Word: deitch
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...DONNA DEITCH'S Woman to Woman, a long, clamorous documentary of working women, is like good political rhetoric which sweeps one along on a tide of right-on sentiments and very real but always palatable insights, and leaves one at the end, exhausted from an orgy of head-nodding, feeling a little ripped off. Like Taking Our Bodies Back, it uses the interview technique to raise vital issues and to air well-founded complaints. But to anyone who is already conversant with the bottom-line tenets of women's liberation--that women's labor is exploited in the household...
...Deitch has woven a tapestry of wonderful footage of women talking about themselves. Prostitutes explain that they first turned tricks because they were starving. A clinical psychologist and lesbian talks about the discrimination she has suffered in her profession. An aging housewife sits on a park bench under a gray sky, and shows us the rag dolls she has made and sold for 25 years. Prostitutes in the San Francisco Women's Jail sit around a plastic table, smoke cigarettes, and say bitterly that they will have to turn another trick as soon as they get out, just to feed...
...outta there to come back here 'cause they know. They got you." Another woman, also a prostitute, ventures beyond the scope of the film when she says, "It's not really the men's fault; we're all victims. The almighty God of this country is the dollar bill." Deitch was not interested in pursuing either that thought or the politics of oppression in any broader context. The film closes with an exhortation to women to keep talking--to work together, educate one another, and overcome their mutual mistrust...
Despite the disparity of occupations and life-styles presented by Deitch, we find one prevailing theme throughout all the interviews. Almost all the women complain of feeling limited in the job opportunities and role possibilities open to them. Yet, as Deitch so powerfully shows us, a great deal of the limitations imposed on women are due solely to social constraints. Engrossing footage dating back to WW II is integrated into the film, and with it, Deitch shows us that women, when needed, are capable of doing anything men can do. We see women in long skirts and heels learning...
...What do they expect me to do?" complains one prostitute Deitch interviews in a San Francisco jail. "If they gave me some education or some job training, well maybe I could do something. But instead we sit here twiddling our thumbs or doing embroidery, with nothing to look forward...