Women Firsts

Heather Finnegan's good-natured, delightful register of the many milestones in women's lives avoids narration, music, or any other ostentatious visual tricks, in deference to letting the film's subjects speak for themselves. In straightforward head and shoulder shots, women of different ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientation comment on their first doll, first crush, first bra, first kiss, first menstrual cycle, and first orgasm, eventually leading to more complicated topics such as “the first time I believed in myself,” “the first time I felt vulnerable,” or “the first time I saw my father cry.” Women Firsts' unadorned approach succeeds because these comments from women in various walks of life--including the vice president of Intel, a Congresswoman, an Olympic high jumper, a nun, a porn actress, and mothers, grandmothers, and students--are sufficiently engaging to hold our attention. With topics running the gamut of sexism, rape, death, birth, drugs, fear, childhood, liberation, self-empowerment, and old age, the real surprise here for female viewers (as well as a healthy eye-opener for men) is how little cultural differences matter with common first experiences. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)