Films Directed by Women

Guns for Banta is the first feature-length film by Sarah Maldoror. Shot in Guinea-Bissau, it follows the life and untimely death of Awa, a countrywoman involved in the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Financed by the Algerian army, which hoped to turn it into a propaganda tool, the film was confiscated from Maldoror because of her demands for full control over the editing. To this day the reels have not been identified or returned.

1982 film by Elfi Mikesch

Young Canadians of Indian descent try to break into the Bollywood film industry.

Thulasi, returns to her village to become a dance teacher. She cannot forget her love, Vishwa, but is haunted by the memory of her cousin's obsession with her.

Meena feels stifled by her mother who makes all of her choices for her. When she visits her aunt's house in the village, Meena falls in love with Krishna. But Krishna is already engaged and Meena's mother is planning her wedding to Sarathy.

2018 film directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson

2018 film by Stacie Passon and Mark Kruger

A woman travels across the United States, confronting memory while observing American culture through its hotels and motels.

In this four and a half hour documentary or filmic tavelogue, Ulrike Ottinger tries to impart new ways of seeing a foreign culture. "In my previous films I have dealt with the themes of exoticism, minorities and their differing role behaviour within their own culture. Now I am interested in expanding this theme, in getting to know a 'real exoticism' in a foreign land and in a different culture. I am attempting to conduct a visual discourse with my camera about exoticism as a question of point-of-view.
　　In making the film, I was influenced by Chinese naturepainting: by the use of the scroll, which not only demands a different method of painting, but a different way of viewing - rolling out the scroll, focusing in on details, wandering to and fro, viewing piecemeal. So if I was filming a market square, for example, I'd pan very slowly and steadily across the square, rather than trying to capture the image in toto.
　　– Ulrike Ottinger

Arko was a cricketer. He was an outstanding bowler and had also played for Bengal Cricket Team. Unfortunately, a torn ligament and a blotched-up operation put an end to his budding career. Frustration and depression continuously bogged him down and he tried his best to seek an alternate career. One early morning, while dropping his son to school, an accident occurs. A private bus could not apply the brakes on time at a road crossing and runs over little his son. Arko is flung aside. He survives but his son does not. Arko's life is shattered.The driver of the private bus, is arrested and the bus is seized. The Insurance Company enters the scene. Investigations begin. Who was really at fault? Why did the bus not brake on time? Was it a mechanical fault? Was the bus driver only a scape-goat? As the investigations deepen, many unpleasant realities come to the fore and Arko together with Kartick, the driver, and the Insurance agent, decide to take matters in their own hands.

Seven young women from Berlin discuss their experiences with the pill in a studio setting and react to the ideas that young men of the same age have about this contraceptive. The film is based on the work of the women's group "Brot und Rosen" and their book "Frauenhandbuch Nr.1 Abtreibung und Verhütung".

A film about the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996.

In collage sequences, the surrogate of synthetic sensuality takes form and seduces the sailors in the guise of a Hawaiian girl. In ritual punctuation, she distributes deaths which seemingly only the hardy siren Fatality can survive.

1978 film by Cristina Perincioli

The story of Sandcastle is every woman's journey, from moth to butterfly, to reach out and find their inner voice. The story of a rebel, breaking out of the cocoon of societal pressure and finding her place in society.

Adapted from Rabindranath Tagore's famous romantic novella, Shesher Kobita, Picnic tells the timeless story of three people from different worlds who come together at a resort. Picnic is the journey of two of these people who find each other, discover romance and come together to experience love beyond love.

1990 documentary film by Claire Simon

A feature-length documentary based on film reports from the Spanish civil war.

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II is a 1928 Soviet silent documentary film directed by Esfir Shub. The film is considered lost. Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II is the final film in Esfir Shub's trilogy of films that began with The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927) and continued with The Great Road (1927).

The Great Road (1927) is a Soviet silent documentary directed by Esfir Shub. Serving as the second part of her trilogy on Russian history—between The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927) and Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II (1928)—the film chronicles the revolutionary path of the Soviet Union, assembling archival footage to depict the struggle, transformation, and aspirations of the early Soviet state.