The Female Gaze: Sight & Sound magazine's selection of 100 overlooked films directed by women
The first movie in the list The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg is listed as being directed as Sidney Olcott, a man. Jane Gaines who suggested the title wrote, "Although Sidney Olcott is traditionally listed as the sole director, we need to remember that when the film was made, moving picture work was highly collaborative and secreen credits did not yet appear, so advancing Gene Gauntier under the categoy of 'director' of any of her Kalem Company films is intended to challenge asusmptions about early cinema 'job' descriptions.
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- DirectorSidney OlcottStarsGene GauntierThe opening scene of our story shows a Union powder wagon making its way down the road convoyed by a company of mounted Union soldiers. The route of this wagon is reported to Confederate headquarters by one of its spies. Nan, a girl frequently employed by the department of the Confederate army, is called to headquarters and instructed to secure the destruction of the enemy's ammunition train just reported. Nan is fitted out with a Union uniform, mounted on a fast horse and sent on her journey, previously provided with a forged order supposedly signed by a Union general which authorizes her to pass through the lines. Nan succeeds in getting through the Union lines and quickly locates the ammunition train, taking up the march with them. When night arrives the convoy goes into camp, posts its sentinels for no especial fear of danger as they note they are well within the Union lines. Nan, however, watching her opportunity, slips up behind the lone sentry placed over the ammunition wagon and, having rendered him unconscious, drags him away from the wagon and takes his place. Watching her chance, Nan plants a dynamite cartridge under the wagon, lights a fuse and makes a quick run out of the danger zone. Suddenly there is a loud explosion and all there is left of the ammunition wagon is a heap of charred embers. Attention is drawn to Nan while she is attempting to escape owing to a crash in the underbrush caused by tripping her foot and falling. A pursuing party is sent after the daring spy who has had the hardihood to perform such a daring deed. Closely pursued by Union soldiers, Nan rushes through the underbrush on foot, finally reaching a nearby river where she plunges in, diving underwater and remains there until the Union soldiers retire from the scene. Coming up to the surface, she quickly swims ashore and makes her way rapidly to the Confederate army headquarters where she reports the successful ending of her mission, then on to her home to relieve her mother s anxiety.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsLois WeberVal PaulDouglas GerrardAbandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
- DirectorAlice GuyStarsCarlyle BlackwellDoris KenyonEdgar NortonAn abused woman finds love in the arms of a famous novelist.
- DirectorKarin SwanströmStarsEinar AxelssonMagda HolmNils AréhnKatja's father won't buy her a new gown, so she wears her brother's tailcoat to the ball. This scandalizes the society in town, until she is forgiven by the town's matriarch.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
- DirectorElinor GlynStarsCarl BrissonElissa LandiHelen HayeAn heiress poses as a marquise's companion to avoid fortune hunters.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsSylvia SidneyFredric MarchAdrianne AllenA drunken newspaperman is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.
- DirectorEsther EngStarsYee-Man TsoHok-Sing WongMoon QuanIn San Francisco, widower Jien-Sien Ho, known to the Chinese community as Gin Man, worries that his 16-year-old daughter Chain-Ying spends too much time at the Chinese Opera. Nevertheless, Duck Sook, a salesman in Jien-Sien's shop, takes Chain-Ying to see Fay-Tien Wong, an actor from China, perform. After the show, Wong invites Chain-Ying to the Golden Gate Music Club for a party and the girl asks him for singing lessons. Chain-Ying and Wong begin to spend time together and Chain-Ying's friend, Sia-Lien Ho, tells Jien-Sien about his daughter's excursions with the actor and the fact that she has been missing school. Jien-Sien confronts Chain-Ying, who insists that in America, fathers have no rights over their daughters. When Chain-Ying says she loves Wong, Jien-Sien disowns her and then blames Duck Sook for his daughter's infidelity. Wong tells Chain-Ying that she must try to understand the old people's ways and then agrees to marry her, hoping that her father will now accept them. When Duck Sook tries to intervene on the couple's behalf, however, Jien-Sien says that he will never forgive them. The enraged father then goes to the theater owner and tells him to deport Wong, and the owner agrees not to renew the singer's contract, which is soon to expire. Several months later, Wong returns home one night and announces that he must return to China. Worried about his bride, who is now pregnant, he tells her that he will send for her when he has settled. Meanwhile, Duck Sook asks Jien-Sien to forgive his pregnant, lonely daughter, but he refuses. Mao Lee, Jien-Sien's cook, takes pity on Chain-Ying, gives her money and attends the birth of the baby girl. For his disloyalty, Jien-Sien fires Mao-Lee, who joins Duck Sook in taking over a Chinese laundry so that they can support Chain-Ying's baby after Chain-Ying's sudden death. Duck Sook and Mao Lee give the baby a Chinese name, Loy Lo, and an American name, Lulu, and when the girl grows up, Duck Sook teaches her Chinese dances and instills in her a love of the theater. When a benefit concert and party is organized for Chinese war refugees, Lulu wishes to perform, and Duck Sook and Lulu both audition and receive parts. Lulu has a supporting role in an opera with a visiting star, Sing Kuo, but when Duck Sook must find the traditional dress that is required for her performance, he discovers that all the stores are sold out of it. Duck Sook steals a gown, and later encounters the woman from whom he stole it. She is understanding, however, and agrees to lend the garment to Lulu. During the show, it is revealed that Sing Kuo is really Wong, Lulu's father, and Duck Sook introduces the singer to his daughter and then to her grandfather, who has donated three-thousand dollars to the cause. Jien-Sien greets Lulu warmly and all shake hands and return to Jien-Sien's shop to celebrate their reunion.
