Trailblazers in Habits

An intimate study of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century tracking feminist icon Susan Sontag’s seminal, life-changing moments through archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, as read by Patricia Clarkson.

The nuns of the Anglican Benedictine Community at St. Mary's Abbey, West Malling, reflect on their calling and the joys and challenges of their way of life. In this short documentary, directed by Jamie Hughes, the nuns' voices are complemented by images from the life of the Abbey.

1962. A crystalline voice becomes a planetary tube. A Belgian nun jostles Elvis and the Beatles on the world charts. Her name: Sister Smile. A popstar with the trajectory of a comet who understands her success no more than the double meaning of her words… The harder the fall will be. Even God does not protect sharks' appetites or pretenses of success! Who killed the little voice of God? Here is the tragic story of an innocent voice, of an extraordinary fate, almost of a curse ...

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an order of gay male 'nuns', founded in San Francisco in the late 1970s with a goal to "expiate all stigmatic guilt and promulgate universal joy". There are now thousands of nuns all over the world including 30 in Britain, some of whom we meet in Tom Stephan's short documentary, which follows the Sisters' work as active campaigners in the LGBT community.

Widerstandsmomente (Moments of Resistance) carries voices, writings, and objects from the anti-Nazi resistance into the present. Politically engaged women of today respond to historical resistance and make links to current events. A line is drawn from what was before and what is today to what might be: a society based on solidarity without discrimination or exclusion.

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A horse and cart carrying two nuns is stopped by two men with fixed bayonets.

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Based on the life of Rosa Bonheur, a trailblazing feminist and artist who rose to fame in 19th century France.

Rosemarie Blank made this film, which focuses on women aged around fifty, in collaboration with the organisation VIDO (Dutch: Vrouwen in de Overgang/Women in the Menopause). An all but invisible group of housewives who have spent their lives putting themselves last to ensure that their husbands and children can reach their full potential.

During a drawing workshop, a girl traces on the wall of her room the memory of her sexual abuse; a young woman recalls the night in which the deception of those she once called friends turned into harassment. By sharing the stories with other girls and women, they realise that these are not isolated events but fragments of a shared wound.

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

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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.

The short film is based on an investigation by Dino Buzzati. It tells the story of Melinda, a mountain girl turned into a witch by her environment and circumstances. In September 1965, Buzzati travelled to Abruzzo (near Teramo, at the foot of the Gran Sasso) on behalf of the newspaper Corriere della Sera, seeking stories for his investigative series titled "I misteri d'Italia" (The Mysteries of Italy). There, he gathered the story of Melinda, a real-life woman (who died in 1962 at the age of 93) regarded by the local community as the last true Abruzzese witch. Buzzati described Melinda not as an evil being, but as a woman victimized by fate and superstition. While Buzzati was fascinated by the magical and mysterious aspects of her tale, Lù Leone reinterpreted the same story in 1976 through a political and feminist lens.

The funeral procession of suffragette Emily Davison - fatally injured at the Epsom Derby - passes through London to her final resting place in Morpeth.

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.

A documentary about the Swedish rapper and artist Silvana Imam.

Vārdotājas (Wordsmiths) traces the recent rise of women's stand-up comedy in Latvia, but it is by no means just for laughs. Feelings of discomfort, shame, shock, are just some of the subjects tackled.

Their documentary is the result of an ethnographic audiovisual research. How to research the theme woman and all the themes that surround it, respecting the place of speech of each one? Based on an interview with eighteen women cultural makers from the interior of São Paulo, we open the way to listening and dialogue on macro-themes permeated by their trajectories. The stories are theirs, but they're ours. Expand the debate about being a woman, about feminism and about our pains and delights, about our contradictions and dreams. The documentary is then a research, an open process of listening, reinterpreting and giving voice to them.