All the anger, joy and turmoil of the 60s–70s feminist explosion comes alive in a vivid documentary, blending the recollections of key US campaigners with archival action likely to astound anyone who wasn’t there.
If you were there, it’s the turn-on of reliving the Great Awakening. If you weren’t yet born, hopefully you’ll get what an exciting, life-changing time it was.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2015
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry 2014
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“Mary Dore’s She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is an urgent, illuminating dive into the headwaters of second-wave feminism, the movement that – no matter what its detractors insist – has given us the world in which we live. ‘We live in a country that doesn’t like to credit any of its radical movements’, Susan Brownmiller says in the film. ‘They don’t like to admit in the United States that change happens because radicals force it.’
A score of those who dared force it turn up for fresh interviews in Dore’s wide-ranging film: here’s Rita Mae Brown, Ellen Willis, Fran Beal, Judith Arcana, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and many more, dishing truth and priceless anecdotes about what it felt like to change the world – and how tough it was to do so. Dore’s generous with fiery archival footage – marches, chants, meetings, gobsmackingly sexist news reports — as she traces the development of the National Organization for Women and its many sister groups… That defiant sisterhood changed the workplace, our sexual politics, our language. She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is the best filmed account of how that happened you could ever expect to see.” — Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
“It’s a testament to Dore’s talent that She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry never feels choppy or simplistic, given the complexities of the subject and the wealth of material… [She] zeroes in on the oppressive conventions her subjects questioned and defied. She examines infighting factions within the movement and the issues of race, sexual orientation and class that challenged and transformed it.” — Sheri Linden, LA Times