Access streaming films licensed
by your school or institution -
Click here
Log in
Forgot your password?
Register a new Account

Scheduled Maintenance Alert

On Sunday, May 19, 2013 from 2-6pm Pacific network engineers will be performing scheduled maintenance. During this one-hour window our website may be sporadically or completely unavailable. Thanks for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

The Gillian Film

A valid video file was found, or could not be loaded!

The film shares the difficulties and joys of both raising and being a person whose abilities are in constant and productive tension with her distinctive thought styles and cognitive capacities. Ultimately, however, through an examination of one life defined a different, The Gillian Film explores how we might transform our understanding of the meaning and worth of people with developmental disabilities.
My institution already owns this title on DVD or VHS.  
NOTE: If this Discount is selected, no other Promotions or Discounts will be available.
Streaming - 5 Years, Institutional (Education / Nonprofit) $ 275.00

License Period:  5 years
Running Time:  43:49
Close Captioned:  Yes
Video Resolution:  Appropriate for small screens and projection
View our Terms of Use

Streaming - 3 Years, Institutional (Education / Nonprofit) $ 199.00

License Period:  3 years
Running Time:  43:49
Close Captioned:  Yes
Video Resolution:  Appropriate for small screens and projection
View our Terms of Use

Streaming - 7 Years, Institutional (Education / Nonprofit) $ 385.00

License Period:  7 years
Running Time:  43:49
Close Captioned:  Yes
Video Resolution:  Appropriate for small screens and projection
View our Terms of Use

Streaming - 3 Years, K-12 $ 50.00

License Period:  3 years
Running Time:  43:49
Close Captioned:  Yes
Video Resolution:  Appropriate for small screens and projection
View our Terms of Use

Streaming - 14 Days, In-Class Use $ 60.00

License Period:  14 days (beginning at time of purchase)
Running Time:  43:49
Close Captioned:  Yes
Video Resolution:  Appropriate for small screens and projection
Rights for In-House Use $ 300.00

Licensed period of use:  5 years   View Terms and Conditions for In-House Use
Encoding:  H.264 MP4 Files and (if available) XML Caption files
File delivery via YouSendIt within 2 business days of payment
Purchase orders must be paid prior to file delivery
Last week I showed the DVD to our special needs parent groups called, SPECIAL FAMILIES, in Hickory and the families loved it. There was not a dry eye in the room. We discussed the film afterwards and the parents shared that the story gives them so much hope for their children. We discussed how the focus was on all the things your daughter can do and does so well. Can she teach me how to dance like that?
Last night we showed the video to another group and they to felt the same way. Thanks you so much for putting the powerful message out to those that are looking for hope.
Melanie Long, Senior Program Coordinator
Family Support Network/HOPE

quote_open.gifThe Gillian Film is a mother's-eye view of a 22-year-old with mild mental retardation as she is about to strike out on her own. Gillian responds to questions with the typical teen look, as though she sometimes wished the filmmaker had been someone other than her mom. But the intimacy makes the portrayal of a parent's feelings ring true, and The Gillian Film has the immediacy of a home movie. You leave feeling the best is possible for this vibrant young woman and that her mother will survive as well.
Courtney Deines-Jones, Grimalkin Group, LLC, Silver Spring, MD
Library Journal

quote_open.gifFilmmaker Joanne Hershfield's study of her developmentally disabled twenty-something daughter Gillian centers on the latter moving away from her family and into her first apartment. Home movie clips of Gillian as a young girl are interwoven with more recent footage of her tap dancing and attending drama class, enjoying herself at various parties and dances, and participating in the Special Olympics (her various sports include horse jumping and skiing). Sure to promote discussion, this alternately moving and provocative profile is recommended, overall. Aud: C, P.
J. Williams-Wood
Video Librarian

quote_open.gifThis film provides what we cannot learn from text books, the very real life of Gillian and her friends and family. The viewing of this truly remarkable film was an experience. I recommend this film to everyone.
Dr. Philip Buchanan, Director,
GeneCare Medical Genetics Center, Chapel Hill, NCquote_open.gif

The Gillian Film is a bold and courageous documentary: a personal and family narrative, a coming-of-age film, and a materialization of pressing themes in contemporary disability studies. Barry Saunders, MD, PhD.Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine, UNC School of Medicine

  • Sprout Film Festival New York City May 9-11, 2008

  • BOSI Film Festival, May 30, 2010

Joanne Hershfield Joanne Hershfield has been making social documentaries for over 20 years. Her most recent films include The Gillian Film, (2006); Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams for the Future, June 2002; and Nuestra Comunidad: Latinos in North Carolina, (2002). She is Professor and Chair of the Curriculum in Women's Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Related Films

Men are Human, Women are Buffalo Men are Human, Women are Buffalo    Interviews and shadow puppetry tell five moving stories about violence against women in Thailand.    Subject:  Women's Studies/Men's Studies

Search For Films

Films Menu

Featured New Films

Maid in America
Award-winning PBS documentary about the Latinas who clean your homes and help raise your children.
The Boy Game (Mild Profanity)
Tackling bullying among boys at its core: the cult of toughness and silence boys live by.
A Hard Straight
A gang member, a mother, and a small-time dealer. They served their sentences, they're on parole. Now they're about to discover that walking out the prison gates is just the beginning.

Most Popular Tags

america  american  award  change  children  city  come  community  elementary  environmental  explores  family  follows  girls  history  home  human  intimate  issues  journey  life  lives  mother  people  personal  political  public  rights  school  schools  stories  story  studies  violence  woman  women  work  world  years  young 

* Bitrate Switching?

All our streaming films implement a technology known as Bitrate Switching. This means that while viewing your purchased films, the optimal streaming experience is determined by the quality of your internet connection and the size of the player being used. This is done automatically by the website, and needs no settings or adjustment from you.