Women's History Month

Women's History Month

Newly updated! OVID celebrates Women’s History Month with a diverse collection of films about women. This cross-section of films includes a documentary on Chilean activists fighting for a better country, visual artists including Frida Kahlo and women campaigning for safe access to abortion.

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Women's History Month
  • Leila Khaled: Hijacker

    Directed by Lina Makboul • Documentary • 2005 • 58 minutes

    What kind of a person hijacks an airplane? The family of Leila Khaled, fled to Lebanon in fear of the armed Jewish group Stern Gang. This paramilitary unit first came to Palestine after WW2 to prepare the territory for those who had surv...

  • She's Beautiful When She's Angry

    Directed by Mary Dore • Documentary • With Chude Pamela Allen, Judith Arcana, Nona Willis Aronowitz • 2014 • 92 minutes

    A provocative, rousing and often humorous account of the birth of the modern women’s liberation movement in the late 1960s through to its contemporary manifestations in the new...

  • You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South

    Directed by Lucy Massie Phenix and Veronica Selver • Documentary • With Myles Horton, May Justice, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bernice Robinson • 1985 • 85 minutes

    Lucy Massie Phenix's You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South is about individuals who have dared to change the world for the be...

  • And She Could Be Next: Part One - Building the Movement

    Directed by Grace Lee, Marjan Safinia • Documentary • With Stacey Abrams, Rashida Tlaib • 2020 • 111 minutes

    “Episode One: Building The Movement” opens with the powerful reminder that “women of color have been the backbone of our communities forever.” An energetic montage of modern American civi...

  • And She Could Be Next: Part Two - Claiming Power

    Directed by Marjan Safinia, Grace Lee • Documentary • With Stacey Abrams, Rashida Tlaib • 2020 • 121 minutes

    “Episode Two: Claiming Power” takes us to the weeks leading up to election day and focuses on how organizers combat voter suppression in their own communities. At the heart of the episode...

  • Today

    Directed by Su Friedrich • Documentary • 2022 • 57 minutes

    TODAY opens with filmmaker Su Friedrich’s left foot stretched out in front of her as she lies in bed. Overhead, a ceiling fan whirs. Friedrich takes another deep breath and says to no one in particular, “Try to pay attention to the momen...

  • Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority

    Directed by Kimberlee Bassford • Documentary • 56 minutes

    In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was the driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’s oppo...

  • Chez Jolie Coiffure

    Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Documentary • 2018 • 70 minutes

    Sabine attaches a hair weave and gets to work. Her hands move quickly and precisely, as she tightly braids the hair in front of the sign in her salon promising African, European, and American-style coiffure. Sabine is a larger than-life...

  • Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

    Directed by Ronit Elkabetz & Shlomi Elkabetz • Drama • With Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy • 2015 • 115 minutes

    An Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz) seeking to finalize a divorce (gett) from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religious marriage laws, in this ...

  • Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed

    Directed by Shola Lynch • Documentary • With Shirley Chisholm, Amiri Baraka, Octavia Butler, Bobby Seale • 2004 • 77 minutes

    Recalling a watershed event in US politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman...

  • Augustine (Alice Winocour)

    Directed by Alice Winocour • Drama • With Vincent Lindon, Soko, Chiara Mastroianni • 2013 • 102 minutes

    The powerful and darkly sensual drama Augustine is based on the true story of the unusual relationship that developed between Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, the pioneering 19th century French neurol...

  • Camille Claudel (w/ Isabelle Adjani)

    Directed by Bruno Nuytten • Drama • With Isabelle Adjani, Madeleine Robinson, Laurent Grevill, Philippe Clevenot, Gérard Depardieu • 1988 • 175 minutes

    The biography of the iconic French sculptor Camille Claudel in a tale of love, betrayal and female empowerment. When her enthusiasm for the arts...

  • The Heretics

    Directed by Joan Braderman • Documentary • 2009 • 95 minutes

    Tracing the influence of the Women’s Movement’s Second Wave on art and life, THE HERETICS is the exhilarating inside story of the New York feminist art collective that produced “Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics” (19...

  • Mozart's Sister

    Directed by Rene Feret • Drama • With Marie Feret • 2011 • 120 minutes

    Mozart’s Sister is a re-imagined account of the early life of Maria Anna ‘Nannerl’ Mozart, five years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy in her own right. Once the featured performer, Nannerl has given way to Wolfgang ...

  • Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge

    Directed by Marie Noëlle • Drama • With Charles Berling; Karolina Gruszka • 2017 • 100 minutes

    The most turbulent five years in the life of a genius woman: Between 1905, where Marie Curie comes with Pierre Curie to Stockholm to be awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the radioactivity an...

  • Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

    Directed by Marc Rothemund • Drama • With Julia Jentsch • 2005 • 117 minutes

    The true story of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroine is brought to thrilling life in the multi-award winning drama Sophie Scholl-The Final Days. Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Sophie Scholl s...

  • Tina In Mexico

    Directed by Brenda Longfellow • Documentary • 2004 • 60 minutes

    A new independent feature documentary by acclaimed Canadian director Brenda Longfellow, TINA IN MEXICO, follows the tumultuous and epic story of Tina Modotti, revolutionary, bohemian spirit and renowned photographer, acclaimed for h...

  • Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti

    Directed by Laura Mulvey • Documentary • With Miriam Margolyes • 1983 • 29 minutes

    This tautly structured documentary sheds light on the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Italian photographer Tina Modotti, women icons of the Mexican Renaissance. The film not only explores the two women's a...

  • In the Mirror of Maya Deren

    Directed by Martina Kudlácek • Documentary • With Miriam Arsham, Stan Brakhage, Chao Li Chi, Rita Christiani, Maya Deren • 2002 • 104 minutes

    With In The Mirror Of Maya Deren, documentary filmmaker Martina Kudlácek has fashioned not only a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking and influential...

  • Violette Leduc, In Pursuit of Love

    Directed by Esther Hoffenberg • Documentary • 2013 • 57 minutes

    After decades of working in relative obscurity, author and memoirist Violette Leduc exploded onto the French literary scene in 1964 with the publication of her taboo-breaking memoir The Bastard. Engaging frankly with her experience ...

  • Queen of Lapa

    Directed by Theodore Collatos • Documentary • With Luana Muniz • 2021 • 73 minutes

    Larger-than-life actress, cabaret performer, activist, and proud sex professional since the age of eleven, Luana Muniz - arguably one of Brazil's most famous transgender personalities - shaped a new reality in her...

  • One Day Pina Asked (Chantal Akerman)

    An encounter between two of the most remarkable women artists of the 20th century, ONE DAY PINA ASKED... is Chantal Akerman's look at the work of choreographer Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal, Germany-based dance company. "This film is more than a documentary on Pina Bausch," a narrator announces a...

  • Jane Campion: A Girl's Own Story

    Directed by Jane Campion • Drama • 1984 • 27 minutes

    Beatlemania, the sixties and growing up. Some stories about girlhood: where family is strange, adulthood lonely, and innocence perverse.

    "A beautifully photographed, sharply drawn drama...A lovely debut which will be compared to Jane Campion'...

  • Dam/Age

    Directed by Aradhana Seth • Documentary • 2002 • 50 minutes

    "I suddenly realized… I command the space to raise a dissenting voice, and if I don't do it, it's as political an act as doing it… to stay quiet is as political an act as speaking out."- Arundhati Roy, Author of Booker Prize Winner The ...