In celebration of March and Women’s History month, Women and Girls Lead has partnered up with Eileen Fisher to roll out the second annual #SheDocs, an online film festival featuring twelve documentaries about women from diverse backgrounds and communities who have a made a difference in the world. All the films will be available to watch for free on the Women and Girls Lead website.
#SheDoc’s opening film will be Pratibha Parmar’s Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, a bio-doc of The Color Purple author. Also featured in the festival are Abigail Disney, Gini Reticker, and Pamela Hogan’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a look at Liberian feminists who stood up to warlords during that country’s civil war; Sharon La Cruise’s Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock, a celebration of a forgotten civil-rights heroine, as well as Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Kelcey Edwards’s Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines, an exploration of the promises and challenges in our pop culture.
Scroll down for a full #SheDocs lineup. All descriptions are courtesy of Women and Girls Lead.
Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
by Pratibha Parmar
Writer and human-rights activist Alice Walker’s story is an inspiring personal journey of a life lived with passionate commitment to truth and justice — ideals that sprang from a background of poverty and violent racism.
Bhutto
by Duane Baughman
An intimate look at one of the most fascinating and significant world leaders of our time, Benazir Bhutto.
Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
by Sharon La Cruise
A look at the life of African American political activist and newspaper publisher Daisy Bates.
Good Country People
Written & directed by Tanya Hamilton
Blossom Edwards is forced to take over for her uncle as the family’s primary breadwinner by driving his taxicab in Spanish Town, Jamaica, one of the island’s oldest and poorest rural communities.
The Graduates — Girls Hour
by Bernardo Ruiz
The struggles and triumphs of Latina students from across the United States are explored through their own eyes in this documentary about the challenges faced in the American public education system.
Half of Her
Written & directed by Paola Mendoza
A very pregnant Mei struggles alone to safely give birth to her child in New York City’s Chinatown. But when the father returns home to discover that the baby has been born a girl, he tries to force Mei to abandon her.
The Interrupters
by Steve James
A look at a group of men and women — most of them former gang leaders and ex-cons — that are trying to “interrupt” shootings and protect their communities from the violence they once employed.
Kind Hearted Woman
by David Sutherland
In a special two-part series, acclaimed filmmaker David Sutherland creates an unforgettable portrait of Robin Charboneau, a 32-year-old divorced single mother and Oglala Sioux woman living on North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Reservation.
Not Another Word
Written & directed by Cherien Dabis
Inside a Middle Eastern home, three generations of women in a family conflict over their plans for the future of granddaughter Lama, who refuses to get married.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
by Abigail Disney, Gini Reticker, and Pamela Hogan
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003. One of the episodes from the five part miniseries Women, War & Peace.
The Revolutionary Optimists
by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen
Amlan Ganguly, a lawyer-turned social entrepreneur, has sewn hope in the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta by empowering children to become leaders in improving health, health, transforming their communities for the better.
Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Kelcey Edwards
Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, Wonder Women! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.
Watch the #SheDocs trailer:
[h/t SacBee]
