Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories
11 Episodes
In 1979, poet Adrienne Rich observed that “one of the most powerful social and political catalysts of the past decade has been the speaking of women with other women, the telling of our secrets, the comparing of wounds and sharing of words.” Curated by guest programmer Nellie Killian, Tell Me celebrates female filmmakers who took the simple, radical step of allowing women space and time to talk about their lives. Made in a range of idioms encompassing cinema verité, essay film, and agitprop, the assembled films all share a startling intimacy between camera and subject. Whether through the bonds of shared experience or merely genuine interest, these portraits capture women talking about trauma and sexual identity, summoning new language to describe the long-simmering injustices and frustrations we still face today, making jokes, admitting insecurities, and organizing for the future. Featuring films by Chantal Akerman, Barbara Hammer, Camille Billops, Chick Strand, Joyce Chopra, Vivienne Dick, Su Friedrich, and more, this cross-section of feminist filmmaking speaks to Rich’s insight that “in order to change what is, we need to give speech to what has been, to imagine together what might be.”
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Spotlight on Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories
Episode 1
This conversation between curator Nellie Killian and actor and comedian Jenny Slate, discussing the films in the Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories series, was recorded in 2020.
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16:54Episode 2Introducing New Day Films
Episode 2
Recorded in 2020, this conversation features curator Nellie Killian talking with Liane Brandon and Amalie R. Rothschild, who were two of the four founders of New Day Films, a co-op film distribution company that began in 1971.
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49:26Episode 3Growing Up Female
Episode 3
Directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein • 1971 • United States
Hailed by Susan Sontag (“One of those painful experiences that’s good for you”), Gloria Steinem (“A true and piercing look at American womanhood”), and Elizabeth Hardwick (“In its unadorned truthfulness there is a sad and simple poe...
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27:53Episode 4Joyce at 34
Episode 4
Directed by Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill • 1972 • United States
Starring Joyce ChopraIn feminist filmmaker Joyce Chopra’s JOYCE AT 34 (codirected with Claudia Weill, who would later direct the great unsung GIRLFRIENDS), Chopra examines the demands of juggling a baby and a professional career.
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19:15Episode 5Betty Tells Her Story
Episode 5
Directed by Liane Brandon • 1972 • United States
This poignant tale of beauty, identity, and a dress is considered a classic of documentary filmmaking. It was the first independent film of the women’s movement to explore the issues of body image, self-worth, and appearance in American society. I...
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33:45Episode 6It Happens to Us
Episode 6
Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild • 1972 • United States
Released a year before Roe v. Wade, this short film by Amalie Rothschild lays out the dire realities of illegal abortion, interviewing women from a variety of backgrounds who made the choice to terminate a pregnancy.
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26:01Episode 8Chris and Bernie
Episode 8
Directed by Bonnie Friedman and Deborah Shaffer • 1975 • United States
Two young, frustrated single mothers join forces to make a new kind of family unit for themselves and their children.
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Dis-moi
Episode 9
Directed by Chantal Akerman • 1980 • France
For a French television series about grandmothers, Chantal Akerman interviews elderly women who survived the Shoah, including her own mother, whose experience in the Holocaust reverberated throughout the artist’s life and work.
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1:02:27Episode 10I Am Wanda
Episode 10
Directed by Katja Raganelli • 1980 • United States
Starring Barbara LodenThis documentary by Katja Raganelli, filmed in 1980, features an interview with WANDA director Barbara Loden and brief interviews with cinematographer Nicholas T. Proferes and acting teacher Paul Mann.
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Shakedown
Episode 11
Directed by Leilah Weinraub • 2018 • United States
Charting the eight-year run of Shakedown, a peripatetic black lesbian strip club in Los Angeles, director Leilah Weinraub attempts “to portray the before and after of a utopic moment.” Weinraub presents a world unto itself, shaped by the desires...
