Suggested Videos for Use with Chapter 5

Masai Women - The Masai are animal herders in the East African Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania. They are proud of not growing crops and devote themselves to their cattle. But only the men have rights to these cattle, and women are wholly dependent. With an astonishingly candid elder Masai woman as guide, "Masai Women" explores what it means to be a woman - from childhood, to taunted, weeping new bride, to old age - in this completely male dominated society.
http://www.worldmusicstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=8317

Small Happiness - 'To give birth to a boy is considered a big happiness. To give birth to a girl is not exactly no happiness, but a small happiness.' Despite the tremendous advances women in China have made, serious problems continue. Long Bow women talk about love, marriage, work, birth control, birth customs and the now outlawed custom of foot binding. Truly moving interviews with Lingqiao and her mother-in-law draw us into their lives.
http://www.roninfilms.com.au/video/1887625/0/1942345

The Child Brides - Traditions, sanctioned by time and often necessitated by poverty, are very difficult to overcome. In many parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, young girls are often engaged by the age of eight, and leave their homes to join their husbands by twelve. And in many cases, the younger the girl, the more her family receives in the form of a dowry. This program travels to the most rural and poverty-stricken regions of Ethiopia to expose the common practice of child brides and the consequences for the young girls who often give birth before they are out of childhood.
http://www.films.com/Films_Home/Item.cfm/1/9324/ixs

Dancing on the Edge - Dancing on the Edge is set in rural Mozambique, where traditional gender roles and poverty influence the fight to contain the spread of AIDS. Antonietta is HIV-positive and works as an AIDS counselor in the city. But she takes her one healthy daughter to a remote village for initiation into sexuality. After a week of rituals and lessons on how to please a man, the daughter will become a woman and consequently be put at risk to contract HIV. Antonietta struggles with the contradictions of maintaining traditional customs while adapting to the reality of the modern world.
http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0151-6

Fire Eyes – This powerful and important film is the first to present an African viewpoint on a culturally explosive issue. Somali filmmaker Soraya Mire knows firsthand about the traditional African practice of female genital mutilation. At thirteen she was subjected to it and spent the next twenty years recovering physically and emotionally from its cruel legacy. Fire Eyes explores the socio-economic, psychological, and medical consequences of this ancient custom which affects more than 80 million women worldwide.
http://filmakers.com/indivs/FireEyes.htm

Masai Manhood - An ethnographic view of Maasai culture and society, focusing on the preparation of young Maasai boys for manhood and leadership in their society. Follows the seven years of transition in which the boys serve as warriors and learn about survival and the outside world, as dictated by their elders. Consultant: Melissa Llewelyn-Davies.
Check school library.

Women's Olamal - This film, presented in observational style with limited commentary, depicts some of the tensions between men and women in Maasai society which, in this case, erupt in a violent row between them. Explanations and insights are portrayed in interviews with the women themselves. The events are seen through the eyes of four women: Nolpiyaya and Kisaju, who have four and nine children respectively; Nolmeeyu, a barren woman near menopause; and Kisaro, who is beginning to worry that after ten years of marriage, she too may be barren.
http://www.buyindies.com/listings/2/9/DERE-293.html

Gender, the Enduring Paradox – The ever-changing role of gender in American society, from the formation of gender roles early childhood to the complex, socially constructed roles of masculinity and femininity which endure throughout life, are the topic of this video. Interviews with children, poets and experts, as well as cross-cultural examples, are used to show the contradictions in sex roles. Produced and directed by Sandra Wentworth Bradley.
http://www.uncommon-video.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=demo-shop.html/SID=1098735289.28492/buy=1/item=2011
or
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/c95130b9ccf1ec77a19afeb4da09e526.html

Harem: Yemen, The Hidden Half Speaks - A surprising look at women's lives and gender roles in contemporary Yemen, this astonishing film presents moving personal narratives, and shows the myriad forms resistance can take. Challenging the roles prescribed for them by brothers, husbands and fathers, these powerful women speak eloquently about breaking societal taboos and fighting for economic independence and self-sufficiency.
http://www.wmm.com/catalog/pages/c630.htm

