Films:

The Women's Center owns over 70 documentaries and films: stored in our lounge, these films can be viewed on our multimedia system. Many of these films were purchased with funding provided by the Campus Violence Prevention Project. Below is a complete list of our collection (Educational Media and Commercial Films):

Educational Media
An Ordinary Rape
Videocassette. First Run/Icarus Films
This film reviews various approaches to discussing violence within teenage dating circles. Includes gender-specific discussion groups and first-person accounts. Each victim recounts her rape experience, the reaction of family and friends, and the responses of law enforcement, the legal system, mental health professionals, and medical staff. There is no discussion about perpetrators or the difference between date rape and sex.
Babies to Babies
Videocassette
Betty Tells Her Story
Videocassette. Dir Laine Brandon. New Day Films, 1972
Betty tells a story about her search for a perfect dress during two narratives. In the first she acts witty, engaging, and delightful, but in the second she expresses her anxiety about cost and beauty. The contrast is haunting; the film highlights our culture's emphasis on female beauty and its poignant sage of Betty's search for "the perfect dress."
Beyond Killing Us Softly: the Strength to Resist
Videocassette. Cambridge Documentary Films, 2000 (missing)
This 33-minute documentary is about the image of women in advertising. It gives practical ideas about the best tactics for reclaiming our culture.
Bought and Sold:
An Investigative Documentary about the International Trade in Women
DVD. Witness Film. 1997
This film includes new material from Global Survival Network's two-year undercover investigation into the traffic in women for prostitution out of Russia, including undercover footage of meetings with the Russian mafia about trafficking operations into the United States.
Breaking Ground: Men Against Rape
Videocassette. USC School of Cinema & Television
This 25 minute film is about men that are committed to training men and women in rape prevention techniques. They feel that rape is not just a woman's problem, but a human problem of violent culture. They hope to dispel stereotypes of males as abusive to women.
Broken Vows
Videocassette. Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, 1999
This documentary about religious perspectives on domestic violence presents the stories of six formerly battered women from diverse religious traditions, including Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical Christian. It discusses (amongst more) concrete ideas about how religious organizations can work to end domestic violence and a discussion of how religious and secular groups can work together.
Busy Being Beautiful with Cathy Finn
Videocassette. Catherine A. Finn, 1993
Campus Diversity, Student Voices
Videocassette. University of Michigan, 2002-2003
By examining the range of student experience at the public University of Michigan that promotes the benefits of a diverse student population, this documentary provokes thoughtful and informed discussion of sensitive issues.
Campus Rape
Videocassette. Rape Treatment Center of Santa Monica Hospital. 1990. 20 minutes
Cleavage
DVD. A&E Television Networks. 2002
This documentary surveys mankind's fascination with breasts and cleavage, from the goddesses of antiquity to today's silicone-enhanced TV and film stars. Offering their opinions on why two simple mounds of flesh have wielded such power through the ages will be comedian Joan Rivers; Cosmopolitan's Helen Gurley Brown; a plastic surgeon; a female body builder; and others. Narrated by Carmen Electra.
Color Adjustment
Videocassette. Cambridge Educational, 2002 (missing)
Color Adjustment traces 40 years of race relations through the lens of prime time entertainment, scrutinizing television's racial myths and stereotypes. 88 minute documentary.
Cost of a Being Female
6th Annual Conference on Women's Health and the Environment
Videocassette. Heinz Family Philanthropies. 2001
This conference examined what experts know about women's economic health and how to improve it. Women are clearly facing challenges that affect their ability to sustain themselves and their families. Conference speakers addressed the "mommy tax," the impact of Social Security and pensions on women, the wage gap and how various media cover women's economic issues.
Date Rape Backlash: Media and the Denial of Rape
DVD. Media Education Foundation
This film traces the origins of the media date rape backlash to opinion pieces which appeared in right-wing/conservative journals as a response to the mainstream media's discovery of date rape. Includes discussions with Faludi, Pollitt, and bell hooks.
