It’s Women’s History Month and what better way to celebrate it than to catch up with seminal documentaries from female filmmakers of the past two decades? Since 1988, the documentary series Point of View (POV) has worked with PBS to showcase the work of Women Make Movies (WMM). To celebrate their three-decade partnership they will be streaming four films on POV’s website until April 10th. The program has long championed a diverse array of voices. Its first film showcased under this banner was Susana Blaustein and Lourdes Portillo’s Academy Award-nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, about a group of Argentine mothers who demanded to know the fate of their 30,000 “disappeared” sons and daughters. And just last year it screened Mikaela Shwer’s No Le Digas a Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone), which chronicles an undocumented woman’s story.
“POV has been a leader in supporting women directors and a champion in ensuring that their films reach wide audiences,” said Debra Zimmerman, Women Make Movies executive director. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with POV in providing a platform for these important documentaries from the WMM collection.” You can definitely see that in this year’s selection which includes Judith Helfand’s A Healthy Baby Girl (1997), Annie Goldson and Peter Wells’s Georgie Girl (2003), Jennifer Dworkin’s Love & Diane (2004) and Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco’s Ella es el matador (She Is the Matador) (2009).
That last one should prove most fascinating to those enamored with Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her, as it focuses on the history of female bullfighters, taking you back to 1908 when a law barred women from the sport. Winner in 2008 of the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award for Documentary, Ella es el matador profiles two contemporary female bullfighters, the acclaimed Mari Paz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia, who have become pioneers in this most masculine of Spaniard sports.
Be sure to check these films out and browse through the rest of POV’s streaming lineup which includes short films on immigrant window cleaners, and on Irma Gonzalez, the former world champion of women’s professional wrestling. Just another reminder to support your local public network station for their continued celebration of independent and documentary films.