Acting Like Women revisits LA's Woman's Building and 1970s performance art

Seven years of research, fundraising and editing have gone into a 90-minute film about the Los Angeles space where feminist performance art found its footing.

Acting Like Women was directed by Cheri Gaulke and celebrates the Woman's Building and the feminist performance art that came out of it, according to The Art Newspaper. Listings describe it as a 2026 production from the United States with a runtime of 90 minutes, as shown by Frameline.

The Woman's Building stood on the edge of downtown Los Angeles. Founded in 1973 by Judy Chicago, Sheila de Bretteville and Arlene Raven, it became a nexus where art and activism collided in the 1970s and 80s.

The founders set up the Feminist Studio Workshop at the building. Performance art, which means art made through live actions rather than objects hung on a wall, developed fast there. In practice that can mean speech, gesture, dress and movement in front of an audience.

The film follows that development through bodies and costumes, dance and movement, props and unusual locations. The story is told in part through Gaulke's own lens. She is herself an alumna of the building, and came to the project as both director and participant.

She collaborated with graphic artist Anne Gauldin, a fellow alumna of the Woman's Building. The production took seven years in total, with the early years devoted to research and fundraising before the shoot and edit could advance.

Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner joined as executive producers, the industry term for senior supporters who back a film financially or creatively. Their involvement was reported when trailer coverage was published in June 2026, according to Deadline. That June report named both as executive producers.

Tomlin and Wagner described the project as a personal story documentary about how women changed lives through performance art in the 1970s. Women Make Movies describes it as a feature-length documentary on feminist performance art in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s.

The film was programmed as part of Frameline50. The listing gives the United States as the country of production and 90 minutes as the duration.

For viewers new to this history, the entry point is straightforward. A downtown building. A group of women artists. Live work made with costumes, movement and props.