Virginia Blaisdell
Revisiting turbulent times.
No, vile harassment of feminists didn’t start with #Gamergate. In the documentary She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, journalist Marilyn Webb and the late critic Ellen Willis tell a disturbing story about an antiwar rally protesting the inauguration of Richard Nixon. “We decided we would come together as women for the first time and announce we had a movement,” Webb says. Webb’s speech — “in front of this huge audience of New Left men,” Willis recalls — was greeted by catcalls and sexual threats. It wasn’t a proud moment for New Left men.
A smart, engaging film, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry documents the women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s with vintage footage and interviews with participants. It’s marvelous to see and hear these women, who include activists Kate Millett and Rita Mae Brown, author Susan Griffin and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. The film begins with the founding of the National Organization for Women in 1966 and continues through the student demonstration period when younger, radical activists sometimes were at odds with NOW and its more moderate strategy. Director Mary Dore’s film concludes around the time of the Roe v. Wade decision, and framing sequences show recent protests, such as a SlutWalk and a pro-choice rally in Texas.
Some of what we see is lighthearted, including the antics of WITCH, the Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell, whose members wore pointed hats and playfully cast spells. Other interludes are more somber, like one focusing on the Jane Collective, the Chicago group that provided underground abortion services in the pre-Roe era. My favorite sequence is a wonderful group interview with members of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, whose groundbreaking women’s health book Our Bodies, Ourselves has been published in 29 languages. Although the film’s message is largely positive, Dore doesn’t flinch from examining disagreements among activists — about, for example, women of color and lesbians, and how they are represented in the women’s movement.
This is essential history, and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry tells it well — except for the one historical reenactment, my documentary pet peeve. I do think the story would seem more complete if it incorporated thoughtful perspectives from people outside the movement. Some of the people captured in contemporary person-on-the-street interviews appear to be clueless at best, hostile at worst. But She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is mainly a celebration, and an important, informative one.