- DirectorKay ManderDocumentary on the problems of housing in Britain after the end of the Second World War.
- DirectorWanda JakubowskaStarsWanda BartównaHuguette FagetTatyana GuretskayaFemale prisoners of various ethnic background struggle to survive the hardships of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
- DirectorEdith CarlmarStarsClaus WieseBjørg Riiser-LarsenEva BerghThe story of a working man who has a gorgeous fiancee but she falls for a rich older woman - who turns out to be a femme fatale.
- DirectorIda LupinoStarsMala PowersTod AndrewsRobert ClarkeA young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.
- DirectorMatilde LandetaStarsMiroslavaErnesto AlonsoElda PeraltaLife is hard for a humble young woman, who arrives in the capital, and is forced to prostitute herself against her will.
- DirectorWendy ToyeStarsAlan BadelCameron HallGeoffrey BayldonA strangely-garbed and eccentric-acting stranger arrives in a small English town. But, after several days on being in the town, the citizens accept him as a harmless, though a bit daft, member of the community. He then pays a visit to the town's leading citizen and reveals himself as a man with the perfect plan for murder.
- DirectorMargaret TaitStarsMargaret TaitA short film from Margaret Tait capturing the daily life of her mother, Ga.
- DirectorMuriel BoxStarsStanley HollowayKathleen HarrisonNaunton WayneAfter the Government decides to build a Festival of Britain exhibition site, everything goes to plan, all except the fact that the main road and the pedestrian subway into the site, are blocked by a little corner shop, which is owned and run by a Mr. Lord and his family. The Lords refuse to be bought off, and decline the compensation offered by the authorities. The police and the bailiffs try to evict them, only to come under fire from the family, who have barricaded themselves inside the shop.
- DirectorKinuyo TanakaStarsYumeji TsukiokaRyôji HayamaJunkichi OrimotoFumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and the development of a serious illness: a breast cancer, which leads her to lose her breasts. In the last stage of her life she meets a young journalist arrived from Tokyo, an admirer of her work, who want to write a story on her life. Both live a secret love history.
- DirectorLorenza MazzettiDenis HorneStarsMichael AndrewsEduardo PaolozziVali MyersTwo dockers, both deaf and dumb, stand together.
- DirectorJacqueline AudryStarsDarry CowlPierre MondyLino VenturaAgathe, a sweet hitch-hiker, is en route to the Riviera. She meets many men on her way.
- DirectorAna MariscalStarsJosé Antonio MejíasMaribel MartínÁngel DíazA boy is separated for the summer from his girlfriend by 100 kilometers' distance.
- DirectorJoan LittlewoodStarsJames BoothBarbara WindsorRoy KinnearAfter 2 years at sea, Charlie comes home to find his house demolished, wife Maggie gone, living with married Bert and their toddler. Charlie leaves a trail of mayhem as he tries to sort things out.
- DirectorYuliya SolntsevaStarsEvgeniy SamoylovVladimir GoncharovEvgeniy BondarenkoAn abstract depiction of the childhood of Aleksandr Dovzhenko.
