Smoke Sauna Sisterhood – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

A MOTHER’S DAY Dozen Watch List

May 9, 2024May 10, 2024 Jennifer Merin A Thousand and One, DUMPLIN, Good Luck to You Leo Grande, Hold Me Tight, lucky grandma, Miss Juneteenth, mothers day, Parallel Mothers, pepite maman, Shayda, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, the mother, The Persian Version

Mothers day is one of America’s big sellers, with all generations of children scrambling to regale their moms with flowers and chocolates and fancy brunches and greeting cards. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Mother’s Day spending in the United States is expected to reach an all-time high of $35.7 billion this year. But aside from energizing the economy, Mothers’ Day offers an opportunity for some deep thinking about what motherhood means to us all. After all, we all have mothers who birthed us and many of us are mothers to the next generations of our species. That said, the mother-child relationship is universal and, as such, gives rise to as many individual situations and interpretations as there are people who are planted on Mother Earth. Here’s a list of movies worthy of a Mothers’ Day watch.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK December 22, 2023: Best MOTWs of 2023

December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 Jennifer Merin A Thousand and One, After Love, Anatomy of a Fall, betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, Chile '76, Every Body, jennifer merin, king coal, lakota nation vs united states, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, nikki fowler, Pam Grady, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Subject, The Persian Version, War Pony

Team #MOTW looks back at the films we featured during 2023 and highlights our favorites. There are many things about 2023 that we want to forget, but these femme-helmed/femme centric films that brought inspiration, understanding, compassion, and respite replete with laughter are not among them — and they must not slip into oblivion. Their themes, topics and genres are diverse, and each one of them is a gem. Add them to your watch list. Share the titles with friends. To find out more about each of the selected films, click on the titles for links to our full #MOTW coverage. Enjoy all of AWFJ’s Best #MOTWs of 2023.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK November 24, 2023: SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD

November 19, 2023November 19, 2023 Jennifer Merin Anna Hints, betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, documentaries, estonian films, greenwich entertainment, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, nikki fowler, Pam Grady, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Women of all shapes and sizes come together in a traditional Estonian sauna to sweat out their pain and fear in filmmaker Anna Hints’ meditative documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. As the steam swirls around them, the women tell their stories, sharing joys and sorrows, trauma and triumph. Underlying everything is the reality of what it means to be a woman — and how essential it is for women to support one another.

Reviews

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD – Review by Cate Marquis

November 13, 2023November 28, 2023 Cate Marquis Anna Hints, documentaries, estonian films, motw, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints’ intriguing documentary gives us a glimpse into the ancient South Estonian tradition of the women’s smoke sauna, a kind of blending of a smokehouse to preserve meats and a sauna of preserve the bonds between women, as well as ancient folkways and the women’s own sanity. The purpose of the smoke sauna is the relax the body and the mind. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood shows us this world by immersing us in it.

Reviews

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD – Review by Jennifer Merin

November 13, 2023November 28, 2023 Jennifer Merin Anna Hints, documentaries, estonian films, motw, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an intimate feminist documentary from Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints. We are invited to observe a group of women who’ve come together to cleanse their bodies, minds and spirits by celebrating the ritual of a traditional Estonian sauna. The sauna’s dimly lit interior is actually considered to be sacred. It is a place where women come to give birth, to prepare the dead for burial and to relieve themselves from stressful situations in their lives.

Interviews

ANNA HINTS on SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (HotDocs2023) – Liz Braun interviews

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 Liz Braun Anna Hints, documentaries, estonian films, folk trio EETER, hotdocs2023, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

European saunas have existed since about 2,000 BC. In the Southern region of Estonia, where Hints grew up, the smoke sauna has been added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood unfolds against a backdrop of women talking. Naked physically and emotionally, the women unburden themselves of secrets and tough experiences in the security of the small, womb-like sauna space. From initial talk of beauty and body image the women slowly begin to talk of deeper issues: love and death, sex and violence, health and childbearing.

Reviews

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (HotDocs2023) – Review by Liz Braun

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 Liz Braun Anna Hints, documentaries, estonian films, folk trio EETER, hotdocs2023, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a movie about women talking and celebrating the matriarchy, an excellent entry in that rare hey-fellas-this-is-not-about-you film genre. Award-winning Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints offers an inside look at the age-old ritual of steam baths in her country in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. These traditional sauna huts offer a safe space for women to gather to cleanse body and soul. The documentary explains that in the past the sauna was where women gave birth and where they washed dead bodies in preparation for burial. They are sacred places.