FILM REVIEW

Jennifer K Mahal

There’s a wonderful documentary somewhere within “You Don’t Know What

I Got,” it’s just a little lost in the chaos. Director Linda Duvoisin’s

film sets out to explore the lives of five very different women who have

a passion for life -- singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco, housekeeper Jimmie

Woodruff, poet and law enforcement office Linda Finney, police officer

Julie Brunzell and artist/architect Myrtle Stedman. And explore she does.

We learn about Woodruff’s tough grandmother, who used to make her wash

dishes over and over again until they were past clean, about Brunzell’s

struggle to become a police officer at a time when women still didn’t do

that sort of thing, about DiFranco’s passion for her music. Finney

explains why she helps children with reading and Stedman talks about

creating an adobe house. We learn disparate facts about five fascinating

women, but somehow it fails to really come together.

There are some very powerful moments, such as when Brunzell talks

about being sexually harassed on the job and when DiFranco speaks to her

songs being perceived as feminist. But some of the transitions from story

to story don’t make much sense. And we see a little too much of DiFranco,

Woodruff and Stedman and not enough of Brunzell and Finney, the only two

women in the documentary to know one another.

“You Don’t Know What I Got,” which runs to 85 minutes, works if you

take it as a series of vignettes rather than as a unified whole.

* “You Don’t Know What I Got” will play at 6 p.m. Friday at Edwards

Island 2, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.