Northwest Film Forum

This joyously-received documentary charts a crucial era in the modern women's movement (1966-1971). Returning to Seattle for a special screening on International Women's Day, it covers the founding of NOW, with ladies in hats and gloves, through to the emergence of more radical factions of women’s liberation (from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH-Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!).  

Featuring interviews with early feminists Fran Beal, Rita Mae Brown and many others, She's Beautiful does not shy away from controversies over race, sexual preference and leadership that arose in the women’s movement, and brilliantly captures the spirit of the time—thrilling, scandalous, and often hilarious.

The film reveals a wide-reaching movement, with women’s rock bands, poetry readings and “zaps,” impromptu protest actions. Capturing many aspects of the movement, it documents poets and publishers in San Francisco (Susan Griffin and Alta); lesbian activists (Rita Mae Brown and Karla Jay) who made the slur “Lavender Menace” into a term of liberation; Chicago women who started a pre-Roe underground abortion service (Judith Arcana and Heather Booth); and the Boston women who wrote Our Bodies, Ourselves, named by Time Magazine as one of the most important books of the 20th century.

• Part of our International Women's Day events—don't miss our screening and conversation with Lynn Shelton at 5pm >

"One of the year's best films. An urgent, illuminating dive into the headwaters of second-wave feminism. Wise, moving, upsetting, and sometimes funny." —Village Voice

"There’s a warm, wise, passionate glow to. . .a great political success story. Visionary and heroic." —The New Yorker

“Exceptional. Bristling with the energy and insight of one of the most important social movements of the 20th century. Incisive. Nimble. Sharply edited." —The Los Angeles Times

She's Beautiful When She's Angry Trailer from nancy kennedy on Vimeo.