Women Working
“I was determined to do what I was going to do at any cost. I kept plugging away. Whatever I had to do, I did it.” —Madeline Anderson
From the first half-hour documentary directed by an African American, unionized, female director, I AM SOMEBODY, to precarious gig workers living hand-to-mouth in I'M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING), to overextended medical workers in MIDWIVES, to the impossible race of commuting during a French transit strike in FULL TIME, these films reflect both the drive and resilience of working women. Cutting across class and racial lines, whether medical professionals, psychologists, sex workers or artists, their singular stories are reflected in this collection of narrative and documentary films.
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Alice
Directed by Josephine Mackerras • Drama • With Emilie Piponnier, Martin Swabey, Chloé Boreham • 2019 • 103 minutes
Alice (Emilie Piponnier) is the perfect wife and mother, living happily with her husband Francois and their son in an apartment in Paris. When her credit cards are declined one day ...
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In the Aisles (w/ Franz Rogowski & Sandra Huller)
Directed by Thomas Stuber • Drama • With Franz Rogowski, Sandra Huller • 2018 • 125 minutes
When the reclusive Christian (Franz Rogowski, TRANSIT) takes a job working the night shift at a big box store, his new manager, Bruno from the Beverage Department (Peter Kurth, BABYLON BERLIN), teaches hi...
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Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam)
Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Drama • With Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat • 2023 • 93 minutes
Over the past decade, Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam (Chez Jolie Coiffure, Delphine’s Prayers) has distinguished herself for her quietly observational documentary portraits of African women. With Mambar P...
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Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor
Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • With Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer, Gunvor Nelson • 2018 • 9 minutes
From 2015 to 2017, Lynne visited with Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer and Gunvor Nelson, three multi-faceted artists who have embraced the moving image throughout their lives. Fro...
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Live Nude Girls Unite!
Directed by Vicky Funari & Julia Query • Documentary • With Julia Query, Siobhan Brooks, Kristina, Ellen, Star, Joyce Wallace • 2000 • 70 minutes
Winner of the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Live Nude Girls Unite! is "a partisan tale from the inside" (Boston Pho...
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Delphine's Prayers
Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Documentary • 2021 • 91 minutes
Delphine reclines on a daybed in her bright, cluttered apartment in Belgium, an empty crib beside her. “I started to work the streets like crazy,” she says, matter-of-factly recounting her life story. “Selling my body.” Delphine, who is...
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Contractions
Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • With Dr. Kimberly Looney, Anonymous Driver • 12 minutes
In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, “Contractions” takes us to Memphis, Tennessee where we contemplate the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic. We listen to an ob...
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Sibyl (Justine Triet)
Directed by Justine Triet • Drama • With Virginie Efira, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Sandra Hüller • 101 minutes
A sly, sultry character study from filmmaker Justine Triet, SIBYL follows a psychotherapist (Virginie Efira) who decides to quit her practice and return to writing instead. As Sibyl starts d...
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Seraphine (Martin Provost)
Directed by Martin Provost • Drama • With Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur • 2009 • 125 minutes
Séraphine is the true story of Seraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper who in 1905 at age 41 — self-taught and with the instigation of her guar...
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I'm Fine (Thanks For Asking)
Directed by Kelley Kali, Angelique Molina • Drama • With Wesley Moss, Kelley Kali • 2021 • 86 minutes
This is post-pandemic America and everyone is struggling to get by. In this exhilarating debut feature Danny, played by co-director Kelley Kali in a star-making performance alongside Deon Cole, ...
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The Celluloid Bordello
Directed by Juliana Piccillo • Documentary • With Annie Sprinkle, Carol Leigh, David Henry Sterry • 2021 • 86 minutes
Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have served as muses to movie-makers. From the early white slavery pictures like The Girl Who Went Astray from 1900 to countless dramas and ...
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Fannie's Film
Directed by Fronza Woods • Documentary • 1981 • 15 minutes
In FANNIE'S FILM, a 65-year-old cleaning woman for a professional dancers' exercise studio performs her job while telling us in voiceover about her life, hopes, goals, and feelings. A challenge to mainstream media's ongoing stereotypes o...
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Special Treatment
Directed by Jeanne Labrune • Drama • With Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Richard Debusne, Sabla Moussadek, Valerie Dreville • 2010 • 95 minutes
In this darkly erotic drama from cult filmmaker Jeanne Labrune, Isabelle Huppert (8 Women, Merci Pour le Chocolat, La Cérémonie, The Piano Teacher, La...
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Full Time (w/ Laure Calamy)
Directed by Éric Gravel • Drama • With Laure Calamy • 2023 • 88 minutes
Julie (Laure Calamy) can’t catch a break. For a single mother raising two children in the suburbs of Paris but working in the city, the commuter train is a lifeline–and it’s suddenly been severed during the latest transit st...
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Housemaids
Directed by Gabriel Mascaro • Documentary • 2012 • 76 minutes
Housemaids are an integral part of the household in Brazil, and participate in the day-to-day life of the family. The employment of housemaids is almost obligatory among the middle and upper classes of the country. The vast majority o...
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A Maid for Each
Directed by Maher Abi Samra • Documentary • 2016 • 67 minutes
Domestic work is a real market in Lebanon, segmented according to the national and ethnic origins of the workers and in which the Lebanese employer is master and the worker the property. Zein owns a domestic worker agency in Beirut. H...
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Apache 8
Directed by Sande Zeig • Documentary • 2012 • 57 minutes
For 30 years, the all-female Apache 8 unit has protected their reservation from fire and also responded to wildfires around the nation. This group of firefighters, which recently became co-ed, soon earned the reputation of being fierce, lo...
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I Am Somebody
Directed by Madeline Anderson • Documentary • 1970 • 30 minutes
In 1969, black female hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina went on strike for union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in a confrontation with the state government and the National Guard. Featuring An...
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Outcry and Whisper
Directed by WEN Hai and ZENG Jinyan • Documentary • 2020 • 100 minutes
A performance artist approaches a dais with a quiet formality, then proceeds to slowly and deliberately slice a series of cuts into her face with a razor. A doctoral student/filmmaker, under house arrest and constant surveill...
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Anais Goes to War
Directed by Marion Gervais • Documentary • 2014 • 46 minutes
Anaïs is a determined and energetic 24-year-old with a dream: to have her own farm and make herbal teas from her plants in Brittany. But getting there won't be easy.
While Anaïs clearly loves spending her days among aromatic plants—pr...
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No Time To Waste
Directed by Carl Bidleman • Documentary • 2020 • 52 minutes
NO TIME TO WASTE celebrates legendary 98-year-old park ranger Betty Reid Soskin's inspiring life, work and urgent mission to restore critical missing chapters of America's story. The film follows her journey as an African American woman...
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Las Leonas
Directed by Isabel Achaval, Chiara Bondi • Documentary • 2022 • 83 minutes
On the outskirts of Rome, six teams compete in the women’s soccer championship, the Las Leonas Trophy. All recent immigrants to Italy—the majority from South America—the participants work busy lives as caregivers and hous...
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Chez Jolie Coiffure
Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Documentary • 2018 • 70 minutes
Sabine attaches a hair weave and gets to work. Her hands move quickly and precisely, as she tightly braids the hair in front of the sign in her salon promising African, European, and American-style coiffure. Sabine is a larger than-life...
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Jane by Charlotte
Directed by Charlotte Gainsbourg • Documentary • With Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg • 2021 • 92 minutes
In creating a documentary portrait of a parent, as actor Charlotte Gainsbourg does in her directorial debut, one could overly flatter the subject or iron out the tough creases. Gainsbourg ...