Films Directed by Women

An intense thriller about a lonely bookseller's obsessive love affair, and her protective best friend, who alone knows the horrible truth about her obsession.

A haiku club comprised of five unlikely students aim to win the national high school haiku tournament.

Showcasing the iconic New York comedy club where Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and hundreds of the best comedians of our time honed their craft. Explores the struggles, triumphs, and incredible journey of the people who kept the comedy club’s doors open and the comedians who graced its stage with their unique voices night after night since 1976. Among the comics featured in the film are Richard Belzer, Billy Crystal, Gilbert Gottfried, Arsenio Hall, Carol Leifer, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Joe Piscopo, Colin Quinn, Paul Provenza, Paul Reiser, Ray Romano, and Chris Rock.

2017 film

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stripped state workers of their union rights in 2011, was it simply a classic face-off between labor and management, or a bold political move designed to weaken his party's political opposition? Set against the rise of the Tea Party and Occupy movements, the US Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United, and the 2012 presidential campaign, Citizen Koch documents the consequences for democracy when private interests determine who is elected to deliver public good.

"Trouble the Water" takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall--just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that most tourists knew. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, is turning her new video camera on herself and her Ninth Ward neighbors trapped in the city. Weaving an insider's view of Katrina with a mix of verité and in-your-face filmmaking, it is a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes--two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.

A disembodied brain and an artificial intelligence tasked with running remote viewing experiments embark on an unusual odyssey.

A suspicious affair ruins an almost perfect marriage as husband and wife take a wild goose chase into the world of sex, lies and betrayal, risking everything in one of the craziest love triangles ever.

Two people run from the pain of their broken past. When they discover each other, they find themselves at a crossroad where the only thing that stands between them and a second chance is each other.

Two Hollywood filmmakers attempt to find Morgan Freeman in Mississippi and convince him to star in their next movie. When life gets in their way they soon discover what matters to them most.

Story of Miki Howard, an American R&B and Jazz singer, whose hits include "Ain't Nobody Like You" and "Ain't Nuthin' in the World."

Portraying the Vietnamese immigrant experience through Kieu, A Tale of Love follows the quest of a woman in love with Love. Voyeurism runs through the history of narrative and is here one of the threads that structure the film. Playing with the fiction of love in love stories, the film invites a different experience of cinema with non-naturalistic acting and layered interaction of performed reality, memory and imagination.

Over the years, three friends have worked hard to conceal past secrets, hatred, and deceit. Using their families and friends to distract them from the pain will only last so long. They will soon come face to face with their past, while trying to convince everyone, including themselves, that "Yesterday Is Still Gone."

Following a brutal assault, a college co-ed's life spirals until she encounters her assailant while working as a dancer. The predator has become the prey, and the prey has set her sights on revenge.

2016 film by Trinh T. Minh-ha

Made in homage to Kenji Miyazawa’s children’s sci-fi classic MILKY WAY RAILROAD, NIGHT PASSAGE is the latest experimental feature from celebrated filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha and artist Jean Paul Bourdier (REASSEMBLAGE, THE FOURTH DIMENSION, A TALE OF LOVE, SHOOT FOR THE CONTENTS, SURNAME VIET GIVEN NAME NAM). This provocative digital tale tells the story of three young friends traveling for a brief moment together on the train between life and death. Their journey into and out of the land of ‘awakened dreams’ occurs on a long ride on a night train. Ingeniously framed through the train window, filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha and artist Jean Paul Bourdier create whimsical and sensual dreamscapes, which is matched by an equally beautiful and other-worldly music score. Once again, Minh-ha shifts the way she engages with the form and the spirit of the cinema—to challenge and provoke her audience.

Shot with stunning elegance and clarity, NAKED SPACES explores the rhythm and ritual of life in the rural environments of six West African countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkino Faso, Togo, Benin and Senegal). The nonlinear structure of NAKED SPACES challenges the traditions of ethnographic filmmaking, while sensuous sights and sounds lead the viewer on a poetic journey to the most inaccessible parts of the African continent: the private interaction of people in their living spaces.

Reflecting on Mao’s famous saying, “Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend,” Trinh T. Minh-ha’s film—whose title refers in part to a Chinese guessing game—is a unique excursion into the maze of allegorical naming and storytelling in China. The film ponders questions of power and change, politics and culture, as refracted by Tiananmen Square events. It offers at the same time an inquiry into the creative process of filmmaking, intricately layering Chinese popular songs and classical music, the sayings of Mao and Confucius, women’s voices and the words of artists, philosophers and other cultural workers. Video images emulate the gestures of calligraphy and contrast with film footage of rural China and stylized interviews. Like traditional Chinese opera, Trinh’s film unfolds through “bold omissions and minute depictions” to render “the real in the illusory and the illusory in the real.” Exploring color, rhythm and the changing relationship between ear and eye, this meditative documentary realizes on screen the shifts of interpretation in contemporary Chinese culture and politics.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS
Sundance, Best Cinematography
London Film Festival
Yamagata Film Festival, Japan
Rotterdam Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival
Melbourne Film Festival
Mannheim Film Festival
Films de Femmes, Créteil France
Asian American Film Festival
QUOTES
“Independent in thought and delicate in craftsmanship, strung with the tensile strength of a piano wire.”
Karen Jaehne
Film Comment
“Poetic, lyrical, sensual, her work is densely textured and rich with breathtakingly beautiful images, elegant camera work and eloquent multi-layered soundtracks.”
Susan Ditta
“One of the most extraordinary documentaries of recent years….A beautiful and moving film, as challenging and stimulating formally as it is politically.”
London Film Festival

Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays graffitis poetry across town. A modern retelling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla.

Hours before her scheduled marriage, young bride-to-be Shirin murders a man. The crime is completely unexpected and goes against everything we know of her. We learn that Shirin has had two unsuccessful marriage attempts, and is deeply psychologically troubled. But as the dark secrets in her past are slowly revealed, exposing a childhood of neglect, abuse, and the tragic history of two previous failed marriages, the characters must face their own battles with justice, retribution, and morality.