Film Club | 6 Must-Watch Gender-Related Documentaries for Teens

For our final Film Club of this school year, we’re doing something a bit different. Instead of highlighting one short documentary film, three teenagers from our spring Student Council have suggested a mix of six films to watch and discuss, all related to the theme of gender. Along with a brief description of each film, they have also suggested questions for analysis and discussion.

Let us know what you think of this list, and suggest additional films we should add in the comments section.

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‘Gnarly in Pink’ (New York Times Op-Doc)

Watch as three 6-year-old girls with a love for skateboarding form the Pink Helmet Posse. Considering that women are grossly underrepresented in the skating world, the Pink Helmet Posse shreds through the skate park and through gender roles all while wearing sparkly nail polish.

Discussion Questions

• The girls who make up the Pink Helmet Posse are only 6. Is involving them in a discussion about gender roles problematic?
• The girls experience many different attitudes, from painting their nails to playing aggressively with stuffed animals. What are the implications of their being both typically feminine and engaging in a typically masculine activity?
• What is the significance of including the word pink in the title?
• Is celebrating and pointing out the Pink Helmet Posse a way of perpetuating sexism?

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‘A Girl in the River’ (HBO Documentary)

“A Girl in the River” tells the story of a Pakistani woman named Saba Qaiser who married her boyfriend against her family’s wishes. In an attempt to restore honor to their family name, Saba’s father and uncle beat her, shot her and threw her body into the river.

Heartbreakingly, Saba’s story of oppression is not unique, but she is. Saba miraculously survived and her story now serves as a catalyst to save thousands of girls, change laws that are lenient toward honor killings, and force the world to face head-on the gender-related injustices we have tried to brush under the table.

Nicholas Kristof writes about the film:

Since 9/11, the United States has spent billions of dollars reshaping Afghanistan and Pakistan with the military toolbox; I suspect we would have achieved more if we had relied to a greater extent on the education and women’s empowerment tool boxes.

A starting point would be to encourage governments to protect teenage girls from fathers who want to murder them. Chipping away at this broad pattern of gender injustice is in the interest of all of us. It is our century’s great unfinished business.

Discussion Questions

• Does the world turn a cheek toward gender-related injustices in developing countries?
• What implications does the rhetoric “honor killing” have?
• Is there a Western version of an honor killing?
• Is Saba’s desire to have her father and uncle be publicly executed counterproductive in the movement to change the systematic violence and oppression women face?
• Mr. Kristof says that investing in education could have helped chip away at the problem of gender injustice. How could education affect this?
• What does the weight of the words “honor” and “shame” say about the kind of communities and cultures of the regions where honor killings are common?

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‘Cindi Leive | Glamour’s Confidence Chief’ (New York Times Business Video)

The editor in chief of Glamour magazine, Cindi Leive, comments on the workplace tendencies for women to underestimate their potential. Ms. Leive guides a conversation that places emphasis on the idea that any woman, no matter her title as a president or a teacher, can embody the idea of a strong female leader.

Discussion Questions

• Do you think Ms. Leive’s statement is valid that women tend to belittle their ideas before they even pitch their thoughts?
• Ms. Leive draws a distinction that “juggling” is not a fair term to describe women who work. Do you agree or disagree with her argument?
• Do you think it is the responsibility of women’s magazines to send messages of confidence to their female readership? How well do you think magazines achieve this goal?

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‘Great Expectations for Female Lawyers’ (New York Times Op-Doc)

Female lawyers from the prestigious law firm Debevoise & Plimpton contemplate the struggle of balancing work and success. When the lawyers read their interview responses published in The New York Times from a dozen years before, they are surprisingly taken aback and even “cringe.” They comment that their responses were “naïve” and “black and white.”

The filmmaker, Florence Martin-Kessler, writes about what she learned by making the film:

I learned that, of the original women profiled in the article, only a handful of the young recruits of 2001 remained with the firm. (Of course, the attrition rate is high for men, too — but not nearly as high; in American law firms, the overwhelming majority of partners are men.) From the original 21, around half are in private practice, some are in powerful positions at corporations, others are working in public interest law and several became full-time parents. But what I found most interesting was that their lives were often far more complex than they had predicted. Even the greatest of expectations, it seems, eventually encounter reality.

Discussion Questions

• Some of the women make the point that the amount of work required to become a partner isn’t necessarily compatible with being a mother in a household. Do you think this is true?
• Do you think there are any distinctions between the responses of the female lawyers in 2001 and in the video?
• At 5:23 the cinematographers make an unusual decision to split the picture into three identical frames. Why do you think this decision was made?

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‘Sarah’s Uncertain Path’ (New York Times Op-Doc)

In this Op-Doc, a teenage girl, Sarah, goes to a dance with her friends, plays piano with her younger siblings, and expresses her goals and ambitions for her future. Sarah is also pregnant with her first child at age 15. Unfortunately, especially in places with high rates of poverty, this situation is not uncommon.

Discussion Questions

• How are teenagers, particularly women, affected when they become young parents?
• How is Sarah’s story reflective of the impoverished rural town in which she lives?
• Can we as a society do more to ensure that young women do not end up in this position when they are not ready?

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‘Gun Hill Road’ (Film by Rashaad Ernesto Green)

“Gun Hill Road” is significant in that it is a film in which a transgender character, Michael, is played by an actor who is herself transgender.

Jeannette Catsoulis writes in her review:

A strangely bifurcated film, “Gun Hill Road” comes to life only when focused on Michael, and Ms. Santana (who was just beginning her own gender transition when she won the role) holds the screen like a pro. Un-self-consciously transforming into his female identity, or engaging in dangerous sexual bartering with a volatile African-American boyfriend (Tyrone Brown), Michael possesses a maturity that his father, with all his macho posturing, never will.

Although movies containing transgender characters have been around for decades, and cisgender actors have even won awards for portraying these characters, it is only recently that transgender actors themselves have been stepping into these roles.

Discussion Questions

• Is it important that films with transgender characters use actors who are themselves transgender? Why or why not?
• How well does the film portray the struggles of a transgender youth and her family?