Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




AGORA
: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.


CRITICAL WOMEN HEADLINES

7/17/09

HE SAID, SHE SAID...A Woman In Berlin: Blurring The Lines Between Film And Journalism



SHE SAID...

...the official record indicates that historians are in agreement that, contrary to what is professed in this film, there were no orders from Soviet commanders in 1945 to engage in mass rape. While in this current direction within Germany to switch up their national perspective from historical remorse to indignation, there is a not necessarily coincidental simultaneous campaign in European countries, to embark on a neo-red scare in order to officially outlaw communist parties, in the face of a current resurgence in their popularity there. No insignificant factor, whether in movies or journalism...

CONTINUE READING REVIEW HERE

Prairie Miller
Critical Women

HE SAID...

By Gerald Wright

I did not confuse or associate this film with The Diary of Anne Frank, which is a harrowing story of a holocaust victim. A Woman In Berlin, is also a harrowing story that shows depraved indifference to people. However, governments, politicians and soldiers fight the wars, not civilians. War has its collateral damage; however, atrocities against civilians are unforgivable...

CONTINUE READING REVIEW HERE

Gerald Wright
HDFEST.com
Film Showcase

7/8/09

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg: Blacklists, Bagel Pride And Windowsills


Defying just about all the odds imaginable for women, an unassuming early 20th century portly thirtysomething housewife with untapped talent and enormous charm to spare, became the most famous female entertainer in America. And one of the first women of radio and television ever, penning no less than 12,000 scripts for broadcast, while being credited with inventing the sitcom.

And at a time long before basic opportunities for women beyond domestic duties, or American Idol aspirations for that matter, Gertrude Berg came out of nowhere and grabbed hearts across the nation along with financial success, despite the most trying historical times for the masses of people here, The Great Depression and the Blacklist. All without benefit of cell phones or texting. Just windows, please.


CLICK TO READ REVIEW HERE


LISTEN TO AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH YOO-HOO MRS. GOLDBERG DIRECTOR AVIVA KEMPNER HERE

HE SAID, SHE SAID....Adam


HE SAID....

By Gerald Wright

Most romance flicks are based on the idea of an innate emotional ending. I won't be a spoiler and give away the finale; however, the notion that good people are rewarded and evil people are punished isn't true. This beautifully crafted film doesn't type-cast anyone as good or bad. In this romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other are rewarded with emotional justice....

CLICK TO CONTINUE READING REVIEW HERE....

Gerald Wright
HDFEST.com
Film Showcase


SHE SAID....

By Linda Z

Hold on to your hat, secure your seat belt, the film Adam breaks with tradition. Imagine a mainstream film, where the women are Not the essentially irrelevant characters who appear when a need to show the otherwise perfect man mess up because of Her, the Bad one, the woman otherwise kept out of the viewer's awareness....

CLICK TO CONTINUE READING REVIEW HERE

Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective


JAN AARON, THE FILM GOURMET

ADAM: Love Peppered With Limitations

Writer director Max Mayer's “Adam” is an unusual and captivating and delicious love story.

Hugh Dancy in the title role as an engineer is nice looking and living alone in his Manhattan apartment after the death of his Dad. Beth (Rose Bryne) is his beautiful neighbor who wins his trust and pulls him out of his perplexing shell.

In time, she gains his trust and he tells her he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a highly functional form of autism. He tells her about his difficulty in discerning what other people think and feel, his social insecurities and need for complete candor from others. He also tells Beth he’s attracted to her. She’s teaching at a private school nearby to finance her dream of one day writing children’s books.

Beth is also attracted to him, but decides to play it with caution. She’s just experienced wrenching break-up with her boyfriend and also knows that Adam presents a unique situation. The movie keeps you guessing how things will turn out until the end. But you know they will have major impact on each of their lives.

In some of best sequences in the film Mayer sets up moments of trust and flashes of insight between his two characters. Dancy in particular, digs deep into the character and Bryne builds nicely into her role. She is handling a social powder keg who might ruin a party, but she thinks she’s up to the challenge.

Stellar moments include Beth’s introduction to planetarium show Adam has created in his apartment and their nocturnal visit to the raccoons in Central Park. A subplot introduces some legal troubles facing her parents (Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving), adding an interesting dimension. New York looks great throughout.

Film Gourmet sum-up: Nice recipe for off-kilter love.

Rating: Three Croutons


Check Education Update in print and online and www. Criticalwomen.com for more of my reviews. Cookbooks I’ve authored can be found on Amazon.com.

Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door, Commentary And Interview

Doris Day And Judy Garland

By Penelope Andrew
The Huffington Post

...She is the number one, female box office star of all time and may have also singlehandedly saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy through the difficult, transition in the film industry from the romantic, cinematic styles of the 1940s/1950s to the rapidly changing genres and themes of the 1960s...

CLICK TO CONTINUE READING INTERVIEW HERE

CLICK HERE TO READ PART TWO OF THIS ARTICLE

Penelope Andrew, a NYC-based writer who contributes to The Huffington Post and Critical Women on Film, is a member of the Women Film Critics Circle. A certified psychoanalytic psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, she maintains a private psychotherapy practice in NYC.

The Beaches of Agnes: a documentary by/of Agnes Varda


Of all the ways that French filmmaker Agnès Varda, just turned 81, might frame discussion of the French New Wave in this self-portrait documentary, she mirthfully chooses a giant orange-tiger cartoon cat with a droll, mechanically filtered voice to introduce the subject for posterity. The cat is actually long-time friend and fellow filmmaker Chris Marker, bobbing along disguised in cardboard cutout as his own character Guillaume-in-Egypt, inquiring “What about...?” off-handedly during a stroll through a crowded Paris street....

CONTINUE READING HERE...

Nancy Keefe Rhodes
TheFanzine.com

Nancy Keefe Rhodes covers film, photo and visual arts. She lives in upstate New York and is a member of the Women Film Critics Circle.

7/7/09

HE SAID, SHE SAID....Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg


A MACHO CRITIC FREE ZONE

HE SAID....

By Gerald Wright

The relatively normal situations millions of Americans found themselves in was performed by the show's cast, even though the story was about a poor Jewish family in New York. The dialogue was stereotyped; however, the emphasis was on Gertrude Berg's portrayal of the Jewish mother. This mother was a constant source of universally positive solutions to problems. Gertrude Berg's performance in her debut television series as the bighearted matriarch of her fictitious New York family won her the first ever Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Comedy. In 1959, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her stage performance in A Majority of One...

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Gerald Wright
HDFEST.com
Film Showcase


SHE SAID....

At a time long before basic opportunities for women beyond domestic duties, or American Idol aspirations for that matter, Gertrude Berg came out of nowhere and grabbed hearts across the nation along with financial success, despite the most trying historical times for the masses of people here, The Great Depression and the Blacklist. All without benefit of cell phones or texting. Just windows, please...

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Prairie Miller

7/3/09

Airing The Hot Flashes Symposium!


THURSDAY, JULY 9TH AT 11AM EST, AND STREAMING LIVE AT WBAI.ORG

THE WOMEN'S SHOW

Hosted By Mary Ann Miller, With Vanessa Cooper
And Guest Producers Travis Thomas, Janet Coleman
Guest: Sheila Santon

Discussion And Listener Calls

CLICK HERE TO TUNE INTO THE SHOW

Hosted By The WBAI Radio Women's Collective

Stay tuned for The Women's Show television broadcast, on July 20, 2009 at 7pm on Time Warner and RCN Channel 56 & 83 or 84 in New York City. You can also watch it online at the same time same day on www.mnn.org channel 56/84 or 56/83.
S.A.V.E.D 4 Life.

The Women's Show Airs Every Second Thursday Of The Month At 11am on WBAI Radio, and streaming live at WBAI.org

Tune into S.A.V.E.D 4 Life on Monday June 29, 2009 at 7pm on Time Warner and RCN Channel 56 & 83 or 84 to learn about the continued efforts of educating women and girls on issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Visit www.mnn.org on 6/29/09at 7pm on 56/83 or 84 to watch the show online: Go to My space www.myspace.com/healthresourceguide
or www.myspace.com/projectsaved and You Tube www.youtube.com/Iamsaved4life at th end of July to view this Show.

VISIT THE WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE WOMEN OF THE WORLD WEBSITE

Fromthewomensdesk@gmail.com

Public Enemies Of The Great Depression: Dillinger And Henry Ford


In a movie where the clothes and guns have more personality than the characters, Dillinger is your basic badass unmatched genius escape artist who repeatedly slips through prison gates but can't dance, fawningly communes with the swells on the sly, and takes time out to pursue Marion Cotillard's underwhelmed 'coat check girl in a three dollar dress.'

CLICK HERE TO READ PUBLIC ENEMIES REVIEW

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO COMMENTARY ABOUT PUBLIC ENEMIES, AND FORDLANDIA: THE RISE AND FALL OF HENRY FORD'S FORGOTTEN JUNGLE CITY