Film Image
Up Against the Wall Ms. America (Newsreel #22)
Newsreel
Producer: Newsreel
1968
BW
8 minutes
US
English

Up Against the Wall Ms. America (Newsreel #22)

"Here she comes…" At the 1968 Miss America pageant, demonstrators introduced a sheep as the appropriate winner. This entertaining short film shows how Women's Liberation activists used guerrilla theater to raise awareness of what Miss America really represents. The film was widely screened by the second wave women's movement and is a vivid document of the movement's activists in action.

This short film was the first film made by Bev Grant and Karen Mitnick Liptak, members of the Newsreel collective. Bev Grant said, "The movie came about because I was a member of NY Radical Women, a sort of coalition group, including WITCH and Redstocking who were planning the Miss America Beuty Pageant demo. Miriam Boxer and I had gained press passes as members of Liberation News Service and were sitting below the runway. Karen Mitnick and I had a Bolex camera and a Nagra recorder and Miriam shot stills. Whe Miss America took her walk, we filmed it and also caught some footage of the banner being unfurled over the balcony. This was the first film Karen and I had ever worked on."
Third World Newsreel’s historical Newsreel collection provides contemporary audiences with a vast archive of political documentary films chronicling the social movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Pricing & Ordering
Buyer Type Format Sale Type Price
Higher Education Institutions DSL 1-year License $150.00
Higher Education Institutions DSL 3-years License $300.00
Higher Education Institutions DVD Sale $150.00
Higher Education Institutions Life Digital File Sale $600.00
K-12, Public Libraries & Select Groups DVD Sale $50.00
Non-Theatrical/Educational DVD Rental $150.00
Semi-Theatrical Blu-Ray Rental $200.00
Click a 'Price' to add an item to your Cart. If DSL or LDF rates are not listed, or if you are interested in a public screening, please fill out this form and we will get back to you with availability information.
Reviews
"I have used MISS AMERICA each year, and it is great for talking about a number of issues. My students absolutely love the sheep images, the more outrageous cuts. I think, compared to most current docs, that one is so expressive, so passionate, so transgressive… they love it." - Julia Reichert, Filmmaker and Teacher
Screenings
• List Projects: Civil Disobedience, MIT, 2017
• No Master Territories Exhibition, HWK, Berlin

Call Us 1 (212) 947-9277
  • Third World Newsreel
  • • 545 Eighth Avenue, Suite 550, New York, NY 10018
  • • Telephone 212-947-9277

TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Ford Foundation, Golden Globe Foundation, Kolibri Foundation and individual donors.