CRRL Picks: Women's History on FilmLike this list

30 items

• Bessie

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  Bessie Smith's transformation from a struggling young singer into "The Empress of the Blues", who became one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s and is an enduring icon today.

• The Book of Negroes

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  A universal story of loss, courage and triumph, this recounts the extraordinary journey of Aminata Diallo, an indomitable African woman who survives in a world in which everything seems to be against her. Kidnapped in West Africa then sold…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Boycott

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  In the winter of 1955 in the Deep South, Rosa Parks, a single African American woman on a public bus, is arrested when she chooses a "whites-only" seat. Her action and the reaction of the authorities help birth the modern Civil Rights…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Brontë Sisters

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  Their names are synonymous with some of English literature's most timeless and celebrated novels. The real life story of the famous Bronte sisters, however, is steeped in even greater controversy and heartbreak than the lives of their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Call the Midwife. Season One

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  A moving, intimate, funny, and true-to-life look at the colorful stories of midwifery and families in East London in the '50s. Based on the bestselling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth. When Jenny Lee first arrives in Poplar, she knows…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Crown. The Complete First Season

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  The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a young woman takes the throne ... a new era is dawning. Queen Elizabeth II is a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world's most…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dorothea Lange

  Grab a Hunk of Lightning

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  Profiles American photographer Dorothea Lange, who came to the attention of the world with her photographs documenting the Great Depression and achieved lasting fame in the post-War years.

• Frida Kahlo

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  A portrait of the life of the colorful painter, including her marriage to the famous painter Diego Rivera and her political beliefs.

• Full Metal Corset

  Secret Soldiers of the Civil War

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  The History Channel explores the stories behind the many hundreds of women who disguised themselves as men and secretly enlisted to fight in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.

• Gorillas in the Mist

  Fossey, Dian

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  Fossey describes her 13 years with the mountain gorillas of the remote central African rain forests.

• Harriet

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  Follows the life of American abolitionist Harriet Tubman as she escapes from slavery and leads others to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

• The Help

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  In 1960s Mississippi, Skeeter, a Southern society girl, returns from college determined to become a writer but turns her friends' lives - and a small Mississippi town - upside down when she decides to interview the African American women…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hiding Place

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  Traces the life of Corrie Ten Boom, from the quiet years before World War II to her work with the Underground in helping to save the lives of countless Jewish families and her eventual arrest and imprisonment in one of Nazi Germany's most…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hidden Figures

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  As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African American female mathematicians who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Home Fires

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  Bitter rivals fight for control of the Women's Institute in a rural English town as it struggles with the onset of World War II. Separated from husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers for years at a time, some permanently, they find…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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  An African American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

• Irena Sendler

  in the Name of Their Mothers

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  This is the story of 29-year-old Irena Sendler, who saw the suffering of Warsaw's Jews, reached out to her most trusted colleagues for help, and outwitted the Nazis during World War II. Together, they rescued over 2,500 Jewish children.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Iris

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  An in-depth look into the lives of fashion icon Iris Apfel and her husband of over 60 years. The quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed style maven had an outsized presence on the New York & Palm Beach fashion scenes and lived to 102, passing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mary of Nazareth

  a Mother's Life

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  This video presents an amazing story of the woman hailed as the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God--Mary of Nazareth.

• Persepolis

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  In 1970s Iran, Marjane "Marji" Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and those of her idealistic family. Their long dream is realized when the Shah is defeated in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Now ruled by Islamic…Read moreRead more of this annotation