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Use stars on the world map to navigate this site by region. Below is a listing of select feature films by and about women. Film titles with asterisks (*) indicate availability in the University at Albany, SUNY Library catalogues. See also Global/Transnational Films and Documentaries.
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By Women The Battle of the Sacred Tree Traditional beliefs among the Kikuyu community are challenged when a group of Christian women petition to have a tree, believed to hold magical powers, removed from the village. At the center of this struggle is Mumbi, who has defied societal conventions by leaving her abusive husband in Nairobi to return home to her village. Everyone's Child* From the author of Nervous Conditions comes a film that responds to the increasing number of AIDS orphans on the African continent. The story centers on three young siblings who are shunned by their rural community after their parents die from the disease. Left to fend for themselves, the siblings leave their village for the city, where they are placed at greater risk for contracting HIV/AIDS due to their impoverished conditions. At the heart of this morality tale is the lesson, "It takes a village to raise a child," as our filmmaker urges us all to recognize AIDS orphans as "everyone's child." See Related Site. Flame* A controversial first-feature by British-born filmmaker Ingrid Sinclair, centering on Zimbabwe's armed resistance against colonial domination and the women involved in the war effort. See Related Site. Mossane A romance centuring on Mossane, a beautiful 14-year-old village girl, who falls in love with a poor student while betrothed to another man, who lives abroad in France and finances impoverished villagers. Torn between tradition and her own heart, Mossane makes a difficult choice that could lead to tragedy. Saikati Saikati, a young Masai girl, leaves her village for Nairobi, where she hopes to receive an education, defying her community's mandates, and dreams of becoming a doctor. She must also overcome the dangers of the city. See Related Site.
Faat Kine* A story of an independent woman, Faat Kine, who ventures into a new business by opening up a gas station while also celebrating her children's educational achievements. See Related Site. A retelling, Senegalese style, of Bizet's Carmen, set on Goree island and filled with the pulsating sounds of contemporary Senegalese jazz and dance. See Related Site. Moolade Described as a manifesto against female genital cuttings, this film, set in Burkina Faso, centers on "Moolade," the female circumciser, who faces a rebellion of young girls and their supporters while preparing for their ceremony. Sarafina! Based on the hit Broadway musical about the Soweto children's uprising against the South African apartheid government in 1976, in particular their protest against the use of Afrikaans as the official language in their school. Leleti Khumalo reprises her stage role as the titular character; Whoopi Goldberg also stars as Sarafina's beloved teacher who is arrested by state police. Yesterday Yesterday (played by Leleti Khumalo, star of Sarafina!) is a rural, HIV-positive woman, who is determined to live long enough to see her daughter reach school age. See Related Site. |
By Women Fire,* The first in the trilogy, Fire, centers on two sisters-in-law who fall in love while living under the same household in unsatisfying marriages (see related article). The second, Earth, follows a family and their friends, whose relationships suffer during the violent events of India's 1948 partition into India and Pakistan. The third film, Water, suffered delays in film production (see article) when religious enthusiasts protested what was perceived as Mehta's anti-Hindu agenda. Finally released in 2005, the story concerns the ill treatment of widows during the 1930s who are shunned by mainstream society and isolated in "widow houses." See Related Site. Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love An erotic drama set in the 16th century about a servant girl, Maya, who masters the lessons of the Kama Sutra and steals both the heart of her mistress's soon-to-wed king and a sculptor, with whom she falls in love. See Related Site. Monsoon Wedding* A colorful family drama set in the globalized city of New Delhi where the extended Verma family prepare for a wedding during the monsoon season. In the midst of the family gathering is a subplot featuring Ria, cousin of the bride, who struggles with a dark secret from childhood. See Related Site. Song of the Exile* A semi-autobiographical account from filmmaker Ann Hui about a young woman studying in London, who returns to Hong Kong to attend her sister's wedding and reconcile with her estranged mother. See Related Site. Xiu Xiu: the Sent Down Girl* Set during China's cultural revolution, Xiu Xiu is sent to the hinterlands with the promise of specialized training for China's new republic. Soon learning that she has been deceived, Xiu Xiu descends into an isolated life of prostitution and tragedy. See Related Site. About Women Bandit Queen* Based on legendary outlaw Phoolan Devi (1963-2001), who resists both caste and sexual violence. (See review by Arundhati Roy.) Eat, Drink, Man, Woman* A contemporary drama in which a master chef lives with and cooks for his three adult and unmarried daughters: the oldest a chemistry teacher who has become a devout