Media Literacy Week Virtual Film Festival
Media Literacy Week – Virtual Film Festival
co-presented by Women Make Movies & the Media Education Foundation
October 24-28, 2022
The festival has ended. Thank you for joining us. Please join us again next year.
Women Make Movies and the Media Education Foundation partnered to bring you a selection of films that take a critical look at media images, messages, and the corporate systems that produce them.
You can still watch trailers and learn where you can purchase these films below.
To be notified about next year’s festival, sign up below.
Watch Trailers
Coded Bias
A film by Shalini Kantaya | US/UK/China/South Africa | 2020 | 90 minutes | English
When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she is compelled to investigate further. It turns out that artificial intelligence, which was defined by a homogeneous group of men, is not neutral. The film explores widespread bias in algorithms, machine learning, and AI.
Behind the Shield
Produced by the Media Education Foundation, featuring Dave Zirin | 2022 | 94 mins | English
“Behind the Shield” digs deep into the history of the NFL and navigates a stunning excavation of decades of archival footage and news media to trace how the NFL has promoted militarism, glorified reactionary ideas about manhood and gender roles, and normalized systemic racism, corporate greed, and crony capitalism.
Muslim in America: Trump's Legacy of Fear
Directed by Deeyah Khan | UK/US 2020 | 68 minutes | English
In this Peabody Award-winning exposé, director Deeyah Khan uses her uniquely intimate filming style to investigate the rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S.
Theaters of War
Director, Editor and Narrator: Roger Stahl | 2022 | 87 mins | English
If you’ve seen “Top Gun” or “Transformers”, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? In unsettling and riveting detail, “Theaters of War” outlines how the military and CIA have used their power to push official narratives while systematically scrubbing scripts of war crimes, corruption, racism, sexual assault, coups, assassinations, and torture.
Fattitude
A film by Lindsey Averill, Viridiana Lieberman | US | 2019 | 88 minutes | Color
An eye-opening look at how popular media perpetuates fat hatred that results in cultural bias and discrimination.
Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype
“Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype” examines how US news and entertainment media portray — and do not portray — Latinos. Uncovering a pattern of gross misrepresentation and gross under-representation, the film challenges viewers to think critically about the wide-ranging effects of these media stereotypes, and to envision alternative representations more capable of capturing the humanity and diversity of real Latinos.
Fannie Lou Hamer's America
Directed by Joy Davenport, Produced by Monica Land | US | 2022 | 60 minutes | Color | English
FANNIE LOU HAMER’S AMERICA, a documentary producer by her grand-niece Monica Land, is a portrait of a civil rights activist and the injustices in America that made her work essential. Through public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, this film explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.
Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women
Created & Written By: Jean Kilbourne | 2010 | 45 mins
In “Killing Us Softly 4”, Jean Kilbourne breaks down a staggering range of more than 160 print and television ads, uncovering a steady stream of sexist and misogynistic images and messages. The doc challenges viewers to take advertising seriously and to think critically about its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, gender violence, and contemporary politics.
The R-Word
A film by Amanda Lukoff | US | 2020 | 65 minutes
THE R-WORD is an intimate look at the history of the word ‘retard(ed),’ cultural representation, and the challenges and triumphs of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Digital Disconnect
A Media Education Foundation Production, featuring Robert McChesney | 2018 | English
“Digital Disconnect” trains its sights on the relationship between the internet and democracy in the age of fake news, filter bubbles, and Facebook security breaches. Moving from the development of the internet as a publicly funded project in the late 1960s to its full-scale commercialization today, renowned media scholar Robert McChesney traces how the democratizing potential of the internet has been radically compromised by the logic of capitalism and the unaccountable power of a handful of telecom and tech monopolies.
More About the Films in the Program
Coded Bias
A film by Shalini Kantaya | US/UK/China/South Africa | 2020 | 90 minutes | English
When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she is compelled to investigate further. It turns out that artificial intelligence, which was defined by a homogeneous group of men, is not neutral. The film explores widespread bias in algorithms, machine learning, and AI.
Behind the Shield
Produced by the Media Education Foundation, featuring Dave Zirin | 2022 | 94 mins | English
“Behind the Shield” digs deep into the history of the NFL and navigates a stunning excavation of decades of archival footage and news media to trace how the NFL has promoted militarism, glorified reactionary ideas about manhood and gender roles, and normalized systemic racism, corporate greed, and crony capitalism.
Muslim in America: Trump's Legacy of Fear
Directed by Deeyah Khan | UK/US 2020 | 68 minutes | English
In this Peabody Award-winning exposé, director Deeyah Khan uses her uniquely intimate filming style to investigate the rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S.
Theaters of War
Director, Editor and Narrator: Roger Stahl | 2022 | 87 mins | English
If you’ve seen “Top Gun” or “Transformers”, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? In unsettling and riveting detail, “Theaters of War” outlines how the military and CIA have used their power to push official narratives while systematically scrubbing scripts of war crimes, corruption, racism, sexual assault, coups, assassinations, and torture.
Fattitude
A film by Lindsey Averill, Viridiana Lieberman | US | 2019 | 88 minutes | Color
An eye-opening look at how popular media perpetuates fat hatred that results in cultural bias and discrimination.
Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype
“Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype” examines how US news and entertainment media portray — and do not portray — Latinos. Uncovering a pattern of gross misrepresentation and gross under-representation, the film challenges viewers to think critically about the wide-ranging effects of these media stereotypes, and to envision alternative representations more capable of capturing the humanity and diversity of real Latinos.
Fannie Lou Hamer's America
Directed by Joy Davenport, Produced by Monica Land | US | 2022 | 60 minutes | Color | English
FANNIE LOU HAMER’S AMERICA, a documentary producer by her grand-niece Monica Land, is a portrait of a civil rights activist and the injustices in America that made her work essential. Through public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, this film explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.
Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women
Created & Written By: Jean Kilbourne | 2010 | 45 mins
In “Killing Us Softly 4”, Jean Kilbourne breaks down a staggering range of more than 160 print and television ads, uncovering a steady stream of sexist and misogynistic images and messages. The doc challenges viewers to take advertising seriously and to think critically about its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, gender violence, and contemporary politics.
The R-Word
A film by Amanda Lukoff | US | 2020 | 65 minutes
THE R-WORD is an intimate look at the history of the word ‘retard(ed),’ cultural representation, and the challenges and triumphs of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Digital Disconnect
A Media Education Foundation Production, featuring Robert McChesney | 2018 | English
“Digital Disconnect” trains its sights on the relationship between the internet and democracy in the age of fake news, filter bubbles, and Facebook security breaches. Moving from the development of the internet as a publicly funded project in the late 1960s to its full-scale commercialization today, renowned media scholar Robert McChesney traces how the democratizing potential of the internet has been radically compromised by the logic of capitalism and the unaccountable power of a handful of telecom and tech monopolies.