Women's Studies

A forbidden love story played out in a decade that would soon spawn the sexual revolution, Suitcase of Love and Shame reconstructs a mesmerizing and erotic narrative from 60 hours of reel-to-reel audiotape discovered in a suitcase purchased on eBay. A fascinating, one-of-a-kind documentary, it addresses issues of morality, sexism, privacy vs. exhibitionism, and the impact of technology in yesterday's America as well as today's.

Blending autobiographical monologues, intimate conversations, and staged performances, Lynne Sachs' Your Day Is My Night documents the lives of Chinese immigrants sharing a "shift-bed" apartment in the heart of New York City's Chinatown, offering a deeply felt portrait of the Asian-American immigrant experience.

A fascinating account of Egypt post-revolution, Words of Witness follows a 22-year-old female reporter, an incredible, fearless young woman, as she covers her country's unsteady transition to democracy. From the director of Garbage Dreams, a dynamic portrait of the youth movement that sparked the revolution and its continued reliance on social media.

In 1982, "The G-Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality" is published and becomes an instant bestseller. In the 30 years since, it has been the subject of much debate, controversy and confusion. This captivating documentary offers a modern history of female sexuality, while playfully demystifying the most mythologized sexual discovery of the 20th century.

2013 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject! The moving and inspiring story of a remarkable 15-year-old girl, homeless and undocumented, but fiercely pursuing her dream of becoming an artist. An essential documentary that confronts issues of teen homelessness, immigration and the importance of arts education in this country.

In her Oscar nominated documentary Promises, filmmaker Justine Shapiro took us into the lives of Palestinian and Israeli children in and around Jerusalem. Her new documentary, Our Summer in Tehran, transports us into the seldom seen realm of middle class family life in Iran, transcending overt politics for a perspective Western media has little interest in showing.

Grandma's Tattoos uncovers the fate of thousands of women, mostly teenagers and young girls, who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide but were forced into prostitution by their captors. This powerful documentary investigates an aspect of history that is too often ignored - the fate of women in conflicts and wars.

Jeanette Maier ran the most successful brothel in New Orleans, if not the country, with a clientele of high-powered lawyers, bankers and politicians. When the FBI shut it down, Maier went to prison. Her clients went free and escaped exposure. The Canal Street Madam peers inside the business of prostitution and exposes the double standards that exist for women in our society and our justice system.

A portrait of three women over the age of 50 earning a living as prostitutes, Silver Girls approaches this oft-explored subject from a refreshingly different perspective; discussing sex, sexuality, social mores, aging, female empowerment and independence in a candid, insightful but non-exploitative manner.

What role should genetics and one's social environment play in the legal defense of a minor on trial for murder? This engrossing documentary explores the question by following the controversial case of Cyntoia Brown, a 16-year-old girl forced into prostitution, who faces life without parole for killing one of her clients.

From Steve James, acclaimed director of Hoop Dreams, and Alex Kotlowtiz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here, The Interrupters is an epic documentary work exploring violence in America, a look at an innovative program in which former gang members disrupt violent situations as they happen.

Beyond Babyland seeks to understand the causes behind the troubling rate of infant mortality in African-American communities while introducing us to the people and organizations working tirelessly to turn around this tide.

A beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. Winner of multiple awards, October Country intimately examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life.

A fascinating documentary on the unique sexual culture of the Mosuo people, a small minority situated in the southwest of China, and one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world. The Fall of Womenland explores their history and present reality as well as the dangers that threaten their inherited way of life.

Every year, mothers from all over America leave their families and homes behind (albeit briefly) to compete in the "Mother of the Year" pageant - in the hope of becoming the reigning representative of American motherhood. A surprising documentary that both explodes and reinforces feminist ideals.

Narrated by actress Glenn Close, this heartfelt documentary follows Cody Unser, a remarkable young woman left paralyzed from a rare neurological disorder, as she learns to live with her disability while working to raise awareness, improve quality of life and find a cure for those afflicted with spinal cord related paralysis.

Weaving together sequences of hair-braiding salons in Ghana, voice-over of Oprah rhapsodizing brown-skinned dolls and animated clips of signature hairstyles, Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) is an artfully composed, thought-provoking work that investigates the fraught relationship between images of beauty and power.

A reflection on art, life and the movies, The Beaches of Agnès is a magnificent film from the great Agnès Varda (The Gleaners and I), a richly cinematic self portrait that touches on everything from the feminist movement and the Black Panthers to the films of husband Jacques Demy and the birth of the French New Wave.

2008 Academy Award® nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, La Corona (The Crown) explores the lives of female contestants in an unusual beauty pageant at a high security prison in Bogotá, Colombia. The film addresses issues of female identity, sexuality, crime and equality.

Filmed inside a unique hospital for rape survivors in eastern Congo, Lumo follows a young woman after a brutal attack on her uncertain path to recovery. It is an intimate look at the widespread use of rape as a tool of political terror across central Africa.