Sick Girls

This fascinating political look at a little-known chapter in women's history tells the story of "Jane", the Chicago-based women's health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training. As Jane members describe finding feminism and clients describe finding Jane, archival footage and recreations mingle to depict how the repression of the early sixties and social movements of the late sixties influenced this unique group. Both vital knowledge and meditation on the process of empowerment, Jane: An Abortion Service showcases the importance of preserving women's knowledge in the face of revisionist history. JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE was funded by the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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At a public hospital in Nicaragua, Ob/Gyn Dr. Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman's life. In 2007, Dr. Cerrato’s daily routine took a detour. The newly elected government of Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who converted to Catholicism to win votes, overturned a 130-year-old law protecting therapeutic abortion. The new law entirely prohibits abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is at stake. As Carla and her colleagues navigate this dangerous dilemma, the impact of this law emerges—illuminating the tangible reality of prohibition against the backdrop of a political, religious, and historically complex national identity. The emotional core of the story—the experiences and situations of the young women and girls who are seeking care—illustrate the ethical implications of one doctor's response.

Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.

Documentary to mark the WI's centenary. Lucy Worsley goes beyond the stereotypes of jam and Jerusalem to reveal the surprisingly radical side of this Great British institution.

The Other Side of Burka is a 2004 Iranian documentary directed by Mehrdad Oskouei. In the southern island of Qeshm, Iran, which is a very strict region in point of tradition and African-Arabic rules, all women are under the pressure of patriarch society. Their sufferance is manifested by different mental (Zar, Possession) and physical diseases which must be only treated by Zar Ceremony. For the first time, despite the danger these women face, this film tells us the sad story of their life and shows their confection in front of the camera. It tries to be an honest mirror which reflects their sufferance and unveils their Burka to reveal their real characters.

Only women, children and old people live in this Armenian village, while the men work in Russia. A life with a rhythm of its own, an independent daily life marked nonetheless by exile.

Created by a collective of neurodivergent filmmakers in an attempt to provide an alternative and artistic take on what it's like to live with neurodivergence in a chaotic world not made for those who are different.

CHRONIC CLOWN is a raw, visually striking documentary that follows Evie, a performer living with stage 4 Endometriosis, as she uses the practice of clowning to meet chronic pain with vulnerability, resilience, and humour. Through performance, the film reframes what it means to live and create alongside an invisible illness.

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After a woman’s silent rage erupts into a fight post-coitus, a women’s group analyzes her refusal to stay passive. Another scene shows a woman’s despair when her lover misses their meeting, prompting the group to reject passive waiting. Together, they combat issues like rape, prostitution, and abortion rights (§218) to reclaim self-determination.

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What causes women all over the world to be told that they are hysteric or overreacting when seeking for medical help? Why are so many women diagnosed: Overdramatic? The female body has only recently started to be researched, which lead to a big lack of information on women's physical and mental health. This documentary relies on the knowledge of Dorte Rytter (researcher) and Stine Sophie (medicine student) to tell us how this issue affects women everyday and in what ways.

A group of young girls and married women express their views of marriage and motherhood while glossy advertisements extolling romance, weddings, and babies flash across the screen in contrast to their words. Could the solution to dashed expectations be as simple as growing up before marriage? Part of the Challenge for Change program.

Faced with the challenging behaviour of their kids, more and more parents in America are turning to psychoactive medication to help them cope, even though the drugs, and sometimes the diagnoses, remain controversial. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to get to know the diagnosed children and hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

In response to a humorous and heartfelt letter that he sent to his son in high school to wish them good luck in their GCSE exams, M.J Connor decides to respond to their Dad’s letter by surprising him with a documentary they made about their relationship with him and their mental health. M.J suffers with MADD (Mixed and Anxiety and Depressive Disorder) and Combined ADHD. In the film, they use dramatisations and scenes where they talk directly to their Dad in order to get him to understand what they go through on a daily basis, but to also thank him for everything he’s done for always being there and supporting them every step of the way.

A multi-generational film of a unique, vanishing culture of Polynesian women jugglers in The Kingdom of Tonga.

Emma Barnett shares her life-long struggle with endometriosis – a disease affecting one in ten women of reproductive age, which causes excruciating, often debilitating, pain. Inside Emma’s body, rogue cells similar to the lining of the womb mysteriously appear on other organs, creating lesions which bleed, scar and cause inflammation. There is no cure. Endometriosis is as common as diabetes but receives a fraction of the research funding. Emma travels across the UK to meet a few of the millions of women who, like her, are suffering. Through candid conversations, they reveal the extent to which endometriosis is devastating the lives of women – affecting fertility, work and loved ones.

Five women tell stories about scars they have on their bodies and share the process of self-acceptance that goes beyond their own traits.

Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.