"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." ― Harriet Beecher Stowe
MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY
A candid portrait of Pauli Murray — groundbreaking attorney, activist, priest, and author who shaped landmark litigation—and awareness—around issues of gender and race parity. Murray forged the way forward for the development of intersectional legal theory, played an important part in both the Civil Rights and women’s movements in the 1960s, co-founded NOW - the National Organization for Women, and became ordained as an Episcopal priest, surmounting gender barriers to do so.
Directors: Julie Cohen + Betsy West
THE JANES
This powerful documentary is set in the late 60s/early 70s Chicago at a time when abortion was illegal. (Enragingly no longer just a past-tense reality) The Janes tells the tale of a group of women who risked their professional and personal lives by organizing a covert, underground abortion network known as JANE. The service, created to make safe abortion available to women, ultimately helped upwards of 5,000 women in need. The film has a personal pull for director Emma Pildes whose father’s first wife was a JANE.
Co-Directors: Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes
RBG
RBG is an ardent love letter to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a celebration of the pony-tailed Justice, not just as a pop-culture icon and social media subject but as a woman, a warrior, and thinker renowned for her impressive legal mind and the bracing wit of her dissenting opinions. In this world of partisan E V E R Y T H I N G this doc dispatches any notion that RBG was some fervent, liberal fanatic; instead the data from her lengthy record places her precisely at the center of the court.
Co-Diretors: Julie Cohen + Betsy West
DOLORES
Dolores introduces us to Dolores Huerta, one of the least known yet most important activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her massive contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores worked tirelessly for racial and labor justice, while simultaneously fighting an uphill battle against sexist double standards within the movement and outside of it. But her activism came at a cost. A mother to 11 children, several of them bemoan how often they had to go without their mother so that she could devote herself to the cause. The film also turns its lens on its subject’s transformation from labor organizer to feminist labor organizer. Huerta, now 92, continues to be an activist to this day - most recently marching 17 miles from Manteca to Stockton in record-high 104 degree heat as part of the farm workers union’s 24-day, 335-mile march through 24 Central Valley cities in hopes of getting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on farmworker union voting rights.
Director : Peter Bratt
FREE ANGELA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS
26-year-old scholar and Marxist feminist Angela Davis was thrust into the spotlight in October of 1970 when she was arrested for supplying weapons to Jonathan Jackson, who had commandeered hostages in a courtroom, with the idea that he’d use them to secure the freedom of his brother George - who was incarcerated at San Quentin. In the ensuing shootout with law enforcement, Jonathan Jackson was killed along with 3 others. Davis, who had led the charge of organizing Black prisoners and was close to George Jackson, was indicted in the crime. She went into hiding, becoming one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives. Ultimately she was captured and her trial drew international attention. “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” doesn’t re-try Davis; instead it’s a story about an injustice done to a young Black woman and relives the tumultuous, transformative years of her life.
Director: Shola Lynch
