Black Women's Health Imperative, "the new name of the National Black Women's Health Project, is a leading African American health education, research, advocacy and leadership development institution. Founded in 1983 by health activist Byllye Y. Avery, it has been a pioneer in promoting the empowerment of African American women as educated health care consumers and a strong voice for the improved health status of African American women. The organization is gaining the well-earned reputation as the leading force for health for African American women. Black Women's Health Imperative possesses national stature as the only national organization devoted solely to the health of the nation's 19 million Black women and girls. Our mission is to promote optimum health for Black women across the life span—physically, mentally and spiritually."

Films

Audiovisual Resources for the Classroom: an extensive listing with more links to films and videos, not just for the classroom

Women of Color Film Festival, Berkeley, California
The 2005 festival will take place on 5-6 March 2005
Women of Color Film Festival Project c/o Pacific Film Archive 2625 Durant Avenue Berkeley, CA 94720-2250

Women Make Movies "is a multicultural, multiracial, non-profit media arts organization which facilitates the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women. Women Make Movies was established in 1972 to address the under representation and misrepresentation of women in the media industry. The organization provides services to both users and makers of film and video programs, with a special emphasis on supporting work by women of color..." new releases for 2005-2006 one is: God Sleeps in Rwanda A film by Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman, Narrated by Rosario Dawson Rwanda, 2004, 28 minutes, Color, VHS/DVD, Kinyarwanda and English, Subtitled Order No. W06899 ** Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Short!** "The 1994 Rwandan Genocide left the country nearly 70 percent female, handing Rwanda’s women an extraordinary burden and an unprecedented opportunity. An inspiring story of loss and redemption GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA captures the spirit of five courageous women as they rebuild their lives, redefining women’s roles in Rwandan society and bringing hope to a wounded nation..."

NO!™ is a feature length documentary (in progress) that unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons -- Producer/Writer/Director. Color/video, 74 min.
"NO!™ takes a powerful look at Black women’s lives through a holistic lens addressing the violent manifestations of intra-racial heterosexual rape and sexual assault. Through narratives from acclaimed scholars and community leaders, impacting archival footage, intimate interviews, spirited music, dance, and poetry, NO!™ critically examines how the act of committing rape or sexual and verbal assault against Black women and girls is a race, gender, class, and sexual orientation issue.

...While NO!™ explores how the collective silence about acts of sexual assault adversely affects African-Americans, it also encourages dialogue to bring about healing and reconciliation between all men and women. As an educational fundraising tool, NO!™ (The Documentary Rough Cut) has been screened at conferences, colleges/universities, schools, correctional facilities, film festivals, and rape crisis centers, across the United States, and in England, France, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. It has been translated into French and Italian and will soon be translated into German. Following in the footsteps of the first and second wave Black American feminist/womanist writers, activists, artists, poets, cultural workers, and organizations, including but not limited to Ida Wells Barnett, Toni Cade Bambara, National Black Feminist Organization, Combahee River Collective, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Angela Y. Davis, bell hooks, ntozake shange, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Michelle Wallace, Pearl Cleage, and African American Women In Defense of Ourselves, NO!™ takes a bold step forward in audio visually initiating an intra-racial, inter-generational, female/male dialogue on exposing, addressing, healing and ending all forms of sexual violence perpetuated against Black women and girls at the hands of Black men and boys.
http://www.notherapedocumentary.org/aboutno.html


Politics from a Black Woman's Insides
26 min., color, 1998.Third World Newsreel, film by Yuko Edwards
GB 1998, 26 Min., engl.
"Follow one woman's search for the Hottentot Venus, the legendary link between ape and human and icon of black female subjectivity. Edwards' film explores the construction of race through both scientific discourse on the body (as a body is graphically exposed for the camera by a forensic pathologist) and personal narratives by women who have struggled with the health care system."
1998 Women in the Director's Chair Film
Festival Winner of the Brooklyn Arts Council 32nd Annual Film & Video Festival

The International Black Panther Film Festival
"To capture the imagination of a new generation"

Blue Eyed
VHS only, 93 minutes, 1995, California Newsreel
" Blue Eyed offers viewers a chance to watch a full-length workshop with America's most dynamic diversity trainer, Jane Elliott.
Elliott's exercise, initiated in 1968 as a ground breaking experiment in anti-racist training, has been featured on Today, the Tonight show, Donahue, Oprah, ABC News and PBS' Frontline." Elliott believes, "Blue Eyed is by far the most comprehensive and useful video on my work available; it sums up 28 years of experience in schools, universities and corporations." Recommended by CivilRightsTeaching.org.
For other films from California Newsreel on Diversity Training & Multiculturalism