Christian, the middle daughter a modern business woman, and the youngest a student who works in a fast food restaurant. While each member of the household remains busy with their own love lives, they all come together every Sunday for an elaborate family meal. A tragic depiction of an educated young woman who becomes the new wife of a feudal nobleman in 1920s China. She soon competes with her co-wives for favored position in the household. See Related Site. The Scent of Green Papaya* A lush, visually stunning narrative that follows the day-to-day life of a young servant girl in the household of a Saigon merchant family. See Related Site. The Terrorist Debuting a year after Mani Ratnam's Dil Se, an unconventional Bollywood drama of unrequited love, The Terrorist draws on the same theme of a conflicted young woman recruited as a suicide-bomber. See Related Site. |
By Women Bedevil* The Piano Whale Rider Set in a New Zealand coastal village, young Pai (played by Castle-Hughes) proves to her grandfather, a Maori chief who dismisses her because she is a girl, that she is worthy to inherit the tradition of Paikea, the Whale Rider. See Related Site. About Women Heavenly Creatures The Land Has Eyes Rabbit-Proof Fence* Based on a true story, as told by author Doris Pilkington about her mother, Molly, one of three young girls who are separated from their Aboriginal mother and placed in a settlement as part of a 1931 Australian policy to institutionally assimilate indigenous and mixed-race children. Part of Australia's "stolen generation," the three girls resist these practices as they run away from the Moore River Native Settlement and walk for 1,500 miles back to their home while following the rabbit-proof fence, a man-made structure that traverses the continent. See Related Site. |
By Women Sugar Cane Alley* Euzhan Palcy's celebrated first film takes place in 1930s Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean, and centers on Jose, a young boy raised by his self-sacrificing grandmother, who labors in the sugar cane fields and takes in laundry when she moves into town to ensure his education. See Related Site. What My Mother Told Me* A mother-daughter drama concerning Jesse, a young woman from England, who travels to Trinidad to bury her father and reconcile with her mother, who had abandoned her as a child. See Related Site. About Women Dancehall Queen A street vendor in Kingston, Jamaica struggles to raise her two daughters in a violent neighborhood while entering a dancehall contest with dreams of money and success. The Man by the Shore A story of the repressive regime of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier during 1960s Haiti, as seen through the eyes of a young girl, Sarah, and told in flashback from the perspective of an adult Sarah. See Related Site. Portrait of Teresa A classic film depicting the struggles of women involved in the Cuban revolution. This story centers on Teresa, a wife and mother working in a factory, who incurs the wrath of her husband when she pursues political struggles. |
By Women A story following the lineage of a formidable, independent farm woman, Antonia, who settles back in her hometown with her daughter in the decades following World War II. A group of South Asian women from Birmingham, England set off for a day trip, filled with comedic adventures and mishaps, to the seaside resort of Blackpool. See Related Site. Bend It Like Beckham Jesminder Bamra (played by Nagra), a British-born daughter of orthodox Sikh parents, dreams of emulating football hero David Beckham while negotiating between traditional expectations and her own goals of excelling at football and living life as a fully modern and transnational young woman. See Related Site. Fat Girl Originally titled A Ma Soeur, this sobering drama follows two adolescent sisters who accompany their parents on a summer holiday; one loses her virginity while the other in the titular role observes with envy this budding and exploitative romance. See Related Site. I Can't Sleep* Based on the true story of Thierry Paulin, a "granny killer" who claimed the lives of over twenty elderly women in the 1980s, the film explores with disinterest the urban alienation and disconnect among immigrants living in a Parisian neighborhood, unaware that a serial killer resides in their midst. See Related Site. Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed Originally titled Romuald et Juliette, this comedic morality tale follows Juliette, a black cleaning lady (played by Richard) who uncovers - in the course of her work - a corporate takeover scheme of a yogurt company, headed by CEO, Romuald (played by Auteuil). In the process of helping Romuald take back control of his company, a surprising romance develops between them. Passion of Remembrance* The first film from the Sankofa Collective, this mosaic and experimental drama explores the postcolonial Afro-British experience in the wake of multicultural conflicts and race riots in 1980s England. See Related Site. Valley of the Innocent Detective Eve Meyer, a biracial police officer raised in an orphanage in East Germany during the time of the Iron Curtain, is on a mission to discover the truth about her parentage: a German mother who was a professor's wife and an African father who was a student. See Related Site. Welcome to the Terrordome
