Television series
Not for Ourselves Alone
Ken Burns's two-part documentary portrait of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, tracing their fifty-year alliance to secure women's voting rights. It's lyrical and intimate—Burns uses photographs, letters, and period documents to make these figures vivid and human rather than monumental. Essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand how social change actually happens, and why it takes so long.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you are drawn to political history told through the working partnership of two strong-willed reformers, with the personalities doing as much work as the policy.
Skip it if you want brisk storytelling; this documentary is unhurried and deliberate, lingering on arguments and campaigns at the pace of the movement itself.
What it asks of you: Two hour-long parts, dense with names, dates and arguments, it wants patience and steady attention rather than momentum.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Abolitionists2013
Another Ken Burns documentary, this one examining the radical activists who fought slavery before the Civil War. Same elegant method, same urgency about moral conviction in impossible times, same reason to marvel at people who refused to accept the world as it was.
But Two hours of 19th-century history delivered at a contemplative pace. If you need constant momentum or dramatic scoring to stay engaged, this will test your patience.
Suffragette2015
A dramatic feature about the British suffrage movement with Carey Mulligan at the centre. Where Burns is reflective, this is immediate and angry—you feel the desperation and fear of women willing to risk everything. A powerful complement to the American story.
But The film centers individual sacrifice over collective strategy, which simplifies the politics. Some viewers find the intensity exhausting rather than moving.
Iron Jawed Angels2004
HBO's drama about Alice Paul and Lucy Burns fighting for the 19th Amendment in the final years. It's sharper and angrier than most period dramas, especially about the cost of protest and the women in jail who paid it in their bodies.
But It compresses and dramatizes real events, so purists will spot liberties. The emotional heaviness doesn't let up.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Not for Ourselves Alone
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Room of One's Own1991
Woolf writes the intellectual argument that Stanton and Anthony embodied in action: that women's equality isn't just a legal question, it's a question about freedom to exist in one's own mind. Watching Atkins perform it after watching Burns is watching the future those women fought for made visible.
Dramatised essay by Virginia Woolf, performed by Eileen Atkins alone onstage. Roughly contemporary with Stanton and Anthony (they died before Woolf wrote it), and Woolf articulates what their movement made possible: space for women to think, create, and exist outside male approval. Luminous and crystalline.
But It's essentially one woman talking for ninety minutes with minimal scenery. If you need narrative momentum or visual spectacle, this will feel austere to the point of alienation.
More like this (6)
Hidden Figures2016
A different chapter of women fighting for recognition and rights—Black women mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race. Beautifully made, propulsive, and it shows how the fight Stanton and Anthony started was far from over a century later.
But Mainstream crowd-pleaser that smooths some rough edges of its real history. If you're looking for unflinching critique, this trades some of it for accessibility.
Archer2009
A documentary about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and the thriving Black community destroyed by white violence. Different story, different era, same theme: how progress gets violently interrupted, and how those who survived had to rebuild from nothing.
But Deeply upsetting, and it doesn't offer the comfort of resolved justice. Some viewers find that difficulty rewarding; others find it just difficult.
Jason and the Argonauts1963
A three-part documentary about LGBTQ+ activism and art-making from the 1970s to today. It captures how marginalized people keep fighting for recognition and rights, using very different tools than Stanton had, but the same refusal to disappear.
But Dense, formally experimental, and it assumes some familiarity with queer history and theory. Not a gentle introduction to the subject.
Last Chance U2016
A documentary series about college athletes—mostly poor, mostly Black men—fighting for basic dignity within a system built to exploit them. Modern, immediate, and it shows how the fight for rights continues in unexpected places.
But Angry and despairing in tone. It doesn't resolve into victory, which some see as honest and others find frustrating.
Three Identical Strangers2018
A documentary about triplets separated at birth and the unethical psychological experiment that fractured their lives. Extraordinary true story, beautifully told, and it raises questions about power, autonomy, and who gets to decide what happens to other people's bodies.
But Takes a while to reveal its central revelation, so the opening feels slow if you don't know what you're waiting for. Some viewers find the pacing frustrating.
Lovely by Surprise2007
The spiritual descendant of what Stanton and Anthony started: women organizing without formal authority, finding power through persistence and solidarity. No voting rights were won here, but something equally valuable—collective refusal to accept that their children's lives didn't matter.
A documentary about mothers in a Baltimore neighbourhood organizing to stop violence affecting their children and families. Not about voting rights or grand history—just women showing up, week after week, to protect their own. Filmed by Cheryl Dunye with tenderness and attention. Nearly invisible, completely essential.
But Shot on digital video, low-key, about a place the mainstream media ignores. If you're looking for polish or narrative arc, this won't provide it. It just watches women care for their community.