Afghanistan Unveiled - Filmed by the first ever team of women video journalists trained in Afghanistan, this rare and uncompromising film explores the effects of the Taliban’s repressive rule and recent U.S. military campaign on Afghani women. None of the fourteen journalist trainees had ever traveled outside Kabul. Except for one, none had been able to study or pursue careers while the Taliban controlled their country.
http://www.wmm.com/catalog/pages/c628.htm

Women of the Yellow Earth - This very special film takes the viewer to the heart of rural China. Filmed in the remote Loess Plateau, it captures the quality of peasant life where people work hard on the land to survive and every extra mouth to feed puts a heavy strain on the family. It introduces us to two village women, Bai, who has just delivered her third child and is in trouble with the family planning officials, and Ma Ning, who is about to be married by arrangements with a matchmaker. It shows how the state intercedes in family life, with rules and penalties for non-compliance.
http://www.filmakers.com/indivs/WomenYellowEarth.htm

Gender and Communication: Male-Female Differences in Language and Nonverbal Behavior - Gender exerts a powerful influence on all facets of human communication and raises many profound social issues. How does our gender affect us in everyday interactions? Are we treated differently because we are male or female? When we speak to someone, does the way we speak depend on the listener's gender?
http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films/communication/language_linguistics/gender_and_
communication_malefemale_differences_in_language_and_nonverbal_behavior
or
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/a02265a67908b614a19afeb4da09e526.html&y=0205C5456D6487BA&i=487&c=
11651&q=02%255ESSHPM%255BL7xzq%257Bzm%253F%257Bvyyzmzq%257Czl%253Fvq%253Fpm~s%253F%257
Cprrjqv%257C~kvpq6&e=utf-8&r=0&d=wownrm-en-us&n=EB8K5H40M9H43FV3&s=2&t=&m=4162B5EA&x=01728D
7A5FA13110

Women Serving Religion – One of the most visible issues facing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is the role of women serving religion. Because of religious and cultural conditioning in the past, women in all three religions have experienced limited roles. Today, though, their voices are being heard. This program traces women’s roles in religious tradition and what it means to be a woman in these three religions today. The program also explores the cultural influences of feminism upon religious tradition and the beliefs regarding the ordination of women.
http://www.films.com/Films_Home/item.cfm?s=1&bin=5741
or
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/0a58d5544c2fdac5a19afeb4da09e526.html

My Journey, My Islam - 'My Journey, My Islam' is an intriguing look at the questions that some Muslim women in the West ask themselves: what is Islam's relationship to me and my relationship to it, living in the West? Rasool's personal quest to answer these questions also introduces the viewer to the lives of several Muslim women (mostly non-Arab), including several Indian Muslims, a convert and a Lebanese woman marrying an non-Arab Muslim, as she journeys between the West and the Indian sub-continent where she was born. Rasool's portraits are particularly striking and well-fleshed out, accompanied as they are by visually compelling images of everyday Islamic life.
http://www.wmm.com/Catalog/pages/c528.htm

Women of Niger - Niger is a traditionally Islamic country where authorized polygamy and Muslim fundamentalism clash with the country’s struggle for democracy. In elections in 1993, men voted by proxy for their different wives and daughters. Women who speak out about their rights have been physically attacked and ex-communicated by the ayatollahs. Working together, women are the most ardent defenders of democracy, which offers the best hope of winning the equal rights which are still denied them.
http://www.wmm.com/Catalog/pages/c40.htm

Temptation - This program examines Adam and Eve’s tasting of the forbidden fruit and their subsequent expulsion from Eden. The program explores freedom of choice, the nature of good and evil, the meaning of sin, and issues of gender and sexuality.
http://www.films.com/Films_Home/item.cfm?s=1&bin=6448

Behind the Veil: Afghan Women under Fundamentalism - For women living in Afghanistan under repressive Taliban rule, beatings, rape, and enslavement were commonplace occurrences. This gripping program, filmed during the Taliban's regime, describes the massive human rights abuses that escalated after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, as seen through the eyes of women who survived years of rampant gender and religious intolerance. Resistance activities carried out by women’s groups inside the country are also documented, as they fought for freedom and democracy.
http://www.films.com/Films_Home/item.cfm?s=1&bin=12113