Films Directed by Women

An entertaining combination of heavy-metal rockers and female mud wrestlers hosted by Jessica Hahn.

An adaptation of Weng Meng's 1953 novel.

This documentary tells four stories of Apartheid in South Africa, as seen through the eyes of the Truth and Reconciliation commission. White soldiers who have killed ANC activists, black activists who have killed whites in political attacks: can there be forgiveness when the full truth comes out?

A real romance filmed over five years. Josephine and Zefrey simmer in the white hot apocalypse of first love until the throw of a dart finds them on a spontaneous trip to the Maldives and cracks open the question -- is their love true or just a performance?

At the consulting service for immigrants at the Avicenne Hospital in suburban Paris, we observe the sorrow and powerlessness of the immigrants who come here.

2015 film directed by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus

A grumpy boxing coach takes on a young, rebellious woman under his wings and starts training her for the world championship. But their biggest battle has to be fought outside the ring.

The mysterious disappearance of a man affects the lives of four different people, all living in loneliness in the suburbs of Quebec: the wife of the missing person, an aging ex-gambler, a young receptionist who want to share her life with somebody, and a father looking to help his family.

Waikiki Brothers is a band going nowhere. After another depressing gig, the saxophonist quits, leaving the three remaining members to continue on the road. The band ends up at the lead singer's hometown, which was a popular hot spring resort in the '80s, but the return home is filled with reservations of previous and past disappointments, a lost love, unemployment and tragedy.

An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.

Four women bowlers on their way home to Pyramid Hill (population 550) from a tournament roll their car on a deserted road in rural Victoria. They are coping fairly well until the local men and emergency services start trying to help.

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

Dear Pyongyang is a documentary film by Zainichi Korean director Yang Yong-hi (Korean: 양영희, Hanja: 梁英姬) about her own family. It was shot in Osaka Japan (Yang's hometown) and Pyongyang, North Korea, In the 1970s, Yang's father, an ardent communist and leader of the pro-North movement in Japan, sent his three sons from Japan to North Korea under a repatriation campaign sponsored by ethnic activist organisation and de facto North Korean embassy Chongryon; as the only daughter, Yang herself remained in Japan. However, as the economic situation in the North deteriorated, the brothers became increasingly dependent for survival on the care packages sent by their parents. The film shows Yang's visits to her brothers in Pyongyang, as well as conversations with her father about his ideological faith and his regrets over breaking up his family.

According to tradition, a Korean groom offers an elaborate wedding chest to his bride's parents. Dressed in traditional garb, he carries its meticulously layered treasures, each one prescribed by centuries-old custom, strapped to his back all the way to their door. Venerable filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger delicately unpacks the ornate rituals and complex mores of the Korean wedding rite. While clearly reverent of the past, Korea also has a pervasive modern wedding industry, which amplifies the drive for everything to be picture perfect, down to the last highly codified detail. The traditional Pe Baek ceremony, which sees the newly married couple receive their parents, is now awkwardly, and rather hilariously, run by wedding assistants who physically lift relatives into position. Like a polite guest, however, Ottinger never interrupts, allowing her poetic images to speak for themselves as old and new Korea marry in this fascinating cultural portrait.

2016 film directed by Xue Xiaolu

1967 film by Marguerite Duras

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

2013 film directed by Katell Quillévéré

Lila wants to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. She fixates on a tough older guy who will "sleep with anyone" and tries to insert herself into his world, putting herself in a dangerously vulnerable situation.

One day, a bad fall forces Edmond to accept Rose's help. Eventually, the two grow closer. The young woman finds relief in confiding painful memories to the older man; things she cannot even bring herself to tell her husband. Meanwhile, Edmond, too, opens up, sharing recollections of his beloved wife.