specific concern. In 1961, Abby and Edith, two retired schoolteachers, lead a quiet life. Abby has a stroke and dies, and her nephew and his wife come for the funeral and to sort and sell Abby's things, unaware that she and Edith were a lifelong couple. In 1972, four college-age lesbians share the house. They have problems with the campus feminism group, and Linda is drawn to Amy a very butch lesbian who wears a men's clothing and drives a motorcycle. How can a feminist fall for a lesbian who acts like and dresses like a man? By 2000, long-term couple Fran and Kal want to have a child, and their quest leads from proposing sperm donation to a gay couple they know, to the horror of shopping for sperm on the Internet.

The dramatized story of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, leaders of the suffragist women who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. They broke from the mainstream women's rights movement to create a more activist wing, daring to push the boundaries to secure women's voting rights in 1920.

Years after the women's movement opened doors for women, a new generation seems to be questioning the meaning and value of the battles that were fought. Has feminism gone out of style? Leading experts appraise the women's movement as it currently exists and discuss its relevance in today's cultural climate.

Questions what lies behind the historical reluctance to educate women and why women who did succeed have often been dismissed or ignored throughout history.

An exposé of the pornography industry and its implications for wider questions of sexuality and violence--not so much a portrait of Andrea Dworkin, as an account of the struggle she and other women are waging against what they perceive as a radical social evil.

This program features women throughout the world who are working toward gaining power and making a difference.

There is a complex relationship between women and institutional power. This program examines what female power means, both to those who exercise it and to those who are affected by it. Geraldine Ferraro shares her reflections on women in political power.

Highlights the personal stories of women from around the world who testified before a panel of eminent judges at the Global Tribunal on Violations of Women's Human rights. The women challenged world leaders to finally "address these violations for the gross human rights violations that they are."

Owners of small coffee farms and members of the coffee cooperative Manos Campesinas are interviewed in this documentary about coffee production in Guatemala.