This energetic 2014 documentary chronicles the explosion of feminist activism that followed the 1964 publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, pairing archival footage of the movement’s leaders with more than a dozen talking-head interviews of the same women (including Kate Millett, Ellen Willis, Alix Kates Shulman, Susan Brownmiller, Susan Griffin, and Eleanor Holmes Norton). Director Mary Dore pulls up short in 1971, before congressional passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade elevated the feminist agenda to the constitutional arena, and as a result her story doesn’t so much end as fade out. But the wealth of anecdotal material provides a fascinating perspective on how the movement intersected—and sometimes clashed—with other liberal crusades of the 60s, from the antiwar movement to the growing demands for black, Latino, and gay rights.
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
NR • 1 hour 32 min • 2014
