Screened as part of NZIFF 2015

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry 2014

Directed by Mary Dore Framing Reality

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.

Sep 07

Lido Hamilton

Sep 10

Lido Hamilton

USA In English
93 minutes DCP

Director

Producers

Mary Dore
,
Nancy Kennedy

Photography

Svetlana Cvetko
,
Alicia Weber

Editors

Nancy Kennedy
,
Kate Taverna

Music

Mark Degli Antoni

With

Alta
,
Chude Pamela Allen
,
Judith Arcana
,
Nona Willis Aronowitz
,
Fran Beal
,
Heather Booth
,
Rita Mae Brown
,
Susan Brownmiller
,
Linda Burnham
,
Jacqui Michot Ceballos
,
Mary Jean Collins
,
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
,
Muriel Fox
,
Jo Freeman aka Joreen
,
Carol Giardina
,
Susan Griffin
,
Karla Jay
,
Kate Millett
,
Eleanor Holmes Norton
,
Denise Oliver-Velez
,
The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective
,
Trina Robbins
,
Ruth Rosen
,
Vivian Rothstein
,
Marlene Sanders
,
Alix Kates Shulman
,
Ellen Shumsky
,
Marilyn Webb
,
Virginia Whitehill
,
Ellen Willis
,
Alice Wolfson

“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