- DirectorLarisa ShepitkoStarsMayya BulgakovaSergey NikonenkoZhanna BolotovaA fascinating and human portrayal of a once-famous fighter pilot and loyal Stalinist named Nadezhda Petrovna. Now a 41-year-old provincial schoolmistress, she has so internalized the military ideas of service and obedience that she cannot adjust to life in peacetime.
- DirectorKira MuratovaStarsNina RuslanovaVladimir VysotskiyKira MuratovaA maid works for the estranged wife of a geologist who once visited her village and whom she loves.
- DirectorNelly KaplanStarsBernadette LafontGeorges GéretHenri CzarniakAn oppressed and exploited young woman (Marie) begins charging for her sexual favors and completely disrupts the smug patriarchal capitalist society of the village of Tellier.
- DirectorMadeline AndersonStarsRalph AbernathyLeon DavisCoretta Scott KingIn 1969, 400 poorly paid black women working in a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves confronting the National Guard and the state government.
- DirectorBarbara LodenStarsBarbara LodenMichael HigginsDorothy ShupenesWanda, a lonely housewife, drifts through mining country until she meets a petty thief who takes her in.
- DirectorShu Shuen TongStarsLisa LuRoy ChiaoHilda Chow HsuanA woman falls in love with a visiting cavalry captain, but chooses to suppress it for the sake of her daughter.
- DirectorStephanie RothmanStarsMichael BlodgettSherry E. DeBoerCeleste YarnallLee and his wife Susan accept the invitation of mysterious Diane to visit her secluded desert estate. Tensions arise when the couple, unaware that Diane is a vampire, realize that they are both objects of the pale temptress's seductions.
- DirectorSarah MaldororStarsElisa AndradeDomingos de OliveiraJean M'VondoA man is wrongfully arrested and tortured to death after he is suspected of being part of a revolutionary group.
- DirectorAnna KarinaStarsAnna KarinaMichel LancelotMonique MorelliThe turbulent love affair between a fuddy duddy history teacher and a free spirited hippie girl leads to drug abuse and domestic violence.
- DirectorSara GómezStarsMario BalmasedaYolanda CuéllarMario LimontaIn Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
- DirectorMárta MészárosStarsKatalin BerekGyöngyvér VighPéter FriedA lonely middle-aged woman wants to give birth to a child, but her acquaintance with dysfunctional teenagers leads her to the idea of adoption.
- DirectorJoan Micklin SilverStarsSteven KeatsCarol KaneMel HowardIn 1896, a Russian Jewish woman immigrates to New York's Lower East Side to reunite with her Americanized husband, but has difficulty assimilating.
- DirectorSafi FayeStarsAssane FayeMaguette GueyeSafi FayeNgor is a young man living in a Senegalese village who wishes to marry Columba. Ongoing drought in the village has affected its crop of groundnuts and as a result, Ngor cannot afford the bride price for Columba.
- DirectorCatherine BreillatStarsCharlotte AlexandraHiram KellerRita MaidenReluctantly, a sulky adolescent returns to her parents' house for yet another boring summer vacation, dabbling in desire and the art of desirability, eventually mixing reality with vision, caged fantasies with the fierce female sexuality.
- DirectorElaine MayStarsRose ArrickCarol GraceWilliam HickeyNicky is on the run from the mob, and he turns to old pal Mikey for help.
- DirectorMarva NabiliStarsFlora ShabavizA young woman in pre-revolution Iran is caught between the traditional values of her small village and her own yearnings for independence and individuality. Her persistent refusal of marriage proposals coupled with her unseemly removal of her hood causes her family to seek the help of an exorcist, convinced she must be possessed by evil spirits.
- DirectorAssia DjebarReturning to her native region 15 years after the end of the Algerian war, Lila is obsessed by memories of the war for independence that defined her childhood. In dialogue with other Algerian women, she reflects on the differences between her life and theirs.
- DirectorClaudia WeillStarsMelanie MayronEli WallachAdam CohenA photographer and her girlfriend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
- DirectorPilar MiróStarsAmparo Soler LealHéctor AlterioDaniel DicentaTwo friends from a small village in Cuenca, Spain, accused of murder by their neighbors, confess to the crime after being tortured,
- DirectorJoel DeMottStarsJoel DeMottJeff KreinesMark RanceThe film chronicles filmmaker Joel DeMott, significant other/film partner Jeff Kreines and filmmaker Mark Rance as they head to Michigan to make a low budget horror film.