All About My Mother* After the death of her son, Manuela (played by Roth) travels to Barcelena in search of his father, someone she never spoke about to her son and who has changed his name to Lola. On her quest, she meets and befriends colorful characters, including Agrado (played by San Juan), a transvestite sex worker, and Sister Rosa (played by Cruz), a nun dying of AIDS. See Related Site. Babette's Feast* Based on a 1958 story by Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), this 19th-century story concerns a woman who flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette eventually prepares a sumptuous French dinner that tempts the very souls of the sisters and the rest of the village. Perhaps the first of a genre of films that celebrate the liberating effects of food (such as Like Water for Chocolate, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Chocolat). See Related Site. Dancer in the Dark Bjork stars in this stark, tragic "musical" as a Czech immigrant, slowly losing her sight while hoping to save enough money at the factory where she works to help her son have an operation to save him from a similar fate. However, events unfold in which everything goes horribly awry. See Related Site. Secrets and Lies Hortense (played by Jean-Baptiste), a professional Afro-Brit, searches for her biological mother, a working-class white woman, Cynthia (played by Blethyn) who is at first in denial about her daughter before revealing various secrets from her past. Vera Drake While living a respectable life as a selfless, working-class wife and mother in 1950s Britain, Vera Drake (played by Staunton) secretly performs abortions for the women who seek her assistance. |
By Women Danzon Story of Julia, a working mother who spends Wednesday nights dancing the "danzon" at a local club with the same partner for many years, until one night he suddenly disappears. Afterwards, Julia decides to embark on a trip to find her dance partner, although she knows very little about the man. See Related Site. Frida Exploration of the life and times of celebrated Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo (played by Hayek). Story of Biela, a motherless adolescent girl, growing up on a farm, who is later groomed into entering polite society as a lady. Despite these efforts, Biela fails to fit into this milieu, finding solace instead among the maids in the kitchen. See Related Site. The Holy Girl A coming-of-age story about two adolescent girls who get together after choir practice to discuss the meaning of life and religious devotion. Macabea, a naive immigrant woman, leaves her small town for the big city with dreams of transcending her poverty. See Related Site. In the Country Where Nothing Happens A satire exploring corruption and greed in Mexico through the story of an unscrupulous businessman who is kidnapped but whose family and friends have no interest in paying the ransom for his return. Violet Perfume: No One is Listening The friendship of two girls is torn apart when one of them becomes a victim of sexual violence in Mexico City. Without a Trace
Central Station* Originally titled "Central do Brasil," about a young boy, whose mother is killed in front of Rio de Janeiro's Central Station; he is reluctantly befriended by a lonely and cynical woman (played by Montenegro). See Related Site. Filhas do Vento Translated title: "Daughters of the Wind," a story of sibling rivalry, love, and redemption among sisters, mothers, and daughters struggling over issues of racism and sexism in contemporary Brazil. One of the few Brazilian films featuring an all-black cast. See Related Site. Life According to Muriel An abandoned wife and mother leaves Buenos Aires for the calm of a small town, where she meets and befriends another single mother. Like Water for Chocolate* Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Esquivel (who wrote the screenplay), the story centers on Tita, the youngest daughter who is forbidden by her mother to marry the man of her dreams, Pedro, because of a family tradition that compels the youngest daughter to remain unmarried while caretaking for her elders. When Pedro is betrothed instead to her older sister, Tita communicates her love to Pedro through her cooking. See Related Site. |
By Women A young emigre living in Paris returns to Morocco to visit her dying father and rediscovers her homeland, where she opens up her home as a shelter for battered women. See Related Site. A classic and experimental film from novelist/filmmaker Assia Djeba, which documents women's experiences of Algeria's war of Independence from France, as told through the "Nouba," a traditional song of five movements. See Related Site. Rana's Wedding A young bride-to-be navigates her way through roadblocks and checkpoints of the Occupied Territories as she prepares for her upcoming wedding. See Related Site. Satin Rouge A Tunisian widow rediscovers her sensuality when she takes up belly dancing and reinvigorates her night life. See Related Site. Set in the 1950s, the story centers on Alia, a young girl who ponders her fate as she observes in silence the confined situation of her mother, a palace servant who must cater to the whims of powerful princes. See Related Site. A Suspended Life Hala, a young girl who escapes the realities of Lebanon's civil war through Egyptian television, and Karim, an artist who retreats from life in his apartment, form a bond as they come to terms with their war-torn city. See Related Site. The Circle An exploration into a "circle" of women who are outcast from society, including a woman who gives birth to a daughter, three