Women & Girls

Exploring women’s experiences throughout the emerging Women’s Liberation movement from the 1970s to the late 1980s in the UK, these videos examine how women, both young and old, across various communities, carve out spaces for themselves within the city. From girls discussing their romantic relationships in intimate, casual interviews, to interviews with single mothers, to plays written by young Black women about their own experiences.

Many of the videos are concerned with the political possibilities of collaborative filmmaking, collectivity and self-representation across various intersections of gender, race and class, featuring female filmmakers such as Maggie Pinhorn and Helen Petts. The films also scrutinise the legal systems available to women facing abuse, prejudice and offer non-institutional modes of mutual aid.

Featured titles include: Us Girls (1979), Singled Out (1989), My Body's My Own: Women's Self Defence, a Necessity and a Right (1986), Dead Proud (1988), Things That Mother Never Told Us, A Woman’s Place (1971), Girls in Conversation, Moving Away from the Walls (1984), Chiswick Women’s Aid (1973), Has School Failed Us? (1980s) , Conversation Over/Liz & Pauline, Gingerbread Holidays (1983).