Town Bloody Hall features a panel of feminist advocates for the women's liberation movement and Norman Mailer, author of The Prisoner of Sex (1971).
Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker produced the film, which stars Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, and Norman Mailer.
[3] Pennebaker described his filming style as one that exists without labels, in order to let the viewer come to a conclusion about the material, which inspired the nature of the Town Bloody Hall documentary.
The film begins making a statement on the issues of class and accessibility within women's liberation, with hecklers outside the building shouting that Germaine Greer "betrays the poor".
[5] Inside the theatre, Norman Mailer begins the panel discussion, and introduces his own work "The Prisoner of Sex" in Harper's magazine.
[5] Jacqueline Caballos, the president of the New York Chapter of the National Organization for Women, believes that Norman Mailer represents the establishment, and therefore her participation has allowed her to work within the system.
She represents women writers in a traditionally male-dominated field, specifically in reference to her juxtaposition with the powerful and privileged Mailer in comparison to herself.
[7] As a leader of the sexual revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, Johnston faced an enormous backlash from conservatives, which created a lasting effect on her ability to advocate for "lesbian feminism".
[8] Following this backlash, she rebranded her activism as a period piece and wrote a biography called England's Child: The Carillon and the Casting of Big Bells, which connected her own goals to the role of her father, whom she had never met.
[12] Referred to as a "battle of the sexes" in Variety, the film was acknowledged as one of great societal and activist influences on women's liberation at the time.
[14] Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, it features Ari Fliakos, Greg Mehrten, Erin Mullin, Scott Shepard and Maura Tierney.
[15] The Village Voice boasts about how it "captures the debate's strange theatricality and allows it to throw the sexual politics of our own moment into stark relief".