women recently released from prison in need of money, and an unmarried woman who seeks an abortion. See Related Site. Kandahar Nafas (played by Pazira), an Afghan-born Canadian journalist, returns to her homeland in a desperate attempt to reach her sister, who has written to her, vowing that she would commit suicide at the time of the next solar eclipse - three days away - as a result of her despair over the Taliban's oppression of women and a disability from a landmine. Dressed from head to toe in a burqua, Nafas traverses the desert country and bears witness to its war-torn legacy while hoping to get to her sister on time. See Related Site. See also the documentary sequel to this story: Return to Kandahar. Leila* An affluent and modern marriage is torn apart by tradition when the wife discovers she can't conceive. See Related Site. Viva Laldjerie Three women - a mother, her daughter, and a prostitute - make a life for themselves while living in a hotel in the center of town amid the spread of religious fundamentalism. See Related Site. |
By Women A militant fable set in the near future about a group of women in New York City who start a feminist revolution that overthrows the government. Boys Don't Cry* Based on the real-life rape and murder of Teena Brandon (played by Swank), a female-to-male transexual in Falls City, Nebraska. See Related Site. But I'm a Cheerleader An experimental, black-and-white feature blending two narratives, one set at the turn-of-the-twentieth century and another set in contemporary Chicago, both exploring the romance between a deaf woman and a hearing man, as well as the nature of health epidemics in African American communities key to their respective eras. Inspired by a poem by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, this is Davis's first feature-length film, which incorporates silent-film techniques to allow for differently-abled accessibility. See Related Site. Julie Dash's groundbreaking first feature that explores a Gullah family's life on the Sea Islands at the turn of the twentieth century, as the family prepares to migrate to the northern states. See Related Site. Eve's Bayou* Eve, the middle child of an affluent black Creole family in Louisiana, comes of age when she discovers her father, whom she idolizes, is having an affair. This information eventually unravels her family in unpredictable ways. Girlfight Young, high-school student, Diana (played by Rodriguez), defies gender expectations, teen angst, and a troubled relationship with her father to train as a boxer. Go Fish* A black-and-white comedy exploring the various dramas and difficulties of lesbians looking for love. Chantel Mitchell (played by Johnson) is a sassy, Brooklyn high-schooler of the hip-hop generation, with dreams of college and medical school...until she discovers that she is pregnant. Two rivals (played by Lathan and Epps) on the basketball court since early childhood grow up to compete for the NBA and fall in love while attending college. Mississippi Masala* A South Asian family, exiled from Uganda in the wake of Idi Amin's reign of terror, relocate to Mississippi, leading to an interracial romance between the daughter (played by Choudhury) and a black man (played by Washington). Monster* Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos (played by Theron), a sex worker - traumatized by sexual violence - who resorts to murder. North Country Based on the groundbreaking case of the first class action sexual harassment law suit concerning women workers in the iron mines of Minnesota. See Related Site. Real Women Have Curves* Ana, a first generation Mexican-American, comes to terms with her sexuality as a plus-size woman and her educational potential when she earns a scholarship to attend Columbia University. But first, she must reconcile with her mother's traditional views of womanhood, which conflict with her own, and a summer job at her sister's sewing factory, which she considers just another "sweatshop" in the city of L.A. See Related Site. Saving Face A Chinese-American mother-daughter drama set in New York City in which the daughter, a surgeon, hides her relationshiip with another woman and the mother comes to terms with a pregnancy outside of marriage. See Related Site. Set in 1907, musicologist Lily Penleric (played by McTeer) retreats from the academic world, which has denied her a promotion, and joins her sister, who runs a small school with a teaching partner in the Appalachian mountains. There, Lily discovers the purest art form in the Appalachian ballad and hopes to record this music and revitalize her career. Stranger Inside Treasure Lee (played by Yolanda Ross), a young African American woman who has spent a good portion of her life in and out of prison, believes she has an opportunity to meet her mother, sentenced to life imprisonment, whom she has never known, when she is sent to a women's state correctional facility. See Related Site. Thirteen A straight-A student (played by Wood) rebels against her mother (played by Hunter) and alters her behavior to impress a popular girl in school (played by Reed, who cowrote the screenplay loosely based on her own experiences at thirteen). See Related Site. The Virgin Suicides A group of young boys become obsessed with a family of adolescent girls, whose strict parents keep them cloistered after one of them commits suicide. The Watermelon Woman* A faux documentary, starring filmmaker Cheryl Dunye, in which our inspiring filmmaker, while