For nearly 50 years, reporter, writer and photographer Laurence Deonna risked her life to capture the noise and anger of our times.
Social & External
Herself
The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy Lamarr.
In 2016, after the hate-fuelled murder of a woman in Gangnam, young feminists gathered to talk about their experiences, which led to the ‘tsunami’ of the feminist movement reawakening in Korean society. This tsunami included street protests against misogynistic hate crimes, political campaigning in the upcoming presidential elections, protests against sexism and sexual violence in everyday life, and the ‘black’ protests calling for the abolition of the anti-abortion law. The Fearless And Vulnerable focuses on the activities and members of the Feminist Party (known in Korean as “Femidangdang”), a feminist group that was part of this tsunami wave. The pleasure and sincerity with which they conduct their activities are compounded with their courage in the face of conflict, and the sense of fear that permeates the community. The film shows Femidangdang meetings as well as the daily lives and thoughts of members during their activities post-2016.
Kristina, a self-named Hungarian female lion tamer, arrives in New York to become a dance choreographer. Kristina, now a middle-class NYC artist concerned about the environment, has a sailor lover named Raoul. The film, a collage work, an essay film, a fictional narrative and a documentary all rolled into one, is one of the most important independent American feminists films made during the 1970's.
“It ain’t easy…being green” is the favorite expression of Stormé DeLarverie, a woman whose life flouted prescriptions of gender and race. During the 1950s and '60s she toured the black theater circuit as a mistress of ceremonies and the sole male impersonator of the legendary Jewel Box Revue, America’s first integrated female impersonation show and forerunner of La Cage aux Folles.
A docu-drama shot in 1970, but not completed until 1973, the film sought to encapsulate in an experimental form issues that were under discussion within the Women’s Liberation Movement at this time and to thus contribute to action for change. In its numerous community screenings, active debate was encouraged as part of the viewing experience.
100 years ago Mata Hari faced the firing squad as a convicted Dutch spy. It was at this moment that the legend of Mata Hari, the seductive spy, was born. Newly-discovered documents cast doubt on her guilt and reveal startling truths about her life. Mata Hari was a self-made woman whose boldness and sexuality threatened the male establishment. Most of what we've known about her until now has largely been myth. Mata Hari's challenges as an abused wife, single mother and a creative independent woman are familiar to women around the world. At the turn of the century, her struggles to attain sexual freedom, artistic expression, and liberation from the constraints of conventional society are the same ones women face today. She graced the cover of Vogue, performed all over Europe and left a coterie of smitten admirers in her wake.
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
An investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry.
A documentary with fictious elements. Ms. Elisabeth (Lieschen) Müller from Austria comes to Bonn, Germany to find herself a man. During the search she investigates the connections between neckties, political power and prostitution, and tries to look for the influence the german feminist movement had on the men in Germany's capital.
This personal and compelling portrait follows Gudrun Schyman, spokesperson of Sweden's Feminist Initiative political party, as she moves between small towns, refugee camps, and the corridors of power.
The extraordinary rise of Olympic boxing champion, record-breaker, feminist and LGBT icon Nicola Adams. From the streets of Leeds to the world stage, Adams fought her way to the top and changed the game. This, is her story.
This documentary interweaves celluloid and voice recordings by Maya Deren, and colleagues who knew her firsthand: Jean Rouch, Jonas Mekas, Alexander Hammid, Cecile Starr etc. Maya Deren (1917-1961) was an experimental filmmaker. In the 1940s and 1950s she made several influential avant-garde films, such as Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Images from this and her other work are used in this documentary. You can also hear her voice, as well as accounts by contemporaries such as Jean Rouch and Jonas Mekas.
A tribute to the late Pat Schulz, an influential Canadian feminist.
She's Not Alone is a social enterprise short, that exposes the lack of safety in rideshare services, particularly for women and gender-diverse people.
Ukraine's topless feminist sensation Femen has created a media frenzy across Europe, but before they take the world by storm, these bold and beautiful women must confront the dark and perverse forces that power their organisation.
