Film & Media Studies

For decades, our own Patricia Aufderheide—who founded this organization’s precursor, the Center for Social Media—has chronicled, studied, and impacted the global community of documentary storytellers who seek to speak truth to power and uphold democracy. In her new book, Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy (University of California Press), she brings readers into the six-decade history and living story of the longest-running independent documentary production organization in the United States, Kartemquin Films.

“What do we, as feminists, need right now—from cinema, from archives, from our communities? How can filmmaking, film festivals, and social movements of the past inspire or befuddle us today? And what is at stake in selecting and presenting archival works by women to create new forms of community?”

In celebration of Women's History Month, we've removed the paywall from the guest editors’ introductions from the past nine Spring issues of Feminist Media Histories (FMH). As we anticipate the journal's tenth anniversary issue (forthcoming in April 2024), we invite you to read this selection of con