'Makers: Women Who Make America, Volume 2'
(2-DVD / NR / 2014 / PBS)
Overview: In the last half-century, women have fought their way into nearly every sphere of American life, from the battlefield to the comedy club, the soundstage to the Senate. Expanding on the critically acclaimed PBS documentary 'Makers: Women Who Make America,' which told the story of the modern American women's movement, each documentary in this six-part series examines the impact of the women's movement on six fields once largely closed to women.
DVD Verdict: 'Makers: Women Who Make America, Volume 2' is a continuing documentary series which examines how women have helped shape America over the past 150 years. Striving for a full and fair share of political power and economic opportunity, this secondary edition of the PBS series is culled from the archive of interviews completed for the website Makers.com.
The documentary includes talks with, but is not limited to: Ursula Burns, Diahann Carroll, Paula Coughlin, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Ellen DeGeneres, the late Joan Rivers, Barbara Mikulski, Indra Nooyi, Valerie Plame, Chelsea Handler, Pat Schroeder, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman, Alfre Woodward, and many more.
Indeed, each documentary in this six-part series examines the impact of the women's movement on six fields once largely closed to women. Through intimate interviews with trailblazing women known and unknown, viewers are given a rare glimpse - sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and yet always candid - of what it was like to be pioneers in their fields.
Personally, and as a male, I found this second volume (as I did the first) completely fascinating. It's amazing to see how much things have changed in just a few generations. I never realized that there used to be age restrictions for women in airlines, nor job listings just for woman. 'Makers' is a great documentary about the women who helped change our country into one of more equality. Much more work needs to be done in this area, by both women and men, but this documentary by PBS leads the way in changing that course. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
www.PBS.org