Directed by Women


BELLA
BELLA

Dance  American Studies  American History  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Performing Arts  2024 

Bella, is about the life, influence and impact of California-based artist and activist Bella Lewitzky. Designated one of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition Lewitzky’s life demonstrates how a “uniquely Californian” artist with vision and tenacity can change the lives of her fellow citizens.

LAST THINGS
LAST THINGS

Anthropology  Archeology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Environmental Studies  Photography  Physical Science  Science  2024 

Last Things looks at evolution and extinction from the perspective of the rocks and minerals that came before humanity and will outlast us. With scientists and thinkers like Lynn Margulis and  Marcia Bjørnerud as guides, the film seeks a picture of evolution without humans at the center.

A COMMON SEQUENCE
A COMMON SEQUENCE

2023  Anthropology  Biology  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Health  Indigenous Studies  Latino Studies  Religion & Spirituality  Science  Sociology  Spanish Language 

Within the human struggle to live and work on a changing planet, questions of value, extraction, and adaptation echo across seemingly disparate worlds. A Common Sequence examines shifts of life and labor through a critically-endangered salamander and plant patents in the apple industry. Weaving the stories of Dominican nuns running a conservation lab, a group of fisherman attempting to live off of a depleting lake, engineers developing AI-driven harvesting machines, and an indigenous biomedical researcher resisting the commodification of human DNA, the film becomes a meditation on the shifting border between the natural and unnatural world, and the dynamics of power at play.

WITH THIS LIGHT
WITH THIS LIGHT

2023  Children & Young Adult  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Economics  Education  Peace & Conflict  Latino Studies  Political Science  Religion & Spirituality 

Nun. Activist. Entrepreneur. Force of nature.  For over 70 years, Sister Maria Rosa Leggol helped over 87,000 Honduran children escape poverty and fortified her legacy as an activist and visionary. Her work continues with Maria and Rosa, two teens in her programs fighting to create their own lives.


OUR BODY
OUR BODY

2023  Aging / Gerontology  Children & Young Adult  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Biology  Family Relations  Health  LGBTQ  Medicine  Science  Human Sexuality  Women's Studies 

In Our Body, veteran documentarian Claire Simon observes the everyday operations of the gynecological ward in a public hospital in Paris.  In the process, she questions what it means to live in a woman’s body, filming the diversity, singularity and beauty of patients in all stages of life. 

TRENQUE LAUQUEN (parts 1 and 2)
TRENQUE LAUQUEN (parts 1 and 2)

2023  Cinema Studies  Latino Studies  Biology  Narrative Films  Spanish Language  Directed by Women 

A selection of the New York Film Festival, director Laura Citarella directs a labyrinthine tale of obsessive pursuit and the quest for personal freedom.

HUMAN FLOWERS OF FLESH
HUMAN FLOWERS OF FLESH

2023  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Europe  Narrative Films  Directed by Women 

The film follows Ida, who, after a stirring encounter with the French Foreign Legion, sets sail with her own corps of five men, none of whom speak the same language, to trace the route of this fabled troop.

DRIFT
DRIFT

2023  Directed by Women  Cinema Studies  Narrative Films 

In her dynamic and entrancing directorial debut, Helena Wittmann takes us on a transatlantic voyage unlike any other, scrambling our senses and inviting us to surrender to the ocean's ever-undulating surface.

GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE
GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE

2022  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Environmental Studies  Sociology  Photography  2023 

Critic's Pick!  One of the most awarded films of 2022, Geographies of Solitude is a playful and reverent collaboration with the natural world filled with arresting images and made with an activist spirit. The film follows Zoe, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived Sable Island, on a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic with a rich ecosystem, for over 40 years.

MISS ALMA THOMAS: a life in color
MISS ALMA THOMAS: a life in color

2022  American Studies  American History  Art History  African-American Studies  Education  Short Films  Directed by Women  Women's Studies 

Alma W. Thomas, a Black woman painter, broke color barriers on and off the canvas, yet did not receive national attention until she was 80 years old. “Miss Alma Thomas” is the first documentary film that explores Thomas’ incredible life through the lens of curators, art specialists, scholars, and her family.  


A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING
A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

2022  Anthropology  Asian Studies  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Political Science  Sociology  World History 

Director Payal Kapadia deftly merges reality with fiction, weaving together archival footage with student protest videos to create a vital tapestry of the personal and the political. With its dreamlike editing rhythms and a revelatory use of sound, A Night of Knowing Nothing is both an essential document of contemporary India and a nostalgic look at youth fighting the injustice of their time.


LA MANPLESA: an uprising remembered
LA MANPLESA: an uprising remembered

2022  American Studies  American History  Criminal & Law  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Latin-American Studies  Sociology 

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios and dives into the roots of the ‘91 rebellion.

ANY GIVEN DAY
ANY GIVEN DAY

2022  American Studies  Directed by Women  Family Relations  Health  Psychology & Psychiatry  Sociology  Criminal & Law 

A filmmaker with mental illness follows three defendants through a specialized mental health probation program. While sharing their rarely seen struggles, she faces her own challenges, making clear just how precarious the ties between people with mental illness, their families and society can be.  From Margaret Byrne, the director of Raising Bertie.



EXPEDITION CONTENT
EXPEDITION CONTENT

2021  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Education  Indigenous Studies  Political Science  Sensory Ethnography Lab  Sociology  World History  2022 

An immersive marvel of sonic ethnography, Expedition Content draws on audio recordings made by recent college graduate and Standard Oil heir Michael Rockefeller as part of the so-called Harvard-Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea in 1961

SO DEAR, SO LOVELY
SO DEAR, SO LOVELY

2021  Directed by Women  Middle Eastern Studies  Sociology  Short Films  Sensory Ethnography Lab  Peace & Conflict  Cinema Studies  2022 

In this two-part tour through the streets of Lebanon, a colorful Palestinian cab driver offers offhand insight into the region’s fraught political and social climate through boisterous serenades and excitable outbursts.

FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO
FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO

2021  Aging / Gerontology  Anthropology  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Family Relations 

Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings.

TO KID OR NOT TO KID
TO KID OR NOT TO KID

2020  American Studies  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Women's Studies  Health 

Filmmaker Maxine Trump turns the camera on herself and her close circle of family and friends as she confronts the idea of not having kids, and explores the cultural pressures and harsh criticism childfree women regularly experience.

I WAS AT HOME, BUT...
I WAS AT HOME, BUT...

2020  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Narrative Films 

Astrid, a forty-something mother of two, struggles to regain her balance in the wake of her husband’s death. Her adolescent son Phillip disappeared for a week and now that he has returned, he faces disciplinary action at school and his toe requires amputation. As new questions confront Astrid from every angle, even simple activities like buying a bicycle or engaging with a work of art, are fraught with unexpected challenges.

THE EARLY WORKS OF ANA VAZ: 2007-2016
THE EARLY WORKS OF ANA VAZ: 2007-2016

Anthropology  Environmental Studies  Directed by Women  Latin-American Studies  Short Films  2020 

This collection of eight early films by Brazilian artist and filmmaker Ana Vaz proposes a critical reflection on the relationship between colonialism, modernity and the impending ecological disaster. At the core of the collection is a cycle of works that explore the colonial and post-colonial exchange between Europe and the Americas.

CASTING FAITH: A Portrait of Gillian Jagger
CASTING FAITH: A Portrait of Gillian Jagger

2012  Art History  Directed by Women  Women's Studies 

This film explores Gillian Jagger's work, the relationship of that work to her life, and the role of art in society.

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