Acting Like Women
Revisiting the groundbreaking feminist performance art movement in 1970s Los Angeles, one artist spotlights the inspirational, transformational, radical community exploding the narrative and status quo.
Revisiting the groundbreaking feminist performance art movement in 1970s Los Angeles, one artist spotlights the inspirational, transformational, radical community exploding the narrative and status quo.
Through interviews, archival footage, and personal reflections, feminist artist Cheri Gaulke revisits the 1970s Los Angeles foundational art space, The Woman’s Building, laying bare how a collective of artists transformed their bodies and voices through performance into a powerful tool for activism, reshaping the cultural landscape for generations of women.
Cheri Gaulke is a pioneer in the feminist art movement in Los Angeles affiliated with the Woman’s Building working in film and visual art. Her award-winning films have screened in film festivals internationally. Gaulke’s work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art (LA), in a Smithsonian-touring exhibition, and in settings all over the world including buses, churches, and prehistoric temples. In her almost 50-year career, Gaulke has created 30 media works including documentaries, experimental personal narratives, and video installations. Gaulke has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, City of Los Angeles, California Community Foundation, and California Humanities. Recent films include GLORIA’S CALL about women artists of surrealism (Best Documentary at Ann Arbor Film Festival), MISS ALMA THOMAS: A LIFE IN COLOR about an under-recognized African-American artist (traveling with a museum retrospective exhibition), INSIDE THE BEAUTY BUBBLE about the owner of a roadside attraction in Joshua Tree California (numerous audience and other festival awards), and the recently completed OLD GIRL IN A TUTU: SUSAN RENNIE DISRUPTS ART HISTORY about a queer, octogenarian artist. She is just finishing on her first feature documentary, ACTING LIKE WOMEN, about feminist performance art in 1970s-80s Los Angeles https://actinglikewomen.com/.
World Premiere, Bentonville Film Festival, June 17, 2026
West Coast Premiere, Frameline, June 21, 2026
Metabolic Studio (Annenberg Foundation) 2024 - Grant
California Humanities 2023 - Documentary Project Grant and Research and Development Grant
The Chimaera Project Finishing Fund 2022 - Grant
Cast - Lily Tomlin
Director of Photography - Kristy Tully
Composer - Miriam Cutler
Writer/Director/Producer - Cheri Gaulke
Editor - Susan Metzger