Sweet 16mm: Female Troubles

Opens on November 18

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Run Time: 100 min. Format: 16mm Film

The 16mm schoolroom projector is all fired up again to bring you another archival installment of a whole sleight of outdated and ridiculous 16mm educational films and animation designed to shock, alarm, and educate the 20th-century girl and woman about all those awkward and uncomfortable facts about her body, her workplace, and her life. To deal with the curse of menstruation, we bring you one of the most entertaining menstrucational films ever Dear Diary (1981) and It’s Wonderful Being a Girl (1968) – a long-form commercial for maxi-pads from the swingin’ 60s. Teen girls need to watch out for intruders, even when they inexplicably become your instructor of Self-Defense for Girls (1969). To learn ways to cope with the office groper (or not become one yourself), check out The Power Pinch (1981). Plus, the Czech animated fairy tale Cecily (1973) about a little girl who flies away on her oversized ears and starts a band with elephants – because not all troubles are so serious!

Featuring:

Dear Diary, a film about female puberty (Color, 1981)
The Welcome to the Dollhouse of puberty primers! The exaggerated characterizations and embarrassing situations experienced by the film’s incredibly awkward thirteen-year-old protagonist are humorously combined to provide answers to female adolescents’ questions about their changing bodies. The young girl encounters peer pressure from her boy-crazy friends, changing sex roles, and making out with a pillow with a smiley face. Keep your eyes peeled for the animated menstruation cycle.

Self-Defense for Girls (Color, 1969)

A screamingly funny, over-the-top training film for teen girls. We begin with some terrifying situations for our young heroines, accompanied by slow-motion, exaggerated horror music, and some incredible over and underacting. Then, as we are exploring the terrors of the home invasion, the perp suddenly becomes our teacher (accompanied by a Jerri Blank look-alike), and we learn how to take control of any situation! Groin and eyes ladies, always jab ’em in the groin and eyes!

The Power Pinch (Color, 1981)

Learn how not to sexually harass your female coworkers in this awkward office place etiquette primer.

It’s Wonderful Being a Girl (Color, 1968)

A long-form commercial for Modess menstrual products detailing the many trials, tribulations, and triumphs of puberty.

Cecily (Color, 1973)

In this surprising Czech animated fairy tale from the infamous Kratky Film Praha, the eponymous Cecily is a little girl with big dreams of becoming a singer. Her grumpy grandmother, however, is less than encouraging, tugging on Cecily’s ears whenever displeased with her behavior. Such incessant ear-pulling eventually stretches the little girl’s ears to the size of sails, and little Cecily takes to the sky, Dumbo-like, to realize her dreams elsewhere. She lands in the jungle and starts a band with her new animal friends.