Wonderful Women Of The World
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 20th, 2010
Good morning!
While perusing the web researching great women for my Saturday’s write “Wonderful Women Of The World”, I discovered “Flare Productions“, a non-profit filmmaking organization. And what peaked my interest is that they recently (?) came out with a series of documentaries honoring women, titled “Women Of Power”. It is where I found the quiz that I posted here weeks ago.
Before I talk about the series, here’s a little bit about “Flare Productions”:
Flare Productions is a not-for-profit filmmaking organization founded to produce artistic, deeply-researched, lively and engaging films which can be viewed with enjoyment both by people who already know a great deal about a subject and those who are being introduced to it for the first time.
We are dedicated to working collaboratively to produce films and videos which cross boundaries and can be broadcast internationally as well as used in universities and schools.
Flare is run by its founder, John Fuegi, and by Jo Francis, who also co-direct the Women of Power© series of films. John and Jo currently serve as Co-Presidents of the Board of Directors, whose present members are Catherine Good Abbott, James Coates, and Ursula Daniels.
Flare has worked closely with institutions such as Heidelberg, Bochum, the Bertolt Brecht Archive-Berlin, London University, the Imperial War Museum and Cambridge University. Flare co-produced project participants include: Liv Ullmann, Githa Nørby, Ian Redford, and Anna Massey.
Flare has an on-going professional connection with the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland, and the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research (formerly known as the Institute for Research on Women and Gender) at Stanford University.”HISTORY IS TOO MUCH ABOUT WARS; BIOGRAPHY IS TOO MUCH ABOUT GREAT MEN.”
Women of Power Series:
“HISTORY IS TOO MUCH ABOUT WARS; BIOGRAPHY IS TOO MUCH ABOUT GREAT MEN.”
Virginia Woolf said that 70 years ago — if you look at today’s classrooms, newspapers, films, and television not enough has changed. That’s why we are working to complete a new historic series.
When finished, the series will include not only the Women of Power documentaries produced or co-produced by Flare Productions– on Ruth Berlau, Virginia Woolf, Hildegard of Bingen, Ada Byron Lovelace, and Maria Sibylla Merian but also a number of fine documentaries made by other filmmakers.
The Women of Power series is designed for global broadcast as well as for use in universities, colleges, & high schools.
For more information and to support the project please contact Flare Productions.
Here’s a little taste of the first of the series. It is called “Red Ruth, That Deadly Longing”:
Red Ruth: That Deadly Longing is the first documentary made in a series entitled Women of Power . The Ruth of the film’s title is Ruth Berlau, an extraordinarily beautiful and feisty Danish novelist, actress, photographer, and director who was born in Copenhagen in 1906. The film follows Berlau from her beginnings in Denmark, her involvement with the Communist party before World War II and in the Danish Resistance after the Nazi invasion, and then her exile in Finland, the USSR and then in the US where she came under the prurient gaze of J. Edgar Hoover who suspected her of Soviet spying. She moved in the company of stars such as Laughton, Chaplin, and Robeson. With the war over, we follow her back to Europe and her death by fire in Berlin in 1974.
From the time of her meeting with the German playwright Bertolt Brecht in 1933, her life was marked by her work with him and her love for him despite the fact that he, as the film shows, stole some of her best work and most of her earnings. Berlau contributed to “Brecht” plays such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Simone Machard, & The Good Person of Sezuan. She loved Brecht “not wisely, but too well.”
Red Ruth: That Deadly Longing is a microcosm of lives lived under the threat of Hitler and of Stalin, of the bugging by Hoover of virtually all dissidents, and of Berlau’s increasingly desperate attempts to make a contribution to sanity, justice, and equality in a Berlin riven by the Cold War and bitter personal jealousies.
The research for Red Ruth is taken from John Fuegi’s book Brecht & Co. which was named a New York Times “Book of the Year.” In its English version, Red Ruth features the voice of international star, Liv Ullmann. The film also includes footage of Bertolt Brecht’s appearance before the inquisitorial House Unamerican Activities Committee and of Charles Laughton in Galileo (which has been called the “rarest Charles Laughton item in movie history”)
The one-hour documentary film was made by Flare Productions along with the Scandinavian company, Nordisk Film, producers of Academy Award winner Babette’s Feast. With voice-overs in various languages, Red Ruth has been seen around the world from Germany to Finland to Canada to Australia.
Readers: Interested in reading more about the women in the rest of the series? Click here. I could not find out how long this series has been around, but news about women in power should continue to circulate no matter what. Every woman, young and old, needs to have role models, and to be continually inspired, showing us the possibilities. I think this series provides both.
Here are some OPPORTUNITIES to support the project:
Contribute to Flare . Contributions are tax-deductible and can be earmarked for the Women of Power series. The sums needed for a fine series are large, but the number of people who are then able to view such a series is also great. Checks should be made payable to Flare Productions and sent to 5231 Crown Street, Bethesda, MD 20816 USA
Email us at if you have information and recommendations about fine documentaries on women, whose filmmakers we might contact about including their work in the series. Or write us about your own work if you are a documentary filmmaker who has made or is making a program focusing on an individual woman or a group of women. Subjects may be historical or contemporary. Recommended documentaries should ideally be between 45 and 60 minutes in length, lively and interesting to a broad audience, of high artistic and technical quality, well-researched, and, for this series, preferably without dramatizations. At this time we are particularly seeking documentaries about African and Latin American women.