Date Rape: Behind Closed Doors
Videocassette. Cambridge Educational, 2002
The myths and misconceptions surrounding date rape provide insight into the origins of this crime. The video defines rape and elaborates on the fact that rape is a crime of violence, not a crime of passion. Viewers learn specific actions they can take to avoid becoming a victim, coping strategies, and how to support victims.
Date Rape Prevention 1-3
Videocassette. Northwest Media Inc.
Tape 1: Rape Myths, Drawing the Line
Tape 2: Rape Victims Speak Out
Tape 3: Consequences Facing Date Rapists
Domestic Violence Conference for Advocacy
Videocassette. Tufts University. 1993
Domestic violence: Danger Assessment and Safety Planning
An Interactive Training DVD
DVD. Emerge. Cambridge
This DVD is a resource for police, prosecutors, probation officers, victim advocates and batter intervention workers in doing domestic violence danger assessments and safety planning with victims.
Eating Welfare
Videocassette. Producer Youth Leadership of Caaaav: Organizing Asian Communities, 2001
This film challenges the success of workfare programs by exposing the way in which more than 500,000 families in New York City were pushed off the welfare rolls in the 1990s. Shows the impact of welfare reform on Southeast Asian immigrants. Shows actions taken by immigrants to stop the damaging effects of reform.
Female Circumcision: Breaking the Silence
Home videocassette
For Straights Only
Videocassette. Dir. Visimita Gupta-Smith, 2001
Inspired by her brother, who came out to her on his trip home to India, the filmmaker produced this documentary about South Asian lesbians and gays. Informative interviews explore how the diverse cultures of South Asia are living gay and lesbian lives in today's fast-changing world.
Game Over: Gender, Race & Violence in Video Games
DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000
This film examines the fastest growing segment of the media through engaging questions of gender, race, and violence. It offers a dialogue about the complex and controversial topic of video game violence, and is designed to encourage high school and college students to think critically about the video games they play.
Global Perspectives on Sexual Violence:
Findings from the World Report on Violence and Health
DVD. National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2005
This report, the first of its kind, uses a public health approach to examine global youth violence, child abuse and neglect, violence by intimate partners, abuse of the elderly, sexual violence, self-directed violence, and collective violence. It draws from the information, findings, and insight of over 160 experts from approximately 70 countries and from published literature on violence. The Report views violence through an ecological lens and discusses biological, social, cultural, economic, and political factors that influence its occurrence and prevalence.
Hermaphrodites Speak
Videocassette. Dir Chase, Cheryl. Intersex Society of America, 1997
Imagine growing up knowing you were different, not quite knowing why, and feeling like you were the only person in the world like you. Several people tell their stories of growing up and then finally meeting other people who are intersexed.
How to Help a Sexual Assault Survivor: What Men Can Do
Videocassette. No More, Inc., 2002
This video is a perfomance of The Men's Program. Men who watch learn what rape is, what it may feel like, what women tend to experience before, during and after being raped, and how to help a woman recover from a rape experience. It suggests what men can do to modify their own behavior in their intimate encounters, and also how to confront their peers. Good for men's groups, women who want to understand men's role in preventing rape, and sexual assault peer educators.
I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in America
DVD. God Bless the Child Productions, Inc., 2002
Former Northeastern University Quarterback Byron Hurt powerfully examines the thoughts and feelings of African-American men and women from more than 15 cities and towns across America. I Am A Man links everyday black men from various socioeconomic backgrounds with some of Black America's most progressive academics, social critics and authors to provide an engaging, candid dialogue on black masculine identity in American culture.
I Wish I could Have Said No
Videocassette. Intermedia (missing)
This film discusses what gets in the way of being assertive and what are the consequences for the nonassertive person.
If Hope Were Enough
DVD. WITNESS/Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, 2000
This film captures the historic importance of how women have come together to impact the structure and substance of the International Criminal Court in order to have it be a mechanism at an international level to address violations of women's human rights. Through the voices of women survivors of historic and on-going violence in both armed-conflict situations and peacetime, the video documents the inspiring struggle towards justice and the end of impunity for violence against women.
