Films Directed by Women

Hélène, a housekeeper at a ritzy hotel in Corsica, is devoted to her family but lacks any passion in her own life. When she sees a handsome couple play a passionate game of chess, she becomes inspired to play herself. Hélène's working-class husband and spoiled daughter are soon bewildered by her obsession with chess. They also grow suspicious of Hélène's close relationship with Dr. Kröger, her eccentric American expat tutor.

Overbearing mom, Jackie, travels cross-country to be with her son, Angelo, after he drops out of college to become a surfer. She meets a surf instructor who convinces her to try to accept her son's wishes and allow him to follow his dreams.

A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.

2015 film directed by Natalie Portman

2009 anthology film directed by Fatih Akın and 10 others

Filmmaker Talya Lavie steps into the spotlight with a dark comedy about everyday life for a unit of young female Israeli soldiers. The human resources office at a remote desert base serves as the setting for this cast of characters, who bide their time pushing paper, battling for the top score in Minesweeper, and counting down the minutes until they can return to civilian life. Amidst their boredom and clashing personalities, issues of commitment—from friendship to love and country—are handled with humor and sharp-edged wit.

A series of interconnected short films are the backdrop for a maniac screenwriter who pitches insane storylines featuring some of Hollywood's biggest and brightest.

The story of a man who rescues a German Shepherd and how the two become fast friends. Based on the 1956 memoir of the same name by BBC editor, novelist and memoirist J. R. Ackerley.

Adventure awaits 12 year old Brendan who must fight Vikings and a serpent god to find a crystal and complete the legendary Book of Kells. In order to finish Brother Aiden's book, Brendan must overcome his deepest fears on a secret quest that will take him beyond the abbey walls and into the enchanted forest where dangerous mythical creatures hide. Will Brendan succeed in his quest?

Across a language barrier, a Turkish groom-to-be on an engagement party in Kyiv meets a Ukrainian that represents the 'other woman' for a marriage there.

They came to have their babies. They went home sterilized. "No Mas Bebés" is the story of Mexican immigrant mothers who were pushed into sterilizations while giving birth at Los Angeles county hospital during the 1960s and 70s. Alongside an intrepid, 26-year-old Chicana lawyer and whistle-blowing young doctor, the mothers mounted a civil rights lawsuit that is seminal to the alternative history of Roe v. Wade, and the movement for reproductive justice.

2010 film

Bill Murray worries no one will show up to his TV show due to a massive snowstorm in New York City. Through luck and perseverance, guests arrive at Gotham’s Carlyle Hotel to help him — dancing and singing in holiday spirit.

For Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlic, a locked door in her mother's apartment in Belgrade provides the gateway to both her remarkable family history and her country's tumultuous political inheritance.

This film recounts the murder of Vincent Chin, an automotive engineer mistaken as Japanese who was slain by an assembly line worker who blamed him for the competition by the Japanese auto makers that were threatening his job. It then recounts how that murderer escaped justice in the court system.

From Lockermaison
I recorded this movie off PBS one day when I was in college. Didn't know what I was recording, I just habitually recorded things off of PBS at the time. As an Asian American myself, I found this to be an excellent overview of the experiences and feelings that we encounter from the more ignorant and racist side of America. However, we were born here, this is the only country we know, and we love it the same as any other immigrant's children - white, black, brown, or whatever. This movie deals with that situation, where we live and love our country but have to deal with the idea that many Americans have that anyone who is Asian must be "foreign" or "unamerican". It talks about the history of our struggles for civil rights over the past century and how we were right there alongside the African Americans in the 60s fighting with them. Also discussed are many disservices done by America to Asian-Americans and how they are still today treated in surprisingly racist ways. It also explores how some Asians fit into stereotypes and how many definitely don't. It also deals with the concepts of interracial relationship between blacks, white, Asian, and Hispanics. The filmmaker talks to many different types of Asian Americans from different areas of the country and gives you a very interesting cross section of the surprising makeup of people that is Asian American. There are so many kinds of people you never knew existed.
I watched this several times and I always enjoyed it. There were some excellent shots. I also liked a few of the transitions and the editing in general I thought was clever. The interviews are very intriguing.
A few problems I had were I didn't like the narrator's voice and delivery. Obviously she's a normal person doing her own movie's narration and it sounds amateurish, but it is tolerable nevertheless. The film quality suddenly changes near the end because she used video instead of film in one section. Some people aren't explored as much as I would have liked. I think the movie could have been stronger somehow, but I'm not sure. It's a quiet movie and a lot of the issues brought up might still be confusing to non-Asians watching it, and might end up boring to some. Although like I said, I thought it was all really cool.
If you are interested in Asian American issues, the film still holds true today and you should like it a lot.

This is an intimate portrait of life in the Mississippi Delta, where Chinese, African Americans and Whites live in a complex world of cotton, work, and racial conflict. The history of the Chinese community is framed against the harsh realities of civil , religion, politics, and class in the South. Rare historical footage and interviews of Delta residents are combined to create this unprecedented document of inter-ethnic relations in the American South.

Restless and young, best buddies Selim and Çaça live a meager existence on the outskirts of Istanbul. By day they breed pigeons on the roof, by night they roam the streets with their entourage in their pimped-up car, "My Orange Angel". Their neighborhood's view of the city's gigantic business towers accelerates their ambitions. The two buddies want to open their own parking-lot business near a gigantic mall, and they just might get lucky, since they're supported by the local mafia boss.

A New York schoolteacher experiences a midlife crisis when, in quick succession, her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies, and her biological mother, an eccentric talk show host, materializes and turns her life upside down as she begins a courtship with the father of one of her students.

A young teenage werewolf is torn between honoring her family's secret and her love for a man.