Dorothy and friends: Top film festival docs spotlight the women who’ve shaped media

In a year rife with threats to gender, sexual, and reproductive rights, films by and about women were among the most striking at two recent film festivals (Tribeca and Slamdance). In a cache about the media and entertainment, the spotlight shown on a Playboy Playmate intellectual’s showbiz lineage, an unwitting feminist news icon, the legacy of an iconic women’s lib mag, and the many friends of Dorothy. And what’s a story of women without a thought for the men whose genius they nurture in life — or make famous through death? 

Ahead are the contributions worth a watch. 

In the documentary My Mom Jayne, beloved American actress Mariska Hargitay openly embarks on a journey to discovery more about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, the Hollywood legend. Mansfield died in a tragic car crash when Hargitay was three.  Although Hargitay, who was in the car with two of her siblings, has no memory of the accident, she has long carried the scars. Nearly 60 years later, Mariska revisits her mother’s vibrant legacy — one often overshadowed by her public image as a 1950s and 60s sex symbol, actress, and Playboy Playmate. She learns that she was also a profound intellect, who spoke multiple languages and was a classically trained violinist and pianist. In this love letter to her mother, Mariska explores a tragic chapter, while also uncovering a fuller portrait of Jayne.

Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print documents, in three parts, the rise of the famed feminist magazine, charting the triumphs and misfires. An anchor of women’s liberation, the magazine was founded in 1971 by Gloria Steinem and colleagues to address such subjects as abortion, sexual harassment (and sexual pleasure), civil rights, domestic violence, and power.

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything examines the trailblazing TV journalist — and unintentional feminist icon — behind The View. A woman in a male-dominated field and the target of male-colleague backlash, she went from covering “women’s issue” assignments to becoming America’s first female network news anchor. The film chronicles Walters’ six-decade journalism career, in which she hosted Today, the ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View, and showcases her distinctive superpower: getting interviewees to cry on camera.

Also a woman navigating an early job in media, New York-based film scout Sofia is the subject of The Scout. The process for finding and scouting film locations is part artistic research, part social engineering. Paula González-Nasser, the writer and director of the film, also worked as a location scout, cajoling owners into securing permission to film. “It’s so heavy because one moment you’re just meeting a stranger and the next minute you’re in their bedroom, and they’re telling you about their divorce,” González-Nasser recalled in a statement. With limited time to take photographs of the space, Sofia ends up becoming an emotional guide for — and between — homeowners and an often-callous filmmaking team.

Based on a memoir, Gonzo Girl is about a young writer, Alley, who is hired to assist a surrogate writer for Hunter S. Thompson — the journalist credited as the founder of gonzo journalism. The film highlights the women — be they assistants, girlfriends, or managers — who sacrifice lots by bolstering these male “geniuses.” Here, tension arises between Alley’s own ambitions as a writer and her attempts to prop up her mentor’s diminishing output and abilities. 

The girl with the ruby slippers, Dorothy Gale, in The Wizard of Oz film and L. Frank Baum’s books, and her numerous mythologies and meanings, are profiled in It’s Dorothy!. She isn’t just an icon; her changing depictions have represented diverse facets of American culture for decades. “Friend of Dorothy” became a coded term for gay men, and the Luther Vandross song written for The Wiz, “Brand New Day,” is an anthem of freedom for the Black experience. Dorothy even left an impact on those who played her. Six former Dorothys from film, TV, and the stage speak about their experience, including R&B star Ashanti, about her turn in the 2005 TV movie The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, and the original Dorothy, Judy Garland.

Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the coroner who handled the high-profile autopsies of starlets including Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Tate, and Natalie Wood, is the subject of Coroner to the Stars. Noguchi was privy to the secrets of the famous dead, and drew sharp criticism for how he handled them. He made announcements that Natalie Wood and William Holden were intoxicated at the time of their deaths, for example, and that the bullet that killed Kennedy was from friendly fire. 

In a letter to the county supervisor, Frank Sinatra wrote, “his inappropriate statements have, in my opinion, cast unjustified aspersions on the memories of well-known individuals, violated privacy of aggrieved families, and caused undue sensationalism, for no purpose other than to put himself in the public limelight.” 

In Hollywood, where secrets were meant to be kept, Noguchi glamorized forensic pathology, elevating the autopsy to an art form and ushering in public interest. The film received the Slamdance Audience Award.

FILMS, DIRECTORS, FILM FESTIVALS:

My Mom Jayne, directed by Mariska Hargitay, Tribeca

Dear Ms: A Revolution in Print, directed by Salima Koroma, Alice Gu, Cecilia Aldarondo, Tribeca

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, directed by Jackie Jesko, Tribeca

The Scout, directed by Paula González-Nasser, Tribeca

Gonzo Girl, Patricia Arquette, Tribeca

It’s Dorothy!, directed by Jeffrey McHale, Tribeca

Coroner to the Stars, Ben Hethcoat & Keita Ideno, Slamdance