- DirectorLaila MikkelsenStarsSunniva LindekleivLise FjeldstadArne Lindtner NæssLittle Ida's mother is working for the Germans during World War II, and she is also having a relationship with a German SS officer. Ida is experiencing the problems of having a mother who is involved with the enemy, without being old enough to understand what is actually going on.
- DirectorKathryn BigelowMonty MontgomeryStarsWillem DafoeJ. Don FergusonRobert GordonTrouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.
- DirectorLiliana CavaniStarsMarcello MastroianniKen MarshallAlexandra KingAfter the Allies liberate Naples in 1943, the life for the locals is not much easier, especially for women. Many sacrifice their dignity and morale to survive.
- DirectorAparna SenStarsJennifer KendalDhritiman ChatterjeeDebashree RoyAfter marriage of her niece, Rosemary, Anglo-Indian school-teacher Violet Stoneham lives a lonely life in her single room flat located at 36 Chowringhee Lane in Calcutta.
- DirectorMargarethe von TrottaStarsJutta LampeBarbara SukowaRüdiger VoglerTwo sisters both fight for women's rights. Juliane is a journalist and Marianne a terrorist. When Marianne is jailed, Juliane feels obligated to help her despite their differing views on how to live.
- DirectorJessie MapleStarsObaka AdedunyoRobert DeanLoretta DevineWill is a former college basketball star, without a job and struggling to get off heroin, who cares for a youth whom his friends want to get hooked.
- DirectorKathleen CollinsStarsSeret ScottBill GunnDuane JonesSara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.
- DirectorMarleen GorrisStarsEdda BarendsNelly FrijdaHenriëtte TolWhen three women with no previous acquaintance kill a male shopkeeper in the middle of the day, the female psychiatrist assigned to the case sets out to understand why.
- DirectorAmy Holden JonesStarsMichele MichaelsRobin StilleMichael VillellaA female high school student's slumber party turns into a bloodbath, as a newly escaped psychotic serial killer wielding a power drill prowls her neighborhood.
- DirectorEuzhan PalcyStarsGarry CadenatDarling LégitimusDouta SeckSet in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rules, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsArmin Mueller-StahlElisabeth TrissenaarWojciech PszoniakIn the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers the woman, Rosa, and hides her in his cellar. Leon's a middle-aged Catholic bachelor, tormented by his sexual drive. He doesn't tell Rosa he's seen signs her husband is alive, and he begs her to love him. Rosa offers herself to Leon if he'll help a local Jew in hiding who needs money. Leon pays, and love between Rosa and him does develop, but then Leon's peasant subservience and his limited empathy lead to tragedy. At the war's end, a ray of sunshine comes from an unexpected place.
- DirectorDonna DeitchStarsHelen ShaverPatricia CharbonneauAudra LindleyWhile waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed professor of literature is unexpectedly seduced by a carefree, spirited young lesbian.
- DirectorSuzana AmaralStarsMarcelia CartaxoJosé DumontTamara TaxmanMacabea has just moved to the big city after her aunt, who raised her, died. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a boarding house with three other women. In her spare time she listens to time Radio Station; on Sundays she likes to ride the subways. She describes herself saying, "I am a typist and a virgin, and I like Coca-Cola." Then she meets Olimpico, a north-easterner like herself, who has dreams of becoming a Congressman.
- DirectorFina TorresStarsDoris WellsDaniela SilverioRafael BriceñoA young girl is sent to a South American hacienda, where she learns about the life of her reclusive aunt, Oriana
- DirectorAlison De VereA woman travels through her fantastical dreams accompanied by her dog.
- DirectorVijaya MehtaStarsShabana AzmiCyprus DastoorDady DustoorPiroj and Pesi are best friends. They both meet the same girl for marriage but Pesi ends up marrying her. Later Piroj finds out that Pesi is having an affair. Piroj confronts Pesi but realizes things are complicated.
- DirectorShuqin HuangStarsShouli XuBaotian LiQilin JiThe fictional life and career of a famous actress in Chinese opera, a woman who goes against tradition by specializing in playing male roles, especially that of Zhang Kui, a benevolent ghost who appears in several Chinese operas. Although the actress's career brings wealth and fame, it is attained only through considerable struggle against an anti-female system and an unhappy personal life.
- DirectorAnn TurnerStarsRebecca SmartNicholas EadieVictoria LongleyAn imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.
- DirectorMary LambertStarsDale MidkiffDenise CrosbyFred GwynneAfter tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
- DirectorMarina SargentiStarsKaren BlackYvonne De CarloWilliam SandersonA teenage girl begins receiving black magic power through an antique mirror that drips blood, not realizing the mirror is controlled by demonic forces.
