Subject Guides: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence: Movies and Documentaries

Selected Movies and Documentaries

Learn about how to spot and stop gender-based violence through the power of film
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Many of the films deal with mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.

Criterion

Criterion On Demand
Over 2000 streamed feature films including classics, new releases, foreign films, literary adaptations, documentaries, animated titles, and independent features.

The color purple
In a small Georgia town in 1906, young Celie gives birth to two children, fathered by the man she calls "Pa". Sustained by the close bond with younger sister Nettie, Celie submerges her own identity and pours out her heart in letters first to God, then to her absent sister. It is not until 1921, when blues singer Shug Avery, the preacher's daughter, comes into Celie's life, that she begins to reveal her glowing spirit and to develop an awareness of her own worth and the world of possibilities that lies open to her.
The hunting ground
From Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning director Kirby Dick, and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer Amy Ziering comes a startling expose of sexual assault on US campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. Weaving together cinema verite footage and first person testimonies, the film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue both their education and justice.
Moonlight
A young black man struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.
Room
After five-year old Jack and his Mom escape from the enclosed environment that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a miraculous discovery: the outside world.

National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board Education
Approximately 2500 productions in English and French available 24/7 streamed to the classroom or personal computer. Choose from an International treasury of stories with acclaimed documentaries, award-winning animation and alternative dramas-exploring history, the environment, culture, media literacy and a vast range of topics.

Assortment of films produced by the National Film Board that tackle the issue of violence against women.

NFB Collection on Violence Against Women