ISU Library subscribes to Kanopy, a vast and eclectic collection of documentaries and feature films. Strong focus on educational resources, social, political, and cultural issues, and numerous international film classics. Here are a number of Kanopy's titles with creators, actors, stories, and themes related to people with disabilities.
During the 2018 midterms, women of color run for political office in record numbers. Candidates and organizers mobilize to expand the electorate, inspire voters to turn out and make history in the process.
Duration: 113 mins
With razor-sharp wit, outspoken journalist and firecracker Molly Ivins took on the good-ole-boy corruption in the political establishment. This six-foot, red-haired Texan found joy in reporting as one of the lone liberals in her deep-red state. She feared that the partisan plague would be the death of American democracy. Ivins became the first woman to co-edit the Texas Observer, and among her claims to fame were her searing, comical books on George W. Bush's temperament.
Duration: 93 mins
Founded in the 1970s in a New York City apartment, The Lesbian Herstory Archives is now the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians. For more than 40 years, the all-volunteer organization has striven to combat lesbian invisibility by literally rescuing history from the trash. Frustrated by misogyny and homophobia within academia, Deborah Edel and Joan Nestle co-founded the archives for those conducting research, both professional and personal. Over the years, the organization has witnessed many of the major milestones in LGBTQ+ history and has weathered several storms. Today, with its founders in their seventies, the archives are facing new challenges, including a change in leadership and the rise of digital technology. Exploring the fascinating origins of the organization, The Archivettes is a tribute to second-wave feminism and intergenerational connection, as well as an urgent rallying cry for continued activism in a politically charged moment.
Duration: 62 mins
Underplayed is a 2019 documentary, directed by Stacey Lee. The film profiles women who are producing, performing, and DJing electronic music, centering in large part on their struggles to be taken as seriously as male counterparts during the 2019 music festival season due to continued gender inequality in the music business. Artists included in the film include Rezz, Nervo, Nightwave, Sherelle, Tygapaw, Tokimonsta and Alison Wonderland, as well as profiles on pioneers such as Delia Derbyshire, Suzanne Ciani and Daphne Oram.
Duration: 91 mins
A feature length documentary, this film tells the story of Representative Barbara Lee, a steadfast voice for human rights, peace and economic and racial justice in the US Congress who cut her teeth as a volunteer for the Black Panther Party and was the lone vote in opposition to the broad authorization of military force following the September 11th attacks. In 2001, she issued a strident warning in the House of Representatives: "Let us not become the evil we deplore," and today she continues that clarion call, demanding that Congress stand up to a president who has escalated tensions with numerous foreign governments, while seeding division within his own country.
Duration: 84 mins
Nerdy women - the "hidden half" of fan culture - open up about their lives in the world of conventions, video games, and other rife-with-misogyny pop culture touchstones. While geek communities have recently risen to prominence, very little attention is paid to nerdy women. Through their personal experiences in the rich cultural explosion of nerdom, GEEK GIRLS shows both the exhilaration of newfound community and the ennui of being ostracized. These women, striving in their respective professions and passions, face the cyberbullying, harassment, and sexism that permeate the culture and the industry at large.
Duration: 84 mins.
Netflix offers a number of comedies, dramas, documentaries, series, and films on disability culture and the experiences of people with disabilities. You need to have a Netflix subscription to watch these. Trailers (from YouTube) for a few of these titles are highlighted below; films / series include closed captions.
This documentary explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
Duration: 85 min.
Picture a Scientist is a 2020 documentary that highlights gender inequality in science. The film tells the stories of several prominent female researchers and brings to the light the barriers they encounter, including cases of discrimination and harassment. It feature MIT's professor of biology Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geoscientist Jane Willenbring, among other scientists.
Duration: 97min.
A black-and-white drama film written, produced, and directed by Rebecca Hall. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, Passing tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield ) and Clare Kendry, who can “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in late 1920s New York.
Duration: 99 mins
The Fear Street trilogy is a horror film series written and directed by Leigh Janiak, and based on R.L. Stine's book of the same name. All three films follow teenagers who are terrorized by an ancient curse responsible for murders that have plagued their town for centuries. Rated R for violence and language.
Duration: 107 min.
Black women from across the globe unlock stories of their mothers to redefine holistic lives rooted in radical self-care and healing in this documentary,
Duration: 82 min.
Hulu offers a number of comedies, dramas, documentaries, series, and films on disability culture and the experiences of people with disabilities. You need to have a Netflix subscription to watch these. Trailers (from YouTube) for a few of these titles are highlighted below; films / series include closed captions.
Written, produced, and directed by Chloé Zhao, Nomadland is a fictional drama film based on the nonfiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder. After Fern, the main protagonist, looses her husband and her job, she sells most of her belongings and purchases a van to travel the United States in, living as a modern day nomad.
Duration: 108 mins
Journeying into the lives of three high school athletes at different stages of their athletic seasons, personal lives, and their unique paths as transgender teens. Their stories span across the U.S.; from Sarah, a skier and teen policymaker in New Hampshire, to Andraya, a track star in Connecticut openly transitioning into her authentic self, and to Mack Beggs, who made headlines last year when he became the Texas State Champion in wrestling.
Duration:91 min
AKA Jane Roe is a portrait of Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” whose unwanted pregnancy led to the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide, Roe v. Wade. The documentary unravels the mysteries closely guarded by McCorvey throughout her life. Considered too divisive and unpredictable by many in the pro-choice movement, McCorvey stunned the world in 1995 when she switched sides to crusade against her own case, as an anti-abortion firebrand. In candid one-on-one interviews, filmed across the last year of her life, McCorvey reveals the truth behind her astonishing story.
Duration: 80 min.
A fresh and deep examination of Mamie Till-Mobley's fight to bring her son's body home to Chicago after his brutal murder, and her pivotal yet heartbreaking decision to have an open-casket funeral for the public to see, which ultimately served as a turning point for the civil rights movement. The docuseries also traces Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley's journey back to the Jim Crow South to face her son's murderers in court, and illustrates how the Till family has continued her legacy since her death in 2003, remaining active in the movement as the deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others sparked protests around the country.
Duration: episodes of 40 mins
A drama TV series executively produced by Liz Tiglaar, Kerry Washington, and Reese Witherspoon, Little Fires Everywhere follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, the story explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
Duration: episodes of approximately 60 mins
Other Kanopy films with women creators, histories, and themes:
All listed podcasts are available for free online listening through these provided links.
