With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade

WITH BABIES AND BANNERS presents the dramatic story of the women’s role in the Great General Motors Sit-Down Strike of 1937. The nation’s eyes were on the men inside the auto plants, while the women auto-workers and the wives, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts of the strikers—joined forces to change the course of American history.

Forty years later these women reunite.  Their dramatic story, once lost to history, is told.  In a surprise action, these extraordinary women show the relevance of their experience for people today.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences — Oscar Nominee Best Feature Documentary / American Film Festival — Grand Prize / John Grierson Award — Documentary Filmmaker of the Year / DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award Citation / Le Prix Georges-Sadoul, Paris — International Medallion / London Film Festival — Outstanding Film of the Year & more. Lorraine Gray / Director-Producer-Writer

“Full of drama, insight and general good humor, coupled with a remarkable use of stock footage… With Babies and Banners succeeds in making concerns that were alive 40 years ago strikingly relevant for today.” Variety

“sparks the New York Film Festival… perhaps the most revelatory film.” Los Angeles Times

One of “sixty-two films that shaped the art of documentary filmmaking . . . Lorraine Gray’s documentary offers a fascinating view . . . a harrowing account. ”
 The New Yorker

“. . . should be seen by every mother’s son and daughter in the United States.” Film Comment

“Smoothly professional . . . the images are startling and moving.” The Washington Post

“With Babies and Banners is a moving presentation of network building and support systems forty years ago. Marvelous, newly empowered women developing confidence and pride emerge as role models to serve as inspirations for all of us.” American Association of University Women

“It is the careful re-creation of the everyday lives of working class women that makes With Babies and Banners such a moving film, freeing it from glossy romanticism with a directness and intimacy rarely seen in contemporary documentary film.” Seven Days

“. . . a model of socially conscious filmmaking of the highest degree.” Le Monde, Paris