Starring: Jane Fonda, Maria Schneider, Ellen Burstyn, Jill Clayburgh, Anne Wiazemsky

Join The FOFIF for a special International Women’s Day screening of Delphine Seyrig’s infamous and essential documentary, BE PRETTY AND SHUT UP! / SOIS BELLE ET TAIS-TOI! To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

At the height of her acting fame and when she actively began challenging her image as an ethereal muse, Delphine Seyrig directed this sobering documentary about the male-dominated film industry and the pressures put upon women actors and the paucity of complex roles for them. Enlisting twenty-four American and French actresses, including Jane Fonda, Maria Schneider, Ellen Burstyn, Jill Clayburgh, Anne Wiazemsky and Juliet Berto, to engage in remarkably candid conversations about the obstacles and alienation they have faced, Seyrig tackled head-on, more than 40 years ago, much of the misogyny inherent in the field still being discussed today. Thus both visionary and before its time, yet sadly as relevant as ever, BE PRETTY AND SHUT UP! was an especially bold and brave endeavour for a screen icon whose image had been wrapped up in sensuality and male desire.

With a stark economy of means (filmed simply and directly on portable video in a casual portrait style by activist and filmmaker Carole Roussopoulos) and its focus on unadorned and powerful testimony, the film is very much about not shutting up; it’s about speaking out and being heard, not only as individual voices but also as a collective one. – Andréa Picard