“Draft:Sisters in the Struggle”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Sisters in the Struggle is a 1991 Canadian documentary film directed by Ginny Stikeman and Dionne Brand and produced by the National Film Board of Canada’s women’s filmmaking unit, Studio D. The film is the second entry in the Studio D series, Women at the Well. Sisters in the Struggle features Black women who are active in community organizing, electoral politics, and labor and feminist organizing. Focusing on events that took place in the 1970s, the women in the film share their insights and personal testimonies on the double legacy of racism and sexism in Canada and the challenges they faced entering into the 1990s. The analyses they present link their struggles with the ongoing battle against pervasive racism and systemic violence against women and people of color.^[1] As stated in the film's description, the activists present in the film discuss the unique position of Black women in the Canadian labour force, outlining their struggle working long hours and receiving low wages and benefits. The film discusses the “restrictive” immigration policies of the 1970s that contributed to the economic difficulty of Black women working in Canada, highlighting the plight of Caribbean domestic workers who were required to be unmarried and without dependent children to be eligible to move to Canada to work. The film also highlights racially-motivated police violence against Black women across Canada during this period, paying particular attention to the shooting of Sophia Cook in Toronto in 1989.

Significance

The film articulates the struggles of Black women resisting the cultural, economic and legislative practices which subordinate them. Through frank interviews, women from across Canada (Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal) relate their personal testimonies of racism, from schoolyard taunts to more systemic forms.^[2]

Themes

Police Brutality, Systemic Violence Against Women, Systemic Violence Against People of Colour, Feminism, Women and Work, Discrimination, Cultural Groups, Stereotyping and Equal Rights, Social Action, Social Change, Racism, Sexism, Intersectionality.^[1]

Awards

Film Awards and Honourable Mentions

Praise and Criticism

The film received favorable reviews from critics. Gail Vanstone reviewed the film and wrote that "Using Studio D's hallmark techniques (action filmed in real time, women addressing the camera directly, clips spliced from television news footage and from other documentaries to provide background and context, female narration, [Dionne] Brand reading her own script), Sisters in the Struggle reveals in angry detail how Black women resist hegemonic discrimination that is institutionalized by government policy and enforced by the police they hire."^[3] Brenda Longfellow praised the overall production and the diversity of perspectives portrayed in the film, stating that "the striking artistic direction, the rhythmic editing, as well as the powerful chorus of women and the musical score, make the film more than a conventional documentary, what is more important is the representation of the difficult link. On the one hand, feminism, whose spokespersons are mostly middle-class white, and on the other, the political aspirations of the blacks, the great strength of the film lies in the fact that it refuses all single logic or any easy solution, but rather allows a dialogue on differences by juxtaposing the different points of view of the women concerned." ^[4] Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins furthered praised the diversity of voices represented in the film, in which “[Sisters in the Struggle] brings the testimony of black women, political activists in Canada, speaking of racism and sexism in their insidious forms of permanence...Brand’s use of a plurality of voices in Sisters in the Struggle makes it possible to share individual and collective histories.” ^[5]

See also

References

1. ^¹{{Citation|last=Canada|first=National Film Board of|title=Sisters in the Struggle|url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/sisters_in_the_struggle/|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}
2. ^{{Cite journal|last=Bobo|first=Jacqueline|date=2013-09-13|title=Black Women Film and Video Artists|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203698990|doi=10.4324/9780203698990}}
3. ^{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/917967745|title=D is for daring : the women behind the films of Studio D|last=Gail.|first=Vanstone,|date=2007|publisher=Sumach Press|isbn=9781894549677|oclc=917967745}}
4. ^{{Cite web|url=http://femfilm.ca/film_search.php?film=brand-sisters&lang=e|title=Sisters in the Struggle -- femfilm.ca: Canadian Women Film Directors Database|website=femfilm.ca|access-date=2019-03-26}}
5. ^{{Cite journal|last=Martins|first=Maria Lúcia Milléo|date=2009-11-16|title=Dionne Brand and Alanis Obomsawin: polyphony in the poetics of resistance|url=http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/16390|journal=Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies|volume=0|issue=56|doi=10.5007/2175-8026.2009n56p151|issn=2175-8026}}