Films Directed by Women

An exploration of the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector Agnes Gund who sold Roy Lichtenstein's painting "Masterpiece" in 2017 for $165 million to start the Art for Justice Fund to end mass incarceration.

Documentary that examines lesbian motherhood through the eyes of longtime partners Ann Krsul and Leslie Sullivan, who desperately want to have a child.

Documentary exploring Ron Athey’s life and career as a queer HIV-positive body modification and performance artist, including several of Athey’s internationally staged works from the late 1990s.

Tomaz, an ex-soldier now homeless in London, is offered a place to stay at a decaying house, inhabited by a young woman and her dying mother. As he starts to fall for Magda, Tomaz cannot ignore his suspicion that something insidious might also be living alongside them.

2019 film directed by Kitty Green

Recommended for ages 8 and up
Twelve-year-old Binti and her father, Jovial, are undocumented immigrants from the Congo, who have lived in Belgium since Binti was a baby. She dreams of living a normal life and aspires to be an online influencer, but their lives are upended when the refugee squat they are living in is raided by the Belgian police. While on the run, Binti discovers a secret treehouse where she meets Elias, who is working to save the okapi, the threatened “forest giraffe” native to the Congo. Elias is also struggling to come to terms with his parents’ divorce, his father’s new life in Brazil, and how to relate to his mother’s current suitor. Soon after Binti and Elias’s encounter in the woods, their parents meet, and Binti quickly realizes that a solution to her problems is right in front of her—all she needs to do is convince Elias’s mom and her dad to get married. Through poignant storytelling that all audiences will enjoy, this award-winning film explores weighty issues with humor, empathy, and love.

2020 film directed by Cathy Yan

2021 film by Cate Shortland

This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.

2021 film directed by Nia DaCosta

After a divorce, Alice hasn't seen her children in two months as she awaits a custody verdict. When her son calls her in the middle of the night, Alice takes action, abducting the children on an illicit charter trip to the Canary Islands.

A true story based on acid attack survivor Malti's grueling and glorious journey from her medical treatment, court proceedings leading to her emotional healing.

Exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.

An unemployed American worker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur. But who wins and who loses the battle for power in the 21st century? Through interwoven character dramas spanning the U.S. and China, Catching the Sun explores the global economic race to lead the clean energy future.

Before Alice went to Wonderland, and before Peter became Pan, they were brother and sister. When their eldest brother dies in a tragic accident, they each seek to save their parents from their downward spirals of despair until finally they are forced to choose between home and imagination, setting the stage for their iconic journeys into Wonderland and Neverland.

Set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene comes the story of Grace Davis, a superstar whose talent, and ego, have reached unbelievable heights. Maggie is Grace’s overworked personal assistant who’s stuck running errands, but still aspires to her childhood dream of becoming a music producer. When Grace’s manager presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change their lives forever.

Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.

This film is a gripping documentary exploration that humanizes the United States' tragically flawed immigration policy. The film follows the story of 3 Cambodian-American immigrants living in Seattle (who came as children in the early 80s, when a multitude of Cambodian refugees were given housing in the city's projects) whose teenage rebellions catch up with them in a horrific way.

Children are saving lives in the slums of Kolkata. Amlan Ganguly doesn't rescue slum children; he empowers them to become change agents, battling poverty and transforming their neighborhoods with dramatic results. Filmed over the course of three years, The Revolutionary Optimists follows Amlan and three of the children he works with on an intimate journey through adolescence, as they challenge the idea that marginalization is written into their destiny.

With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.