- DirectorJane CampionStarsKerry FoxAlexia KeoghKaren FergussonJanet Frame was a brilliant child who, as a teen, was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Explore Janet's discovery of the world and her life in Europe as her books are published to acclaim.
- DirectorJulie DashStarsCora Lee DayAlva RogersBarbara OA languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.
- DirectorJocelyn MoorhouseStarsHugo WeavingGeneviève PicotRussell CroweThe life of a blind photographer who is looked after by a housekeeper is disrupted by the arrival of an agreeable restaurant worker.
- DirectorCynthia BeattStarsTilda SwintonFéodor AtkineLutz WeidlichFrom Time Out Film Guide Beatt's first feature centres on a staggering performance from Swinton: part Diva, part Harpy, part woman struggling to cope and make sense of it all. She plays Queenie, married to a German and living in Germany; the marriage has reached one of its periodic crises, and Queenie's way out of the impasse is to throw a big all-night party. During it, she humiliates her husband by flirting with a handsome French stranger (Atkine). She succeeds in making a drama out of a crisis. Shot in steely monochrome, this is a small triumph for high-concept film-making. It's structured as a flow of vignettes, with an ever-changing cast of party guests in the background; dozens of people get their minute or two of prominence, but everything turns around the central triangle of wife, husband and potential lover. The only real weakness is the dialogue, far too much of which is quoted from literature and poetry. But the grasp of mood and rhythm is spot on. Author: TR, Time Out Film Guide
- DirectorNina MenkesStarsTinka MenkesJeff DouglasEmmellda BeechAmid glittering casino lights and desert landscapes of Las Vegas, a blackjack dealer called Firdaus ponders the fate of her missing husband while her next-door neighbors deal in mutual abuse.
- DirectorAllison AndersStarsBrooke AdamsIone SkyeFairuza BalkA waitress lives with her two teen daughters in a trailer park in New Mexico. They all want a boyfriend.
- DirectorKatt SheaStarsDrew BarrymoreSara GilbertTom SkerrittA seductive teen befriends an introverted high school student and schemes her way into the lives of her wealthy family.
- DirectorCarol Weaks CassidyRuth LeitmanStarsZakaria Abdel RahimA look into the lives of the women and girls who inhabit the seaside town of Wildwood, New Jersey.
- DirectorAntonia BirdStarsLinus RoacheTom WilkinsonRobert CarlyleA homosexual Catholic priest finds out during confessional that a young girl is being sexually abused by her father, and has to decide how to deal with both that secret and his own.
- DirectorMoufida TlatliStarsHind SabriGhalya LacroixNejia OuerghiAs she grows up, Alia (the daughter of housemaid Khedija) learns the secrets of the peaceful palace where she and her mother live.
- DirectorHelena SolbergStarsHelena SolbergEric BarretoCynthia AdlerA biography of the Portuguese-Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, whose most distinctive feature was her tutti frutti hat. She came to the US as the "Brazilian Bombshell" and was a Broadway and Hollywood star in the 1940s.
- DirectorValeria SarmientoStarsMarine DeltermeDidier FlamandValérie Zarrouk"El" re-imagined by Ruiz and Sarmiento as a portrait of a marriage characterized by shared jealousy, paranoia and lunacy.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsMassoumeh NaderiZahra NaderiGhorban Ali NaderiAfter twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
- DirectorNgozi OnwurahStarsSuzette LlewellynSaffron BurrowsFelix JosephRacial violence breaks out in a huge, black ghetto - triggered by a white woman living there with a black man.
- DirectorAnjelica HustonStarsJennifer Jason LeighRon EldardGlenne HeadlyA mother and daughter find their lives adversely affected when a new man enters the picture. Will their family ever be what they expect?
- DirectorLynne StopkewichStarsMolly ParkerPeter OuterbridgeJay BrazeauOver the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.
- DirectorCheryl DunyeStarsCheryl DunyeGuinevere TurnerValarie WalkerA young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
- DirectorSandrine VeyssetStarsDominique ReymondDaniel DuvalJessica MartinezA woman and her seven children live on a farm in Southern France. In spite of the hard work and the mediocre accommodation, their life would be a happy one, but for one person: the owner of the farm an egotistic and authoritarian individual, who is also the lover of the woman and the father of all her children. The farmer handles them as his property, uses them as cheap labour to work in the fields, and denies them the right to leave the farm. It is only the love of the woman for her children that allows them to endure their situation; but even for her, disenchantment has set in.
