WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? 

Directed By: Pamela Tanner Boll

Review By: Kim Jindra

WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?  is a celebration of women artists.  It follows the  paths of five  women who make life altering sacrifices in their artistic quests.

But I had the feeling none of the women would have chosen to pursue art if art had not chosen them.

Maye Torres of says that art is always a risk.  She subscribes to the wisdom of her mentor who said 'one has to birth art'.  Indeed, Maye is tucked away in the hills of New Mexico with her two sons  mastering her craft.  She lost a husband, had custody battles and felt stigmatized in the process all because she could not stop the creative process  She thinks the U.S. does not honor artists and  it is revolutionary to make art as a  woman.  Revolutionary or not, her sons have shown a willingness to make sacrifices too.  They know they eat beans and don't have  the trappings their school mates enjoy.   Their faith must spur Maye even more.

And Angela  Williams of Providence, RI always dreamed of having five children with her pastor husband.  She sang in the church and cared for her two daughters until the day she and her mom saw a musical.  She was drawn to the stage and began auditioning.  Soon she was commuting  back and forth to NY.  The strain became too much.   She  and divorced and took an apartment a short distance away from home.  Angela's mother is her strongest supporter.

Camille Musser born in St Vincents, resident of Massachusetts, started painting in her 40s.  She literally found herself through her art.  She s aid she always felt like a foreigner is a strange place until she  started painting.  She paints from her heritage, from she belongs.  She doesn;t paint for  monetary gain but that has happened too and she has been able to open achildren's art center in St. Vincents.

Mayumi Oda married and came to U.S. in the sixties. She had two sons but could not devote herself entirely to her family.  Eventually her husband left her proclaiming he needed a wofe.  Her response was she needed a wife too.  Fiirst, she was a painter then a political activist.  She fought against the transport of nuclear weapons. She used her art as a social message.  Eventually she retired to a Zen center where she teaches others including one  son, Jeremiah,  to live more simply.   He proudly proclaims his mother is his role model.

And there  is Janice the  Mormon mother of  five from Columbus.  Her art is my least favorite and yet I admire her determination to  find time to  allow her creative juices to flow.  She admits she would go crazy without art.  She has to create - it is not a choice for her.  She has a love of fairy tales which she incorporates into her sculptor along with the emotions of the moment.  She puts the side she doesn't always like about herself into her art.  Thankfully, her husband is supportive as are her older children.  The young ones work in her studio with her.  And although she rarely travels her sculpture does.  She almost wistfully admits she  sends her work away as soon as its done because with five kids at home it will be broken.

There is also a brief segment about  Layne Redmond that I found fascinating .  She is a frame drummer.  She talks about women and the history of drumming in the ancient world and how the rise of organized religions removed  the acceptability of female drummers from today's culture.

This was a  thought provoking documentary.  My one quibble is the continued  implication that engineers are  not creative people.