Yes, Penrose Library has a significant collection of films distributed by Women Make Movies (WMM), a non-profit media arts organization that promotes independent films by and about women.  Films from WMM examine the lives and experiences of women worldwide through documentaries but also through dramatic and experimental films.  The WMM film catalog includes films by more than 400 women artists representing almost 30 different countries.

Currently, Penrose Library has more than 100 WMM titles.  If you search the library catalog with the phrase “women make movies,” you can review the titles in our collection.  Recent WMM titles available through Penrose include: Price of Sex (2011), a film about the trafficking of Eastern European women; Conjure Women (2010), with interviews of four African American female artists and performers; and Pushing the Elephant (2010), which relates the story of a mother and daughter reunited after being separated for ten years following the Democratic Republic of Congo civil war.  Other films investigate Canadian Aboriginal identity, Title IX, the civil war in Nepal, camerawomen, female Israeli soldiers, feminism in the United States, the Hijab, archaeologist Theresa Goell, and female-to-male transsexuals, among many other topics.

The Women Make Movies website (www.wmm.com) features the entire film catalog, which can be browsed by title, release date, filmmaker, or subject (e.g., abortion rights, aging, body image, diversity, film history, gender, human rights, lesbian, poetry, racism, terrorism, video art, war, young women).  If you would like the library to purchase a WMM title not already in our collection, please fill out the purchase request form from either the Faculty or Students dropdown menu on the library’s main page.