Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of this year’s U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, is a journey through poet Nikki Giovanni’s memories and experiences—a cogent and beautiful assemblage of an artist’s life.
Tag: Film and TV Reviews
Could You Detect a Coercive Controller Like Simon in ‘Alice, Darling’? I Didn’t—Until It Was Too Late.
“He doesn’t hurt me or anything.”
If there’s one line that sums up Alice, Darling—and every psychological abuse victim’s inner chaos—it’s this one.
‘Plan C’ Film Documents Campaign for Universal Abortion Pill Access in the U.S.
The Plan C—a documentary about the fight to expand access to abortion pills across the U.S—is now available to stream on Apple TV.
“The film did a brilliant job of telling the stories of people who need abortions and the efforts of activists and providers trying to meet that need,” said Plan C co-director Elisa Wells. “The film shows the harm that abortion restrictions are causing people and the possibility of a different solution that hasn’t been well known in the past, which is telehealth and abortion pills.”
On the Power of Choice and Imagination: The Ms. Q&A with ‘Women Talking’ Producer Dede Gardner
Already showing in select theaters and releasing nationwide on Jan. 27, Women Talking is both beautiful and harrowing: an ideologically captivating drama about how a group of women with very little agency navigate making a choice that will have profound effects on their lives, their children’s lives and their community. This extraordinary film features an equally extraordinary ensemble cast, including Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Judith Ivey, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand.
The film takes place in 2010 in an isolated religious community, where it’s been discovered that men and boys have been drugging and raping the women and girls while they sleep; the story concentrates on the small group chosen to make a crucial decision for all the women and girls in the colony: stay and fight back, or leave. Ms. had the opportunity to speak with producer Dede Gardner about her work on the film and its reflection of the power of community, of choice, and of imagination.
How ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Made Me a More Empathic Doctor
Watching the novel-turned-television show Fleishman Is in Trouble now, I am struck by how Rachel’s traumatic birth left the Fleishmans in trouble. Her birth story helped me realize how much my own traumatic birth transformed me as a doctor.
The show helps us feel the absurdity in insinuating that Rachel could have moved on from her delivery simply and gracefully, content to be alive and physically unscathed, perhaps attending therapy to help her cope. Taffy Brodesser-Akner shrewdly summed this all up when she wrote, Rachel “was what this doctor thought she was. She was nothing. She was just a woman.”
In ‘The Swimmers’ Film, Director Sally El Hosaini and Olympian Yusra Mardini Bring the Refugee Experience to the Screen
In 2015, sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, trained as professional swimmers by their father, fled Syria with hopes of escaping their war-torn homeland. During the harrowing 25-day journey, the dinghy’s motor broke and the boat began to sink—so Yusra and Sara jumped into the frigid waters to drag the boat to shore. Eventually granted asylum in Germany, Yusra began training again at a Berlin pool and was selected to compete as part of the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Their story has been captured in The Swimmers, an evocative biographical drama directed by Sally El Hosaini and released on Netflix last month. In this Q&A, Sally El Hosaini and Yusra Mardini discuss the experience of making the film, how to tell true stories, and what they hope viewers will take away.
‘Freda’ Is the Film We Need Now
Because Haiti is in the news again, we are bombarded with stories about unrelenting political turmoil, destabilizing unrest and crippling poverty.
Set in contemporary Port-au-Prince, Gessica Généus’s film Freda affirms that not only do Haitian women exist, but that their existence is replete with complexity and beauty. A feminist film in every way, Freda’s commitment to the female characters especially asks us to carefully consider what we look for when we see Haitian women.
Abigail Disney Is Deconstructing and Rebuilding the American Dream
Some employees of the “happiest place on Earth” can barely afford housing and food, while the CEO makes an annual salary in the multi-millions.
“Without collective bargaining, in some form, whether it’s unions or some other para-union type organizations, we all live at the mercy of Jeff Bezos, we all live at the mercy of Bob Iger. Is that really the society you want to live in?” Abigail Disney told Ms., ahead of her new documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, out in select theaters and on streaming Sept. 23, 2022.
‘Four Winters’ Reveals Jewish Women’s Armed Resistance to Nazis During World War II
In the new documentary Four Winters, award-winning filmmaker Julia Mintz shatters myths of Jewish passivity during World War II. “Jewish women were not part of the battles of history that they had been taught about. They learned to use a gun. They learned to adapt and become what they needed to be. I’m trying to give these women their rightful place in history.”
“The resiliency and self-determination, the courage, ingenuity and grit these women embodied—it’s our collective legacy. I hold them as my sheroes.”
When Women Were King
The Woman King, a new film starring Viola Davis, reclaims the narrative of the fiercely resistant African “Amazons.”
“My hope is that young African-descended girls and women see themselves in these powerful women. I hope they too will aspire for greatness.”