working on the job at a video store, discovers a 1930s black lesbian film star called "The Watermelon Woman" and decides to make a documentary about her. See Related Site. When Night is Falling A conservative professor at a Protestant college falls for a vibrant circus performer. A comedy centering on the successes and mishaps of Laurel Ayers (played by Goldberg), a highly skilled business woman determined to break the glass ceiling, even though she is constantly overlooked as a woman of color. When she goes into business for herself, she beats "the man" at his own game by pretending she has a male business partner, whom she must eventually impersonate when he is expected to materialize in person. Bread and Roses Two Chicana sisters - one a recent immigrant (played by Padilla) - work as cleaners at a downtown Los Angeles office and take opposing sides when the janitors on the job struggle to unionize. Dance Me Outside* A group of adolescents living on an Indian reservation in Ontario, Canada, are forever changed when one of their friends is raped and murdered by a white man. The story grapples with how this group of young men and women seek justice in their community. An aspiring actress (played by Randle) living in Brooklyn struggles against the sexual objectification of her body on camera, but takes a job in between gigs as a "phone sex operator" to pay her rent. The screenplay was written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright Suzan-lori Parks, with a soundtrack by Prince. An action-driven, ultraviolent story of revenge told in two volumes, following the "Bride" (played by Thurman), who wakes up from a coma, after being gunned down at her own wedding four years earlier by her former boss, the titular character, and his deadly squad of international assassins. See Related Site. Sally Field brings to life Norma Rae, a single mother working in a Southern textile mill, who struggles to convince her fellow co-workers to unionize against their intolerable working conditions. Our Song Three inner-city best friends on the lower east side of Manhattan drift apart after their high school closes; one becomes pregnant, another chooses work over school, and another struggles to find a way to continue her education. Salt of the Earth* Based on the real life story of Empire Zinc Mine, a New Mexican mining company that attempted to break a union strike of Mexican-American workers, who try and prevent their wives from participating in the strike on an equal basis. This film, produced by the Independence Productions Corporation (IPC) - a group of Hollywood communists - was blacklisted when it premiered in 1954 during the McCarthy era. See Related Site. Secretary Lee Holloway (played by Gyllenhaal), recently released from a mental institution and returning to her dysfunctional suburban family, applies for her first job in which her duties as a secretary lead her to pursue a sado-masochistic relationship with her boss (played by Spader). See Related Site. She's Gotta Have It* Spike Lee's first feature film about a Brooklyn artist, Nola Darling (played by Tracy Camilla Johns), who refuses to choose between three lovers even though they each want her to be monogamously committed. The Skeleton Key Sarandon and Davis immortalize Thelma and Louise, one a frustrated waitress (Sarandon) and the other an unhappy wife (Davis), who take a weekend vacation from their lives, only to become fugitives on the run across the American Southwest after a tragic incident occurs at a local bar. Working Girl Tess McGill (played by Griffith) is an ambitious secretary from Staten Island who quickly learns about the treachery of the corporate world when her boss (played by Weaver) steals her idea. As payback, Tess pretends to be her boss when she is out of town to ensure the successful implementation of her plans and, as a bonus, steals the boss's boyfriend (played by Ford). |
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By Women Chocolat* A young French woman returns to Cameroon, where she spent her childhood when this African country was a colonial outpost of France. The patriarch of a white South African family (played by Sutherland) is caught up in the racial injustices of the country's apartheid system when his black gardener mysteriously disappears, along with his young son, after the schoolchildren's uprising in Soweto in 1976. Lost in Translation A middle-aged actor (played by Murray) and the wife of a photographer (played by Johansson) become friends while vacationing in Tokyo. See Related Site. Based on the autobiographical novel of Stefanie Zweig, who recounts childhood memories of her Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany to settle on a farm in Kenya. About Women Casa de los Babys Six American women from different backgrounds stay at a South American motel in anticipation of adopting local babies. However, local bureaucracy keeps them at the location much longer than they expected. Maria Full of Grace* Maria (played by Molerno), a young adolescent girl, leaves her job in a flower factory for the more lucrative and dangerous job as a drug mule traveling between Columbia and the U.S. See Related Site. |
Game Over: Gender, Race, and Violence in Video Games.* |
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This list is ever expanding, so for any new or recently discovered films not included here, please contact me, and I will add these film titles. Send comments to jhobson@albany.edu.