- DirectorKasi LemmonsStarsSamuel L. JacksonJurnee SmollettMeagan GoodWhat did little Eve see--and how will it haunt her? Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it's the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.
- DirectorHong LiThis groundbreaking work from Li Hong, China's first independent female documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the countryside who have come to Beijing for jobs. Although they work long hours as maids or street vendors and share a tiny room no bigger than a closet, they savor these years-- between living as a daughter at home and returning to the village to marry --as probably the freest time of their lives.
- DirectorJamie BabbitStarsNatasha LyonneClea DuVallMichelle WilliamsA naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.
- DirectorMichèle CournoyerAn exotic dancer recalls an incident from her childhood where she was physically abused by a male visitor.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsFatemeh Cherag AkharHassan NebhanShahr Banou SisizadehA film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can no longer play with the boys she had been playing with only the day before because she is now a woman. Told from the perspective of a 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" refers to, we see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy with whom she had been friends. The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. As first, the husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home. The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her. Finally, the third part shows us an old woman who has come into some money and is now free to do what she wants. The way she chooses to use this freedom, however, makes one wonder just how free she is.
- DirectorMalgorzata SzumowskaStarsJadwiga Jankowska-CieslakMalgorzata HajewskaPiotr JankowskiA slacker in his thirties, a would-be writer living with his mother, decides to mend his ways when he discovers she may be terminally ill. To make her happy, he decides to settle down and get married
- DirectorIbolya FeketeStarsSasa AnocicGyula BodrogiCarlos DíazThe adventures of a young man as he moves from the Latin-American revolutions in the sixties and seventies, through Hungary in the eighties, to the Croatian war in 1991.
- DirectorMingmonkul SonakulStarsMesini KeawratriThe soundtrack to a radio soap opera set in a luxury hotel is acted out by characters who are riding a ramshackle bus from Bangkok to a small town in Thailand's Northeast. When the bus stops, the drama in the characters' real lives can be seen. In different cirumstances, it's not hard to imagine the characters - a young small-town girl (glamorous model), an older woman (hi-so boutique owner), an illegal Burmese immigrant (hotel waitress), half-Thai backpacker (handsome hotel owner), soldier (ladyboy hostess) and dodgy businessman (dodgy businessman) - assuming the lives of their larger-than-life soap opera alter egos.
- DirectorSiegrid AlnoyStarsSasha AndresCarlo BrandtPierre-Félix GravièreEchoes of Dostoyevsky. At the start, Christine Blanc is a temp, her boyfriend has gone. Near the story's end, she's been offered a steady job, she has a fiancé, other men seem interested in her, she's passed her driving test, and, after she wins 1000 Euros in a scratch-off, her colleagues sing that she's a jolly good fellow ("one of us"). But something's askew: her gaze is too direct, her eyes open too widely; conversational gambits hit odd notes; she parrots others' words; she cooks too much food when she invites a supervisor to dinner. When the supervisor takes Christine on a spontaneous outing that disorients her, her oddities become something else. Can things ever be normal?
- DirectorRaymonde CarascoA collection of five short films about an indigenous people living in the mountains of Mexico.
- DirectorJulia LoktevStarsLuisa WilliamsJosh Philip WeinsteinGareth SaxeA 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with a nondescript American accent, and it's impossible to pinpoint her ethnicity. We never learn why she made her decision -- she has made it already. We don't know whom she represents, what she believes in - we only know she believes it absolutely.
- DirectorSatoko YokohamaStarsYoshimi NozakiSuzune FujiokaMichio HisauchiIs the story of a 16 year old girl named Yoshiko, who lives all alone since her mother died and father entered the hospital.
- DirectorJihan El-TahriStarsKader AsmalPallo JordanRonnie KasrilsBehind the Rainbow explores the transition of the ANC from a liberation organization into South Africa's ruling party, through the evolution of of the relationship between two of its most prominent cadres, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Exiled under Apartheid they were brothers in arms, under Mandela they loyally labored to build a non-racial state, now they are bitter rivals. Their duel threatens to tear apart the ANC and the country, as the poor desperately seek hope in change and the elite fight for the spoils of victory.
- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsEmayatzy CorinealdiDavid OyelowoLorraine ToussaintRuby goes on a journey of self-discovery when she drops out of medical school in order to focus on her incarcerated husband's well-being.