Reel World: Women Make Movies
Fight for justice with a young woman from Lindsborg, Kansas. Ride with Kristal and take women to see their incarcerated loved ones. Balance on steel beams high above the busy streets of New York City. Distributed by Women Make Movies, these documentaries offer compelling viewing.
Women Make Movies is a nonprofit organization that supports women filmmakers and distributes films by and about women. Their award-winning documentaries elevate and expose women’s stories. I’m a big fan of Women Make Movies. I’ve been challenged, moved, and angered by their empathetic and thoughtful documentaries.
These three WMM documentaries showcase their breadth of subject matter and superior filmmaking.
Loud Enough: Surviving Justice
Madison Smith never consented to being slapped. She never consented to being strangled. The 19-year-old Bethany College student felt overcome by both force and fear when consensual sex with a friend turned violent. However, the McPherson County prosecutor declined to bring sexual assault charges against her rapist. “Immature sex,” he called it, denying Madison her right for justice.
Stunned by the failure of the justice system, Madison and her family fought back. With the help of sexual assault victim advocates, they continued to pressure the county prosecutor to bring charges. A year and a half after her assault, the county prosecutor reluctantly brought charges of aggravated battery – a much less serious charge – against her rapist. Not good enough. It was time to try something novel: a citizen-summoned Grand Jury.
Loud Enough is an exceptional documentary that clearly and compellingly illustrates how sexual assault victims are re-victimized by the so-called justice system.
It’s early morning in Philadelphia. Stop by stop, women and children fill a van run by Bridging the Gap, a prison van service committed to keeping families connected. There’s laughter and excitement and a bit of primping as the van travels 200 miles to where their loved ones are incarcerated. At the wheel is a 28 year-old ball of energy, social worker Kristal Bush.
Kristal knows all too well the pain families experience when loved ones are in prison. As the documentary begins, her father and both brothers are in prison and Kristal is trying to adopt her brother’s son Nyvae. Although the family is elated when one brother and her father are released, Kristal and her mother Crystal are candid about the challenges of adjusting to home life. Particularly poignant are interviews with Nyvae, a sweet kid who has watched his mom and dad go in and out of jail and rehab.
A Woman on the Outside is a deeply personal and revealing look at the effects of incarceration on families.
Dizzyingly high above New York City’s bustling streets, Mohawk ironworkers gracefully balance on beams and nimbly climb columns as they construct skyscrapers and bridges. High steel ironwork is a proud tradition for these men. The skills they learned from their fathers and their fathers before them earn them not only a living but also a unique identity as men unafraid of the sky.
Six hours away by time, but a million miles away from the hustle, lies the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation. Each weekend Jerry Thundercloud and Sky Fox leave the loneliness and discrimination of the city and return to their families. Here they can live the traditional way and teach their children the songs, dances and customs of the Mohawk. Too soon it’s time to leave again for the city because job opportunities are scarce on the reservation and high steel iron work pays well.
Katja Esson’s documentary Skydancer is an absorbing (if slightly vertiginous!) glimpse at a unique occupation and the toll it takes on families.
