Diary of a Pregnant Woman (1958)
This is a film of two halves. One half is this fascinating, sensory expression of the various feelings of pregnancy through a number of images that are rife with all sorts of interesting, and sometimes disturbing, connotations. The other half of the film is this rather dull reminiscence on village life. I like the section about pregnancy a lot more. If the film was just ten minutes of that, it would be great.
Huey (1968)
The first half of the film is a look at the Black Panther protests of Huey Newton and a general examination of what the Black Panthers are, what they want, and how they intend to go about getting it. It’s informative, and an interesting subject, but it’s a springboard for a much more interesting second half where Varda and crew examine the role of women within the Black Panther party.
The party claims equality between women and men, showing some women training alongside the men in marches, but the film usurps this claim by teasing out some of the ways that things aren’t quite as equal. The voice of a woman on the stage is placed in relation to traditional women’s work: the tailoring of emblems for the Black Panthers. There’s also a sequence about the return to the natural beauty of black women that, while positioning itself as a response to White conceptions of beauty, shows how women still think of their image, at least in part, as something to curate in response to the desires of men.
Women Reply (1975)
What does it mean to be a woman? The film explores this question through a breadth of answers. It starts with the biological, the physical attributes that accompany a woman, but quickly evolves into the question in terms of the societal and sociopolitical context. It’s here that the film simultaneously finds a way to unify and pluralize its view of women.
The unity is developed through a collective and inherent unification in the problems that face women: the issue of objectification and social perceptions of what a woman is and should provide to society. However, it recognizes that the responses among women are different. Some desire to bear children, others do not. Both are still just as much a woman. Some of the film’s observations might seem obvious, but it’s a good, brief and encompassing answer to the question.