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147 items
The Watermelon Woman
Cheryl Dunye’s invented archive asks who can make Black lesbian history credible, linking documentary conventions, licensing costs and unequal queer intimacy.
- Black Feminism
- Queer Theory
- LGBTQ+
Clueless
A "way existential" 1990s time capsule of fashion, pop culture, and Valley girl verbiage, Amy Heckerling's rom-com riff on Jane Austen's Emma celebrates female friendship and sexuality, and it puts a woman's self-fulfillment above finding a man. Even if "fulfillment" technically includes finding a man.
- Third Wave Feminism
- Female Friendship
- Identity Formation
Little Women
Feminism isn't just about women kicking ass - it's also about allowing us the freedom to be who we want. For the protagonist sisters in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel, that means a writer, a musician, a housewife, and a free spirit.
- Identity Formation
- Economic Empowerment
- Women's Literature
The Joy Luck Club
Adapted from Amy Tan's novel, this film tells the stories of four pairs of Chinese-American mothers and daughters across two generations. Through complex mother-daughter relationships, it explores cultural inheritance, transmission of women's experiences, and identity issues in cross-cultural contexts.
- Family Liberation
- Intersectional Feminism
- Immigrant Identity
The Piano
Never one to succumb to labels, pioneering filmmaker Jane Campion delivers a love story about a mute woman whose erotic affair has life-altering repercussions. And even though Campion would probably fight us on this, one can't help but spot and appreciate what seems to be a feminist vision.
- Female Desire
- Sexual Liberation
- Anti-Sexual Violence
A League of Their Own
The late Penny Marshall directed this gem about the very first female professional baseball league. Geena Davis stars as the World War II - era catcher fighting the patriarchy, and Tom Hanks plays the cranky team manager with a heart of gold. As inspirational as it is just plain entertaining, the film encourages female viewers young and old to embrace the champion stifled inside each one of us.
- Sports Equality
- Historical Context
- Workplace Equality
Orlando
Adapted from Virginia Woolf's novel, this tells the legendary life story of immortal aristocrat Orlando spanning four centuries, experiencing a gender transformation from male to female during this journey. This pioneering work explores gender fluidity, identity formation, and patriarchal oppression of women through poetic cinematic language.
- Gender Identity
- Queer Theory
- Trans Feminism
Thelma & Louise
Two ordinary women - housewife Thelma and diner waitress Louise - embark on a weekend trip that turns into a fugitive journey after killing in self-defense. During their cross-country road trip, they experience a transformation from fear to liberation, ultimately choosing freedom over surrender.
- Radical Feminism
- Anti-Sexual Violence
- Bodily Autonomy
Daughters of the Dust
Julie Dash makes women’s memory and migration a question of historical authorship through nonlinear time, an unborn child and the material traces of slavery.
- Black Feminism
- Memory
- Race and Gender
The Handmaid's Tale
Based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, the film tells the story of a future dystopian society where women are reduced to breeding tools. It profoundly depicts women's oppression under patriarchy and the power and price of resistance.
- Radical Feminism
- Bodily Autonomy
- Reproductive Autonomy
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Canadian avant-garde cinema mostly seen and analyzed by college students, Patricia Rozema's fairy-tale whimsy, about an artist on her journey to self-discovery, is one you should seek out - particularly because it's made by a fantastic team of women.
- Queer Theory
- Feminist Art
- Intersectional Feminism
The Color Purple
Whoopi Goldberg brings Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize - winning novel to life as Celie, a Southern Black woman who has suffered abuse for decades. A project brought to a hesitant Steven Spielberg by producer Quincy Jones, the film was the director's first with a female lead.
- Black Feminism
- Anti-Sexual Violence
- Female Friendship
Desperately Seeking Susan
A bored housewife becomes fascinated by the free-spirited lifestyle of mysterious Susan and embarks on an adventure of mistaken identity. This 1980s film by a female director uses humor and wit to explore themes of female identity, self-discovery, and breaking free from social constraints.
- Family Liberation
- Cultural Critique
- Pop Culture Feminism
9 to 5
A classic workplace revenge comedy featuring three female employees who unite against their sexist boss, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. This groundbreaking film profoundly reveals gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and pay inequality issues in the 1980s workplace.
- Workplace Equality
- Anti-Sexual Violence
- Equal Pay
Alien
A classic science fiction horror film where Sigourney Weaver's Ripley becomes one of the most influential female characters in sci-fi cinema history. The film not only redefines the 'final girl' archetype but also deeply explores workplace gender discrimination and the dismissal of female leadership through its space horror packaging.
- Feminist Art
- Media Representation Critique
- Workplace Equality
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
There's no rioting, protesting, or marching for civil rights here. Jeanne Dielman, single mother and sometime sex worker, has a simple life: laundry, dinner, the occasional john. The mundanity of being a housewife is on achingly tedious display for three-plus hours in Chantal Akerman's experimental film. And that's why it's brilliant.
- Avant-garde Cinema
- Domestic Labor
- Body Politics
Foxy Brown
If you don't yet worship at the altar of Pam Grier, then good lord, what are you waiting for? An action legend who has been shattering glass ceilings for decades, the woman has made a film or television show nearly every single year since 1970. And one of her best is Foxy Brown, a crime classic that has a feminist streak piercing through all its revenge-glory chaos.
- Black Feminism
- Economic Empowerment
- Anti-Sexual Violence
Sambizanga
Sarah Maldoror follows Maria’s search for her husband in colonial Angola, revealing care and communication as infrastructure for anticolonial resistance.
- Colonial History
- Feminist Film Criticism
- Women's Cinema
Wanda
Barbara Loden follows a working-class woman who does not successfully rescue herself, challenging the demand that a female protagonist must set an example.
- Women's Cinema
- Class Analysis
- Bodily Autonomy
Daisies
SedmikráskyVěra Chytilová’s surrealist Czech New Wave masterpiece follows two teenage girls, both named Marie, who embark on a series of anarchic pranks and destructive games in a world going 'bad.' Through avant-garde experimentation and radical humor, the film critiques patriarchy, consumerism, and political stagnation.
- Anarchist Feminism
- Radical Humor
- Political Critique
Black Girl
La noire de…Sembène connects postcolonial mobility to racialized domestic labor, while Mbissine Thérèse Diop’s account keeps Diouana from becoming a universal emblem.
- Postcolonial Feminism
- Domestic Labor
- Migration
The Trouble with Angels
A romp through a Catholic girls' school courtesy of a pair of mischievous teens, this Hayley Mills classic is all about sisterhood. But the real feminism is happening behind the lens: Ida Lupino, the sole working female director of the '50s, was blazing a trail for the women who would follow.
- Female Friendship
- Political Participation
- Identity Formation
Cléo from 5 to 7
Cléo de 5 à 7Across ninety minutes in Paris, Varda turns a singer’s fear into a question of looking, listening and living with uncertainty beyond the demand to remain beautiful.
- Body Politics
- Female Friendship
- Identity and Selfhood
All About Eve
Behind Broadway's glittering stage, a legendary actress and an ambitious young woman engage in a complex battle over age, power, and women's survival space. This classic black-and-white film explores workplace gender dynamics and generational conflict in patriarchal society through sharp dialogue and profound character development.
- Workplace Equality
- Glass Ceiling
- Cultural Critique