As filmmaker Peter Bratt explores the extraordinary life of Dolores Huerta—a leader in the United States’ civil-rights and labour movements—it becomes apparent that the sexist and racist bullshit the activist dealt with all her life are the same things keeping her on the sidelines of history today.

Weaving together a compelling montage of archival footage, sound bites from high-wattage political figures, and interviews with Huerta herself, Bratt serves up an empowering and multifaceted look at how Huerta organized thousands of minority farm workers in the name of equal rights. Huerta is bright, fierce, and refreshingly complex—characteristics we see when she struggles to come to terms with the emerging feminist movement in the ’60s.

This is a powerful and enlightening film, not least of all because it should offer thousands of girls and women of colour a role model so sorely lacking in history books.