Feminist Critique and Cinematic Counterhistory in the Documentary With Babies and Banners

Abstract

This essay analyzes how the documentary With Babies and Banners employs strategies of realism to counter the dominant history of the 1936 General Motors Sitdown Strike. By visually depicting women strikers' memories, this film challenges contemporary ideologies with regard to women and labor through an act of historical revisionism. I argue that this film not only creates a counterhistory, but also demonstrates women's capacity to transgress the gender politics that often constrain and oppress them.