In Love and In Danger
Videocassette. Intermedia
Featuring Barrie Levy, author of the book of the same title, this video is a compelling and informative look at the issue of teen dating violence. Emphasizing how stereotypes are formed and reinforced in early adolescence, this film illustrates how some young men intimidate and control young women in dating relationships.
Indian Rights
Videorecording
Intersex Redefining Sex
Videocassette. Prod City of Toronto. Intersex Society of North America
A 30 minute documentary on medical management of children with ambiguous anatomy.
Is it a boy or a girl?
Videocassette. Prod Ward and Associates. Discovery Channel, 2004
This one-hour documentary was nominated for a GLAAD award for Outstanding TV Journalism. The question "boy or girl?" can be complicated when a third option is introduced; one out of every two thousand children in America is born intersexual. Discussion of medical procedures for children born intersexuals, illustration that gender is infinitely more complex than the shape of our genitalia.
Killing Us For Our Own Good: Dieting and Medical Misinformation
A Presentation by Dawn Atkins
Videocassette. Body Image Task Force, 1991
Life Without Fear
Videocassette. Dir SAKHI for South Asian Women (missing)
This film is about breaking the bond of domestic slavery and empowering women in South Asian communities.
Men and Rape
Home Videocassette
My Girlfriend Did It
Videocassette
This video defines the dynamics of women's same sex abusive relationships and examines the impact of oppression when addressing women-to-women battering. The documentary illustrates the profound need for community education and support for women battered by women.
No Safe Place: Violence Against Women
Videocassette. NIMCO, 1996
This video includes moving vignettes of women who have been assaulted, as well as with men who commit the most intimate crimes. Includes a speech by Denise Brown, Nicole Brown-Simpson's sister.
Not Black or White
Videocassette. NAATA, 1999
This 19-minute film examines the stereotypical ways in which Asian women have been depicted in the media and how three nationally acclaimed Asian American actresses challenge and defy those concepts in their creative work and careers.
Our Stories
Videocassette. Dir Meredith Messer. Fotokem, 2001
This video portrays a number of young adults who have been raped. Facts and statistics are also included, though they do not overpower the personal messages of the victims.
Operation Fine Girl: Rape Used as a Weapon of War in Sierra Leone
DVD. Witness/Oxygen Media, 2001
The systematic use of rape against women and girls in conflicts around the world is one of the most shocking and under-reported of war crimes, and its use in the ten-year Sierra Leonean civil war was particularly brutal. Operation Fine Girl looks at the conflict through the stories of four survivors: three women who survived abduction, rape, and enslavement by rebel forces, and one young boy, abducted and forced to become a killer himself.
Playing Unfair: The Media Image of the Female Athlete
DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2003
Even though Title IX legislation granted women equal playing time 30 years ago, sports journalism remains male-dominated. Female athletes continue to be represented in roles that reaffirm their masculinity, whereas men are depicted as heroic and masculine. This film critically examines media in the post-Title IX landscape.
Police Rape Training Video
Videocassette. No More, Inc., 2002
This video is a presentation of a police officer talking to new officers about how to handle rape cases. He uses a scenario of an officer who was raped, not believed, blamed, and suffered rape trauma syndrome. This video can be useful for helping men understand what it might feel like to be raped.
Price of Youth
DVD. WITNESS/Andrew Levine Productions, 2000
This 9-minute film examines the recent explosion in systematic trafficking of young girls and women from Nepal to work as prostitutes in Bombay, in neighboring India. 'The Price of Youth' exposes this horrific practice. It documents grassroots efforts to combat the forced prostitution of Nepali girls and to rehabilitate these young victims.
Raising Cain: Exploring the Inner Lives of America's Boys
DVD. PBS Home Video, 2006
Child psychologist Michael Thompson explores the emotional development of boys in America today. It responds to boys' inability to express emotions, violence, and an absence of positive male role models. The film debunks some commonly held conceptions and offers innovative programs to "bring out the best in boys."
Rape Aftermath: How Can I Help Her?
