The Woman's Film 1971

Based on interviews with working-class women from across the racial spectrum in the US, the San Francisco Newsreel's documentary offers a sharp snapshot of their subject’s plight as workers or homemakers. More importantly, it also records their growing awareness of their predicaments and the way they could confront the everyday discrimination they've lived with all their lives. The Woman's Film evokes both the environment the women live in - one could nearly feel and smell the worn-down neighbourhoods, cramped homes and dreary workplaces - and also their street-fighting spirit in improving their lives and the world they emerge from. "It's so great to have women filming us because they’re using technical equipment and until I see it with my own eyes I thought it was something men were born with," one interviewee said - a perfect summary of the importance of a film that’s made by women, about women and for women.