Women in Film and TV

She Surfed the Biggest Wave in the World. ‘Maya and the Wave’ Captured It.

In February 2020, Brazilian surfer Maya Reis Gabeira surfed a 73-foot wave (the height of a seven-story building) in Nazaré, Portugal.

With her documentary Maya and the Wave, filmmaker Stephanie Johnes tells a story of working with, not against, the ocean, and doesn’t shy away from the intensity of the sport. In an interview with Ms., Stephanie Johnes details what it is like to be an elite female athlete in a male-dominated sport.

“What I hope that the film accomplishes is to connect with people who are not necessarily surfers or even athletes, but who have felt that feeling of isolation when they’re trying to do something extraordinary or trying to do something in a male-dominated environment.”

Feminist Film History Is Alive in Bologna

Last month, 3,000 cinephiles congregated at dusk in the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Italy for an outdoor cine-concert of The Wind (1928)—a silent film about desperate love in bad weather—with the message “FREE ABORTION” projected on a church at the side of the square.

It’s all part of the the feminist programming at Il Cinema Ritrovato. The annual archival film festival spotlights long unseen, unjustly forgotten but urgently timely works from the celluloid archive and unleashed them onto the volatile, open-ended present. The Ritrovato is nothing less than a celebration of the capacity to create community around films that you quite literally could not see anywhere else—long obliterated from the archive due to a combination of material decay, political censorship and ideological incomprehension. I was especially struck this year by the feminist themes that emerged.

Ain’t I a Princess? Including Black Women and Girls in Fantasy and Play

It is only fitting that Netflix chose Juneteenth to debut the Shondaland-produced documentary film, Black Barbie. The film tells the story of Black women who worked at Mattel and gave us the titular doll, showcasing the joy of freedom through play. And yet, while the film shows that today’s Black children may no longer have feelings of being “ugly” or “bad,” as demonstrated during Clark’s doll experiment, they clearly understood Black Barbie wasn’t the “real Barbie,” wasn’t the “hero” of her own story. 

To that end, are we needing to ask a similar question about other fantasies: “Ain’t I a princess?”

It is not enough for Black women and girls to enter fantasy and play as “corrective” heroes. While we are as indebted to the Black women imagineers who worked on the new Disney ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, as we are to the Black women at Mattel for giving us Black Barbie, we are equally in need of imaginations that transcend our limited realities and revel in our most whimsical dreams.

‘The Other Roe’: Abortion Documentary Spotlights Atlanta Attorney Margie Pitts Hames

Most people are unaware that Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were both argued on the same day before the Supreme Court and upheld in the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Roe legalized the right to abortion, while Doe ensured its availability and accessibility.

After nearly 50 years, both decisions were overturned in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case in June 2022, leading to a fragmented legalization of abortion across the country. Ironically, the Jackson clinic that brought the suit was started by Susan Hill and me in 1995.

I was puzzled that the Doe decision and the lawyer who argued it, Margie Pitts Hames, did not have a more prominent place in the history of abortion rights. So I’m making a documentary about her and the case, called The Other Roe.

Because We’re ‘Still Working 9 to 5’: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton Win ERA Coalition’s Trailblazer Award at Hollywood Premiere

The ERA Coalition Forward awarded Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton with the Women’s Equality Trailblazer Award for their fearless work to bring the film Still Working 9 to 5 to fruition, as well as Fonda and Tomlin’s steadfast commitment to getting the ERA enshrined in the Constitution. 

As Tomlin told Ms., “The ERA is fundamental to the culture. We’re one of the few industrialized countries that does not have some kind of law… [for] equality between the sexes,” and Fonda leaned in with a message for Congress: “Come on! It’s time! It’s been 100 years!” Then added, “It’s been ratified, so get it published already!”

Meet the Courageous Recipients of FMF’s Global Women’s Rights Awards

The 16th annual Global Women’s Rights Awards, hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.), convened Tuesday evening in Los Angeles. This year’s awards celebrated the activism to secure final ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and the bravery of both U.S. and Afghan women in the face of misogynistic laws and leadership.

The evening recognized three honorees in particular who have contributed greatly to advancing the rights of women and girls: Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Dr. Austin Dennard, and the Bread and Roses documentary team, including director Sahra Mani.

The Best Autistic and Autistic-Coded Characters in Animation

Three years ago, I wrote a piece for Ms. about Hollywood’s blatant and continued exclusion of Autistic people, as well as the ableist tropes film and TV have continued to push in its depiction of Autism. Since the article was published, I have seen more positive strides taken in terms of Autism representation in the media, with many of those strides coming from the world of animation.

As we wind down World Autism Month, here are some of my favorite Autistic and Autistic-coded characters in animation.

In ‘Girls State,’ Care and the Growing Gendered Political Divide

A new documentary, Girls State, shows how some of America’s most ambitious and politically minded young women respond to the gender inequalities they face at Girls State, a government leadership camp in Missouri.

The documentary shows us that institutions can no longer stymy these young women’s ambitions for more influence by telling them to first look inward. The girls see through superficial slogans for unity and defensive headlines. They’re ready for real changes. 

Would the O.J. Simpson Trial Be Different Today?

At the time of the original O.J. Simpson trial, many feminists were horrified that a woman who was stalked, beaten and raped by one man, and who asked for help many times, was then brutally murdered—and that in the trial, she should have gotten her justice, but it was instead turned into a carnival in which Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were mere sideshows.

Many of the dynamics at play in the Simpson trial have not changed as much as one would hope—including deep racism in policing and criminal justice, a resulting deep skepticism that the system is fair, and a related impulse to filter facts and information through the lens of identity first and reality second.