Videocassette. Producer St. Vincent Medical and Joan S Voigt, 1998
This video was designed to promote an understanding of rape and its effect on the victim, her family, and friends.
Rape Awareness Seminar
Videocassette. 1990
Rape Is
Videocassette. Dir Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich. Cambridge Documentary Films, 2002
This 32-minute film provides a comprehensive look at the issue of rape. It demonstrates that it is not a sporadic and rare occurrence, but a human rights violation and criminal outrage that affects millions of women, children, and men.
Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights in the World Today: Women Under Attack Vol. 3
Videocassette. The Video Project
This 30 minute program looks at two of the most terrifying human rights issues facing women in several countries, wartime rape and female mutilation, as well as what is being done to combat these abuses.
Role Reversal
Videocassette. A&E Television Networks, 2000
The Savage Cycle
Videocassette. Intermedia, 1991
This is a classic domestic violence video told from the point of view of men and women in violent relationships. It examines issues of power and control and discusses three parts of the cycle in the "Power and Control Wheel" model.
Searching For Hope
Videocassette. Intermedia, 1996
This film follows the true-life story of one young woman's search for understanding about her bulimia. Includes discussions with experts. Useful for victims, parents, and educators.
Sex and Justice
Videocassette. Dir Julian Schlossberg. 2001
Gloria Steinem narrates 1991's controversial Hill/Thomas hearings in which the US Senate investigated Anita Hill's claims that Clarence Thomas, then a Supreme Court nominee, had sexually harassed her.
Sex in the CD: An Interactive adventure in exploring sexual health
DVD. Bacchus & Gamma Peer Education Network
This cool interactive CD talks about sexual health in a gamelike setting!
So Deep a Violence: Prostitution, Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry
Videocassette. Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 2000
Spin the Bottle: Sex, lies, and alcohol
DVD. Media Education Foundation. 2004
Award-winning media critics Jackson Katz and Jean Kilbourne critique the role that contemporary popular culture plays in glamorizing excessive drinking and high-risk behaviors. This film explores a college party scene and includes interviews with campus health professionals.
The Strength to Resist: Media's Impact on Women and Girls
DVD. Cambridge Documentary Films
This 33-minute documentary is about the fight against degrading messages given to girls and women that dominate the media. It presents many leading authorities in the fields of psychology of women and girls, eating disorders, violence against women, and media literacy, all focusing on long term solutions.
Strong at the Broken Places: Turning Trauma into Recovery
DVD. Dir Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich. Cambridge Documentary Films
This 38-minute documentary is about people devastated by trauma and loss who find common ground in their journeys to recovery. It is the story of vastly different lives, from death camps of Cambodia to violent streets of South Boston.
Student orientation: Date Rape
Videocassette. 1991
Survivor Stories at Emerson
Videocassette. 2003
Talk on Domestic Violence with Sarah Bue
Videocassette. 1992
Teen Dating Violence and the Abuse Prevention Act
Videocassette. Massachusetts Department of Education, 2000
Tough Guise
Videocassette. Dir Susan McGee Bailey. Media Education Foundation, 1999
This educational video examines the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of the 21st century.
Tres Vidas
Videocassette. The Core Ensemble
This chamber music theater piece is based on the lives of three legendary Latin American women: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni, and Salvadoran peasant-activist Rufina Amaya.
The Truth About Jane
Videocassette. Dir Lee Rose. Starlight Home Entertainment, 2001
Jane seems like a totally normal kid, until she falls in love with Taylor and comes out as a lesbian. Jane is alienated by her classmates and mother, who thinks her dive into lesbianism is "just a phase." Her friends begin accepting her, Jane becomes comfortable with her new identity, but Jane struggles to help her mom rediscover their love.
The 'Undetected' Rapist
Videocassette. National Judicial Education Program
This is adapted from NJEP's curriculum about how to fairly deal with sexual assault cases without undermining defendants' constitutional rights. It also discusses victim and offender reactions, sentencing and treatment, and juror attitudes.
