Cinema Series with Shelly Isaacs
NOTE: This series includes six (6) live, virtual post-discussions for the term. If you will not be able to attend all discussions, we send the video recording of the session, so you don't miss the conversation!
This course will take place on six (6) THURSDAYS, please mark your calendars: March 12, 19, 26, (No class on April 2 and 9 in observance of Passover holidays), April 16, 23, 30 .
Please note: This is a six (6) session series.
Series Theme: Her Quiet Rebellion
Reminder: If you don’t have Kanopy, you can get it for free from the Mandel Library, or if you are a Broward resident, and have a library card, you should have access.
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This series explores the courage of women who challenge the social, political, or domestic boundaries of their eras. Through intimate personal lenses, these films examine how the search for identity and autonomy often becomes a profound act of resistance against the status quo.
3/12 - My Happy Family (Georgia) - 2017 On the eve of her 52nd birthday, Manana shocks her multi-generational Georgian household by announcing she is moving out to live alone. This film is a poignant and often humorous look at a woman reclaiming her space and silence after decades of being defined solely by her roles as a wife, daughter, and mother. Kanopy
3/19 - Chile ’76 (Chile) - 2022 Set during the Pinochet dictatorship, a quiet housewife’s life is upended when a local priest asks her to secretly tend to a wounded revolutionary. The film masterfully builds tension as her comfortable, upper-class existence collides with the terrifying realities of political complicity and her own burgeoning moral awakening. Kanopy, Hoopla, Prime Video (Rental)
3/26 - The White Line - (Namibia) – 2019 Set in 1963 Namibia under South African apartheid, this film follows the forbidden love between a Black domestic worker and a white police officer. It provides a searing look at the "Immorality Act" and how personal devotion can become a dangerous, transformative defiance of systemic racism and state-mandated hate. Kanopy, Hoopla, Prime Video (With Ads)
4/16 - The Maid (La Nana – Chile) – 2009 La Nana is a microcosm of Latin social hierarchy while also focusing on one woman's journey to free herself from a mental servitude of her own making. Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Prime Video (Rent)
4/23 - Margrete: Queen of the North Denmark - 2021 In 1402, Queen Margrete struggles to maintain the fragile Kalmar Union, a feat of diplomacy that united Scandinavia against external threats. The film captures a visionary leader forced to choose between her maternal instincts and the political stability of an entire region. Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Prime Video (Rent)
4/20 - My Motherland (France) Following the death of her husband, a wealthy Parisian widow named France decides to take an Afghan refugee into her home against the wishes of her family. Starring Fanny Ardant, this film is a moving exploration of intergenerational solidarity and the transformative power of opening one’s heart and home to a stranger. Kanopy, Prime Video (Rent)