Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
A thoughtful documentary that revisits Cynthia MacAdams' 1977 photography book to reflect on feminist progress and ongoing struggles. The structure of returning to photographed subjects decades later is an effective but not wholly original conceit in documentary filmmaking. The talking-head and archival format is serviceable but visually unremarkable, with cinematography that does little beyond capturing interviews competently. The subject matter is earnest and the personal testimonies carry emotional weight, but the film stays within fairly conventional social documentary territory. Its strength lies in the intergenerational reflection and the poignancy of revisiting these women's lives, rather than in formal innovation.