In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th, I have went through our video collection and selected some DVD’s that spotlight some very special women.
1. Annie Pootoogook
NC 143 P66 A56 2006
This half-hour documentary is an intimate portrait of Cape Dorset artist Annie Pootoogook. We come to know her as a woman, a third generation Inuit artist and as a contemporary artist, grounded in the present.
2. Beate Klarsfeld : Bringing Nazi War Criminals to Justice
D 810 J4 B43 2006
Neither Jewish nor a lawyer, Beate Klarsfeld is nonetheless one of the most effective and tireless pursuers of Nazi war criminals. In this program, the woman who brought Klaus Barbie, among others, to justice, describes her work in documenting, tracking down, and punishing those who planned and ordered the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.
3. Clara Lemlich : a strike leader’s diary
HQ 1413 L46 C53 2004
In her burning desire to get an education Lemlich read widely and organized a study group to discuss women’s problems. Her success as an organizer, which included numerous arrests and beatings by strikebreakers, eventually led to her election to the executive board of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union.
4. Erin Brockovich
PN 1995.9 S6 E75 2006
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply.
5. Grace Hartman : the first woman to lead a major union in Canada
(you need to scroll down to find write-up when you click on link)
HD 8107 H37 G72 2000z
Grace was jailed for contempt of court for not ordering striking Ontario C.U.P.E. hospital workers back to work. This video explores Graces involvement in this strike and her lifelong commitment and struggle to ensure worker’s interests.
6. Miss Margaret
RG 962 E98 M57 2009
Once there were thousands of licensed Granny Midwives throughout the South. Now there are none. Miss Margaret successfully attended over 3,500 home births without a single maternal death, worked a farm like a man and triumphed over the advesities of Jim Crow, poverty, lack of education and the slavery of sharecropping.
7. Patsy Mink : ahead of the majority
E 840.8 M554 P38 2008
Mink was an Asian American woman who fought racism and sexism while redefining US politics. Her tumultuous, often lonely political journey reveals what can be at stake for female politicians that defy expectations, push limits and adhere to their principles.
8. Shirin Ebadi, a simple lawyer
KMH 110 I23 S29
This documentary profiles Iranian attorney Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts for democracy and human rights, in particular the struggle for the rights of women and children.
9. Tillie Olsen: a heart in action
PS 3565 L93 Z7 T55 2007
This revelatory documentary is an inspiring homage to Tillie Lerner Olsen – a renegade, revolutionary, distinguished fiction and non-fiction writer, feminist, humanist, labor organizer and social activist. Politically active, class conscious, deeply joined to the world, Tillie countered the very core of American writing by immortalizing the lives of working class women and single mothers.
10. The Toughest Job in the World
KZ 1203 A2 T52 2000
This program profiles Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour and the International War Crimes Tribunal during the Kosovo Crisis.