Women's History Resources

Tale about the shifting psychological ties that bind an affluent Southern black family in the 1960s, as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old who worships her philandering father.

A video store clerk and fledgling filmmaker, Cheryl becomes obsessed with the "most beautiful mammy," a character she sees in a 1930s movie. Determined to find out who the actress she knows only as the "Watermelon Woman" was and make her the subject of a documentary, she starts researching and is bowled over to discover that not only was Fae Richards (Lisa Marie Bronson) a fellow Philadelphian but also a lesbian.

Keira Knightley is superb in a sterling version of Jane Austen's novel. Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland. Directed by Joe Wright.

Early eighteenth-century England is at war with the French. A frail Queen Anne occupies the throne, and her friend Lady Sarah tends to her ill health. When a new servant Abigail arrives, Sarah takes her under her wing, and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become time-consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps in to fill in as the Queen's companion. Their growing friendship gives her a chance to fulfill her ambitions, and no one will stand in her way.

Story of an African-American family as they prepare to move North from the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia at the dawn of the 20th century.

Directed by Jennifer Kent, a widow suspects that she and her 7-year-old son are being haunted by a malevolent children's book called "Mr. Babadook" that suddenly appeared in their home.

A working-class laundress in 19th-century London joins the fight for women's suffrage.

Two female friends try to drive to Mexico in order to escape the police. A sympathetic cop tries to talk them out of their plan, but the women don't feel they can trust any man.

Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey star in director Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple. From 1909 to 1949, Celie (Goldberg--Ghosts of Mississippi), a Southern Black woman, gradually gains self-respect as she strives to educate herself and to find love--despite an abusive spouse and a society biased against her race and her sex.

Based on the vibrant true story of a young girl from the streets of rural Uganda whose world rapidly changes when she is introduced to the game of chess, and, as a result of the support she receives from her family and community, is instilled with the confidence and determination she needs to pursue her dream of becoming an international chess champion.

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

15-year-old Cher, the matchmaking Beverly Hills High schooler, has shopping and boys on her mind. She leads a hectic lifestyle but keeps it all together until she starts to fall in love and finds she's 'clueless'. A loose adaptation of Emma, Jane Austen's 19th-century comedy of manners.

Greta Gerwig is radiant as a woman in her late twenties in contemporary New York, trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and, above all, her tight but changing bond with her best friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner). Frances Ha gets at both the frustrations and the joys of being young and unsure of where to go next.

Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the "boys' law" in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. When her home situation becomes unbearable, Marieme seeks solace in an older man who promises her money and protection. Realizing this sort of lifestyle will never result in the freedom and independence she truly desires, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands.

Vilified by conservatives in Congress, defended by major newspapers, and celebrated by audiences and festivals around the world as one of the most provocative, humorous and important filmmakers of our time, Cheryl Dunye practically invented a new form of cinema - call it the 'Dunyementary.'

Maybe the Czech New Wave's most anarchic entry, Vera Chytilova's absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be "spoiled," they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing--food, clothes, men, war--is taken seriously. DAISIES is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that's widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.