This is the story of the second wave of women’s movement in Boston when no experiment in alternative living was excluded and women explored their experiences in conscious raising groups. The film includes interviews with women and children living in a commune, a gay women’s commune, a consciousness raising group, self defence training and the only known footage of the Witches Guerrilla Theatre Group who put a hex on the transgressions of the patriarchy.

The theatre group appears throughout the film and gave the film its title: “in pain you shall bring forth children yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you”. This film was shot on an extremely low budget with a one and 1/2:1 shooting ratio.

It received an award at the 1972 Sinking Creek Film Festival, and a standing ovation at the New York Women’s Film Festival in 1972. The Northampton Women’s Film Collective distributed it for many years to university and college campuses in the USA. A DVD copy resides with the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.

black and white
20 minutes,
USA,
1971

Director/Producer/
Camerawomen/Editors:
Maureen McCue and Lois Tupper

Story editor:
Maureen McCue