Inspiring Women Documentaries?

[AngelaGT]

I would greatly appreciate suggestions of documentaries of inspiring brave women, past or present.  

Thank you.

[EKS]

Not exactly a documentary, but the movie Hidden Figures is good.

There's also an American Experience episode called the Codebreaker about Elizebeth Smith Friedman.

[AngelaGT]

TV series are also good.

My SIL suggested The Crown.  What do you think?

[MEmama]

Not a documentary per se, but Gentleman Jack was based on the true story of Ann Lister, an out lesbian and landowner in 1830’s Halifax, England. (HBO Max)

Feminists, What We’re They Thinking? includes lots of famous names from the 1970’s feminist movement (Netflix)

 

[Faith-manor]

49 minutes ago, AngelaGT said:

TV series are also good.

My SIL suggested The Crown.  What do you think?

Not really. There isn't much that's inspirational about it. The women, even the queen, live very stilted and often times depressed lives as portrayed on the show. They are not represented as having any kind of meaningful positive impact on people which is not accurate because many of the Royals are very active in charitable foundations, and so they bring a lot of money into these good causes, and do exercise influence. However, that is absolutely not the premise of the series. It definitely makes you question the relative value of the monarchy. It isn't something that one would find inspirational for women per se.

An interesting one that shows women's struggles to be recognized for their work in the sciences is Amazon's Radioactive which is the story of Marie Curie. They take a few liberties in there for sure, and I think may portray Pierre more harshly than was accurate. It really is an inspirational story of overcoming misogyny all odds stacked against her and triumphing. Extra inspirational when one considers she was a dual Nobel Prize winner, and then went on to become the Undersecretary of Scientific Research in France before women had even won the right to vote. Eve went into journalism and then into child activism with UNICEF. Eve was not nominated for the Nobel which is a bit stinky because her husband won the Peace Prize for his work with UNICEF except that it was dual, side by side work with Eve, and some say she was actually the more productive of the two and should have shared with him or been nominated in place of him. At any rate, a real legacy of inspiration from the Cutie women.

[AngelaGT]

14 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

Not really. There isn't much that's inspirational about it. The women, even the queen, live very stilted and often times depressed lives as portrayed on the show. They are not represented as having any kind of meaningful positive impact on people which is not accurate because many of the Royals are very active in charitable foundations, and so they bring a lot of money into these good causes, and do exercise influence. However, that is absolutely not the premise of the series. It definitely makes you question the relative value of the monarchy. It isn't something that one would find inspirational for women per se.

An interesting one that shows women's struggles to be recognized for their work in the sciences is Amazon's Radioactive which is the story of Marie Curie. They take a few liberties in there for sure, and I think may portray Pierre more harshly than was accurate. It really is an inspirational story of overcoming misogyny all odds stacked against her and triumphing. Extra inspirational when one considers she was a dual Nobel Prize winner, and then went on to become the Undersecretary of Scientific Research in France before women had even won the right to vote. Eve went into journalism and then into child activism with UNICEF. Eve was not nominated for the Nobel which is a bit stinky because her husband won the Peace Prize for his work with UNICEF except that it was dual, side by side work with Eve, and some say she was actually the more productive of the two and should have shared with him or been nominated in place of him. At any rate, a real legacy of inspiration from the Cutie women.

That sounds exactly like what I am looking for.  Thank You!

[Mothersweets]

Are you open to podcasts? There is a terrific one called The History Chicks. They cover famous and not-so-famous women from history and present it in a very interesting, conversational way.

[Amethyst]

Not a documentary but Iron Jawed Angels about suffragettes. 

[MercyA]

The film Sophie Scholl: The Last Days is not an easy watch, but is very inspiring and is supposed to be very accurate. It tells the story of the final days of Sophie Scholl, who was executed at 21 years old by the Nazis for her work with a non-violent German Resistance group. It's in German with subtitles and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Edited November 26, 2022 by MercyA

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, AngelaGT said:

TV series are also good.

My SIL suggested The Crown.  What do you think?

Considering how much of it is complete fiction - not worth my time.

Here are some women for you to look up:

Margaret Ann Bulkley (aka: James Barry)

Josephine Garis Cochrane (dishwasher)

Molly Pitcher (first woman in combat)

Vera Rubin (physicist - dark matter0

[gardenmom5]

And of course - Lord Byron's daughter, Ada Lovelace.  

There's an entire generation who should be thanking:

Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey - she blocked the approval of thalidomide in the United States.  She got a lot of flak for it too.

Edited November 26, 2022 by gardenmom5

[Amethyst]

I haven’t seen RBG yet. It’s supposed to be good. Maybe someone else here can give an opinion?

[Farrar]

There's a new film on Netflix called The Swimmers, which is about Yusra Mardini, the young Syrian woman who escaped and went to the Olympics as a refugee. It's not a documentary, but it was closely based on her life and definitely has an inspirational feel.

Have you seen The Eagle Huntress? It's really cool.

This list seems to be the sort of thing you're interested in. But note that it definitely leans liberal. Like, Knock Down the House is on this list. But also, Period, End of Sentence, which was SO nice. It's the little documentary about the company making menstrual pads in India that won the Oscar.

[rebcoola]

Betty White, first Lady of television is really good.   

Queen of Katwe is a biography that is really good.