what (not) to doc

Coming to PBS’s WORLD Channel tonight, Monday, March 4:
WARRIOR WOMEN

Directors:
Christina D King and Elizabeth Castle

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2018

Select Festivals:
Traverse City, Seattle, San Francisco Green, Calgary, Margaret Mead, Milwaukee, San Francisco American Indian, Los Angeles SKINS, Guelph, Cucalorus, Athena, Big Sky Doc

About:
A longtime Native American activist reflects on a lifetime of resistance.

Lakota activist Madonna Thunder Hawk, now nearing 80, has been fighting for indigenous rights since the late 1960s. A leader in the American Indian Movement, she participated in Wounded Knee, as well as other actions, while also preparing the next generation of Native Americans through her We Will Remember Survival School, teaching the children of fellow activists and political prisoners. Among her students was her own daughter, Marcy. King and Castle’s film profiles Thunder Hawk, in conversation with her peers as well as Marcy, as they look back on seminal moments in the struggle for Native rights, and, particularly, the pivotal role played by women, while also demonstrating their present-day resolve when facing issues like the Dakota Access Pipeline. Thunder Hawk is an inspiring figure, but the film’s episodic structure and short running time prevents this project from being as fully developed as it could have been.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Friday, March 1:
HOLLY NEAR: SINGING FOR OUR LIVES

Director:
Jim Brown

Premiere:
Mill Valley 2018

About:
The story of the singer-songwriter and how her music fueled decades of activism.

Though beloved by and particularly influential to second wave feminists, Holly Near perhaps is not as well-known to the general public. Jim Brown’s biographical portrait provides a capable overview of the performer’s life, career, and impact, charting her development from aspiring young actress to folk musician and independent record label founder as the head of Redwood Records. A central focus of the film is how Near and her music served as a soundtrack to the social and cultural revolutions taking place in the 1970s, including the anti-war movement, feminism, and gay and lesbian liberation. Of particular note are Near’s participation in Jane Fonda’s Free the Army Tour, an anti-Viet Nam War variety show for soldiers modeled after Bob Hope’s USO Tour; her public coming out as a lesbian in People Magazine and the unapologetic same-sex focus of some of her songs, often performed in women-only concerts, creating a space for a legion of newly visible lesbian fans; and her later championing of the voices of South American women.