Voices Heard Sisters Unseen
Videocassette. Dir Grace Poore. Shakti Productions, 1995
This powerful and inspirational videotape shows how survivors of domestic violence work to change the way the system treats battered women in search of justice and safety. It focuses on multi-issue activism.
Waking Up to Rape
Videocassette. Dir Meri Weingarten. Women Make Movies, 1985
This film examines the personal trauma of rape, its long-term psychological effects, societal attitudes about sexual assault, and the problem of racism in the criminal justice system.
Women Vote 2004
Videocassette
Women's Issues Tape
Home videocassette. Dateline, Entertainment Tonight, 20/20
Violence in the Military, Santa Monica Rape.
Wrestling with Manhood
Videocassette and DVD. Dir Jackson Katz. Media Education Foundation, 2002
This film addresses the relationship between professional wrestling and homophobia, sexual assault, and relationship violence. It probes the social values that sustain it as a powerful cultural force.
Y. Mattern
Home Videocassette
Commercial Films
Bring It On
Videocassette. Dir Peyton Reed. Universal Studios, 2000
Kirsten Dunst and Garielle Union star. A champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships.
Fire
Videocassette. Dir Deepa Mehta. New Yorker Video, 1998
In New Delhi, Sita, a young woman, embarks on an arranged, loveless marriage to a faithless celibate husband, Jatin. She lives with his extended family, and eventually develops a physical relationship with her sister-in law which is far more emotionally sustaining than they would have found with their husbands.
The Good Girl
Videocassette. Dir Miguel Arteta. 20th Century Fox, 2002
The plot revolves around a young married woman whose mundane life takes a turn for the worse when she strikes up a passionate and illicit affair with an oddball discount-store stock boy who thinks he's Holden Caulfield.
Iron Jawed Angels
They had no vote, no political clout, no equal rights. But what they lacked under the law they made up for with brains, determination and courage. Oscar-winner Hilary Swank leads an outstanding cast in the inspirational true story of two women who dared to make a stand for women's rights, and ended up shaping the future of America.
The Magdalene Sisters
The Magdalene Sisters is based on real events that took place in Ireland from the 1960s until 1996 when young women were sent away from their homes because of various "sex crimes" to earn penitence working in profit-making laundries run by the Sisters of Magdalene Order. The nuns were cruel money grubbers who worked the girls to the point of exhaustion, and used poor living conditions and psychological abuse to break and brainwash the girls into subservience. The awful treatment the nuns gave these innocent young women was terrifying, and the ways the girls suffered were utterly disturbing.
Monsoon Wedding
Videocassette. Dir Mira Nair. Universal, 2002
In modern upper-middle class India, where telecommunications and a western lifestyle mix with old traditions, this story depicts an arranged marriage. As the romantic monsoon rains loom, Monsoon Wedding traces five intersecting stories, each navigating different aspects of love as they cross boundaries of class, continent and morality. The film celebrates a contemporary India never before seen on screen.
Real Women Have Curves
Videocassette. HBO, 2002
The coming-of-age plot revolves around Ana Garcia, a Mexican-American teenager living in an East Los Angeles barrio. While attending Beverly Hills High School, she works in near-sweatshop conditions in her sister's dress factory alongside her mother (Ontiveros), who considers this to be her younger daughter's vocation. But Ana, encouraged by her teacher (George Lopez), has dreams of attending Columbia University in New York City. Before achieving her goal, she must try to balance her mother's traditional view of women with her own contemporary ideas while dealing with self-image issues and exploring a new romantic relationship.
Sleepless in Seattle
Videocassette. Dir Nora Ephron. Tri Star, 1993
Sam is a recent widower who is seeking someone new. Sam's son Jonah is also looking for a new mother, so when Jonah puts his father on national radio, hundreds of women write to him. Annie travels to Seattle to meet Sam, they both have several sleepless nights, and the film reaches its climax in a scene that resembles "An Affair to Remember," facilitated by Jonah.
Speak
DVD. Showtime, 2005
Kristen Stewart stars as Melinda, a high school outcast who has been stunned into silence by a traumatic event. How will she discover the courage to find her voice and speak out?