Angela Davis

Broken into three parts, and directed by three female filmmakers, Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print aims to capture how vital the feminist magazine was in reframing and contextualizing culture for American women. I’m happy to say it not only feels like a celebration of sisterhood, and of an important feminist touchstone, it also reveals stories and elements of the magazine that were new to me. Dear Ms. shows just how fearless and forward-thinking issue after issue was, but also how willing those in charge always were to learn, change, and course correct. The name Dear Ms. is a reference to the magazine’s letters section, where many women wrote in from the very beginning to respond to its articles. After the first issue, there were hundreds of letters in which women said they’d finally felt seen and heard. Ms. was a place where their thoughts were given voice. Now that’s power.