Bread and Roses (1994 film)

Bread and Roses is a 1994 biographical film showing significant episodes in the political life of socialist and feminist Sonja Davies, based on her autobiography of the same name. She is portrayed from her early years to her election to the Nelson Hospital Board. Made as a Suffrage Year tribute to the women of New Zealand. Helen Martin says the film is fascinating as a social history, showing her empathy with working class women. The film was shown on television in four episodes in October 1993.

Based upon the life of activist and trade unionist (and later MP) Sonja Davies. The film covers her life up to 1956, when, at age 33, she was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board. During this period she develops strong socialist beliefs, marries and divorces, at age 17 trains as a nurse, has a romance (and a child) with an American marine who is killed in WWII action. She battles tuberculosis and marries a former boyfriend when he returns from the war. She becomes part of a women's ill-fated campaign to save the Nelson railway line from closure and begins to be elected to political bodies.