In the 1970s, Françoise d'Eaubonne stood out in the French intellectual landscape. At 50, she has already won several literary prizes and published around forty novels and essays, but is resuming her militant fight with renewed vigor. She is the first to define ecofeminism, denouncing the common oppression of women and the planet as a consequence of patriarchy. She participated in the actions of the MLF (Women's Liberation Movement), in the creation of the FHAR (Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front) and theorized counter-violence, going so far as to sabotage the construction site of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. This film presents unpublished documents for the first time. Drawing freely from the manuscripts and photographic archives that she bequeathed to the Memory Institute for Contemporary Publishing, her relatives and researchers, historians and publishers comment on the resonance of her feminist and ecological heritage.
‘T4T Network’ host Lucy documents two trans woman musicians, jasmine.4.t and htmljones, in a tribute to early 2000s TV and contemporary transgender culture in the UK.
Over many years, the director’s father filmed his family life almost obsessively. His daughter’s birth, his son’s first steps, and always Valérie, the young mother. An impressive fund of material which their now grown-up daughter Faustine appropriates to tell quite a different story: that of a woman who sees her role as a mother and its demands take away her freedom step by step.
In the 1950s, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal - who were known by their codename "The Butterflies" - created an underground resistance movement against Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic. On November 25, 1960, Trujillo had all three sisters assassinated. The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into national heroines and symbols of feminist resistance. The documentary interweaves interviews with over forty witnesses to the story, including the Mirabal family friends, colleagues, co-revolutionaries, teachers, and most importantly, their surviving sister, Dedé, along with dramatic reenactments and archival footage.
“Olive” is a short documentary that follows Olive Hagemeier, an energetic woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste”, across Atlanta, GA. Presented in a quiet observational style, this film is both a character study of a committed and enigmatic volunteer, as well as an ethnographic work that places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.
A stroke-afflicted filmmaker is manipulated by a notorious con man.
Steve Ford is a private detective in Venice Beach, Calif., who's good with the ladies, bad with the punches and wild about his dog Buddy. When local thugs steal Buddy, Ford turns to Spyder, their devious leader, and forges an unlikely alliance. With help from his best friend, Steve pulls out the big guns to retrieve Spyder's stolen cash and cocaine and save Buddy.
Massachusetts, 1892. An unmarried woman of 32 and a social outcast, Lizzie lives a claustrophobic life under her father's cold and domineering control. When Bridget Sullivan, a young maid, comes to work for the family, Lizzie finds a sympathetic, kindred spirit, and a secret intimacy soon blossoms into a wicked plan.
Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings.
A boy haunted by visions of a parallel world aids its disillusioned guardian in preventing the destruction of the nexus of universes known as the Dark Tower.
The Invincible Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk must join forces to save the Earth from its greatest threat yet! When two Hydra scientists try to supercharge a Stark Arc Reactor with Hulk's Gamma Energy, they unleash a being of pure electricity called Zzzax - and he's hungry for destruction. Together, Iron Man and Hulk are the only force that stands in the way of the Zzzax's planetary blackout. But first, the super heroic duo will have to get through snarling Wendigos, deadly robots and the scaly powerhouse, Abomination. Can two of Marvel's mightiest heroes find a way to work together without smashing each other before time runs out?
The worst teachers of France landed in England for an ultra-secret mission. With Boulard, the King of the Dunces, they are parachuted in the best school of the country, and they will apply their famous methods on the future of the nation.
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Dominika emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, she meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
A talented teenage singer-songwriter living amid domestic abuse becomes a YouTube sensation after a video in which she hides her identity goes viral.
When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
A playwright encounters a mysterious woman when he takes shelter in a chalet during a violent snowstorm and becomes obsessed with her.
Les Tuche, a modest french family, change his life after winning a super lottery. Thanks to the money of his parents, the son, Donald (aka "coin-coin) goes to Los Angeles to improve his english. On the L.A. University, he meets Jennifer, daughter of a famous American financier.
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov—a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program.
After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.
A young woman newly returned to her hometown becomes the subject of harassment by a man named Blackway, an ex-cop turned violent crime lord who operates with impunity in this small community on the edge of the wilderness. Forsaken by the local townspeople—and advised by the Sheriff to leave town—Lillian decides instead to take a stand against her sociopathic stalker, and enlists the help of ex-logger Lester and his laconic young sidekick.
GOING CLEAR intimately profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.
In downtown Madrid, a series of mysterious gunshots trap a motley assortment of people in a decrepit bar.
A sex therapist goes through puberty after the successful removal of a benign tumor resting against his pituitary gland. He experiences all the changes and effects of puberty over a three-week period.
Four young women travel to their college professor's new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past.