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Readers: I’ll end my write here and leave the forum open to comment. HOPEfully you will be able to. Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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November 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
Wonderful series Michelle. I have been trying to get in to thank you for introducing me to it.
Jody
November 21st, 2010 at 8:40 am
Zen Lill
I tried to tell you on the 19th that you wrote a beautiful response. I am trying again.. I too am a independent woman. And I am often looked upon as doing work to further my “lavish” lifestyle because I am without a mate.
Rachael
November 21st, 2010 at 8:50 am
Michelle:
I couldn’t put down you 19th article. Your reply to Zen Lill put me to tears.
My husband was the model man to all, including me. None of us knew he was living a secret life style of courting and bedding women he met through the net on the side.
I kicked that bastard to the curb when I confronted him with the evidence. He was so contrite. But as you stated I had discovered that I could take very good care of myself on my own.
I certainly didn’t need a man bringing home the medical history of the women he was sleeping with sans a rubber.
My lawyer threatened to have him tried for assault because he had willingly had intercourse with those women without taking any sexual precautions to prevent me from catching what he was exposing himself too.
He was so frightened about going to jail that he let me go with a very generous package.
Brandy
November 21st, 2010 at 8:55 am
Michelle:
Why is it that when a guy really needs to get in to comment, he can’t. I have been trying to get in to say that if you EVER need an escort to an event of your choosing, I am most available.
And I will accept your request over the blog. No dig intended toward you Wizz{you gotta love that name:)}
Theodore
November 21st, 2010 at 9:00 am
Michelle:
Where would us work challenged women be without this blog to help us keep up and to remind us that we count.
Thanks
Maria
November 21st, 2010 at 9:06 am
Zen Lill
Great recipes! Jorge says its nice to know that both your heads work so well.
Seriously, your comment about men and their society’s take on the single working woman is a hundred times as bad in the countries dominated by the catholic religion.
Those despicable false representations of our Lord have denigrated women at every opportunity since they organized and began to spread that man glorifying religious dogma.
Carla
November 21st, 2010 at 9:17 am
Zen Lill
Merci de vos recettes et exercices. Ils sont beaucoup appréciés.
Ma Qin
November 21st, 2010 at 9:19 am
Michelle:
You couldn’t have said it better. One more inch and the bastard that cheated on me would have been into a whole new world of pleasure.
And so would I.
Tiffany.
November 21st, 2010 at 9:20 am
Michelle
Can’t say enough about the articles you post. I am a fan forever.
November 21st, 2010 at 9:21 am
Zen Lill
Now that’s the woman I expect to see in you. Your 19th post was the best I’ve seen of you when it comes to telling it like it is for women.
Kelly
November 21st, 2010 at 9:24 am
Michelle
What a coincidence. I loved Basia back in the day. Thanks Wizz(yeah, you gotta love that name) for the info. I went and I enjoyed.
Were you there? Sorry you missed it Michelle. You can always blog me and I would be delighted to accompany you to something when your husband is not available.
Kalin
November 21st, 2010 at 9:27 am
Today seems encouraging so I will try to get in too. Michelle your blog would be the best if a girl could count on getting in when one of your blog’s article or post’s gets the blood boiling.
It is so frustrating attempting to post only to get – your already said that.
I still love your blog and I read it first every morning.
Love
Daniela
November 21st, 2010 at 9:32 am
Michelle:
How wonderful to have friends that remember your past enjoyments. I envy you. Most of my male friends stopped calling after I put on 30 plus calls 11 years ago.
Before that they always had something to say. Now that I am slim and trim again(thanks ZL), I seem to be back on their reach out and touch list.
All it took was a recent picture of me posted on my facebook site. I gave you much credit for the transformation Zen Lill.
Anyway, I don’t take the attempts too seriously because they weren’t so forth coming when I was out of shape.
Now that I am the bombshell that they coveted when we were in high school and college, they want to be “friends” again.
Interesting, huh?
Sydney
November 21st, 2010 at 9:41 am
Michelle
Here in Italy we women are looked down upon if we do not have a man at our beck and call. We are accused of being lesbians if we want to be independent.
As in America we work for less. I quit my job as an bio-tech engineer to become a model two years ago.
At first I thought it would be a negative thing to do to all the sacrifice my parents had put themselves through to see me through school.
But when my mother said that she would do it in a moment if she had to do it all over again. I was shocked.
She revealed that she had had similar offers when she was in middle school. My father looked at the economic potential and said he would approve if I didn’t pose nude. I laughed and told him it was not that kind of offer.
I have been modeling for some of the most prestigious magazines in Europe, South American and Asia. I recently broke into Victoria Secrets in Ameirca.
I make 20 times more money and I have never been happier. None of my colleagues know that I have a degree in bio physics.
Leilani
November 21st, 2010 at 9:48 am
Michelle
My boyfriend gave me a STD when he fucked a whore from his past.
I gave him a glass of poison coffee. I went to jail. He is still out there cheating on whoever he is with now.
Heather
November 21st, 2010 at 10:10 am
Social Connections Prevent Memory Loss
Lisa F. Berkman, PhD
Harvard School of Public Health
A recent study of more than 16,000 people age 50 and older asked participants to take verbal memory tests over six years.
Findings: Those who had the fewest social connections with friends, family and in the community suffered decline in memory capacity at twice the rate as those with the most.
Conclusion: This is another example of how being socially engaged is beneficial for mental health.
Retirement interviewed Lisa F. Berkman, PhD, lead study author, department of sociology, human development and health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.