Educational Media Reviews Online

Stories can serve as vibrant tools for teaching history, and that lesson is made vividly clear in filmmaker Jennifer Lee’s documentary Feminist Stories from Women’s Liberation. The film opens with a brief discussion of the word “feminist” before launching into a series of stories that trace the development of feminism and the women’s movement from its early post-World War II days through the 1970s. Archival footage and photographs share screen time alongside interviews with prominent feminists and activists, including Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Aileen Hernandez, Ruth Rosen, Frances Beal, and others. The women tell stories ranging from occupational segregation and the EEOC to the Jeanette Rankin Brigade and women’s participation in the anti-war movement.

Feminist Stories from Women’s Liberation is structured so that each story is told by multiple people. Lee offers on-camera narration to transition between stories and to create a framework for the film. The film’s main strength lies in its use of primary source material (both archival footage and the interviews Lee conducted). Crafting a single, cohesive story from many storytellers is not easy to do, but Lee succeeds on this front (although the title frames between stories are occasionally difficult to read). Lee’s direct-to-camera narration, however, feels forced and somewhat stilted. Providing additional context for the stories is useful, but this could have been achieved (and would have been more interesting for viewers) via longer exposition taken directly from the interviewees. Despite this flaw, the film documents events and perspectives that are often overlooked in an important period of U.S. history. A lengthier and more comprehensive look at the subject is provided in She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (2014); however, Feminist Stories from Women’s Liberation would still be useful in undergraduate courses focusing on women’s history, feminism, U.S. history, and protest and reform movements. The film would also be a relevant selection for secondary school libraries and public libraries.