17 year-old Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. Afraid of heights, she has never dared to even enter in one of the cockpits. At a summer aeronautical show, nearby her parent’s lakeside villa, she meets Auste, a local girl of her age, who unlike Sangaile, lives her life to the full with creativity and dare. As the two girls become lovers, Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret, and finds in her teenage love the only person to truly encourage her in flying.
1971. Delphine, the daughter of farmers, moves to Paris to break free from the shackles of her family and to gain her financial independence. Carole is a Parisian, living with Manuel, actively involved in the stirrings of the feminist movement. Their encounter turns their lives upside down.
Science and Gender – Woman Mathematician Fighter, Hsu, Dao Ning
The film is a story about Taiwan’s piineer woman mathematician, Hsu, Dao-Ning. Being the first woman doctor of mathematics in Taiwan, she dedicated her life to mathematics education. Through her meticulous memory, self-statement, and interviews of her relatives and students, the film outlined her whole life and tried to exemplified that how her unique femininity, intelligence, personality and ambition, were all devoted into the education of technology and personality in Taiwan.
22 years ago the identical twins Isabelle and Denise were born. But already as a kid Isabelle knew she was a boy, born in a girls body.
”I am going to be a dad when I grow up”, says 6-year-old Isabelle in a video clip. A few years later Isabelle changes name to Sam. From then on Sam has been forced to explain who he really is, over and over again.
The film follows Sam from childhood to high school graduation. Today Sam is a young man, trying to find his way in life.
Perween Rahman: The Rebel Optimist
“No one is safe in this city. Those who think otherwise are living in a fool’s paradise” says Perween’s best friend and colleague Anwar Rashid as he navigates the chaotic roads of Karachi. An architect and urban planner, Perween Rahman dedicated her life for the poor of Pakistan. She was shot dead by armed assailants on her way home in March 2013.
Åke was working as a priest within the Church of Sweden, living a seemingly normal life with wife and children. But deep down inside he knew that he was somebody completely different. Åke was born as a boy in the fall of 1952. He came out as Ann-Christine on the 2nd of August 2010. He will never forget that date - it was then he took his first unsteady steps in high heel shoes on the streets of Malmö. This film is Åke/Ann-Christine’s personal story about coming out as a woman, at the workplace, in the family and in society. It is about sexual identity, prejudice and the longing to be who you really are. But becoming Ann-Christine has not been an easy journey.
In the footsteps of Marie Curie
Directed by Krzysztof Rogulski and Marie-Jeanne Lardic, In the Footsteps of Marie Curie is an original documentary that reveals the story behind an extraordinary woman. Starting with a brief history of Poland, Curie’s birthplace, it recounts her childhood, adolescence, her relocation to France, her marriage and her death, all told in a riveting fashion. By blending historical footage, interviews with historians and scientists, and scenes with stage actors, the directors deliver a compelling and poignant tale of Marie Curie’s life, remarking her triumphs as the first female Doctor of Physics and the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes.
Hannah Arendt is a portrait of the genius philosopher that shook the world with herdiscovery of “the banality of evil”. After she attends the Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem, Arendt dares to write about the Holocaust in terms no one had ever heard before. Her work instantly provokes a scandal, and Arendt stands strong as she is attacked by friends and foes alike. But as the German-Jewish émigré struggles to suppress her own painful associations with the past, the film exposes her beguiling blend of arrogance and vulnerability — revealing a soul defined and derailed by exile. The film portrays Hannah Arendt during the four years (1961 to 1964) that she observes, writes, and endures the reception of her work on the trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann. Watching Arendt as she attends the trial, staying by her side as she is both barraged by her critics and supported by a tight band of loyal friends, we experience the intensity of this powerful Jewish woman who fled Nazi Germany in 1933.
A murderer is at large: a well-dressed businessman who incarcerates his victims, chains and starves them, and documents their death amid their filth with instamatic snaps. Meanwhile, in another part of town, a woman joins a brothel. These two simple strands of plot come together within the film, and are united by a single theme: that women's suffering is basic to man’s pleasure.
The Last Island is a feminist disaster movie in which seven very different people and a dog survive an air disaster. They crash on a desert island and turn out to be the sole survivors of a world catastrophe. The question arises whether the human race should be allowed to survive. When one of the men increasingly takes on the role of leader, the situation escalates dramatically.
Marleen Gorris was born on December 9, 1948 in Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands. She is a director and writer, known for Antonia’s Line, Mrs. Dalloway, and The Luzhin Defence. She studied Drama at the University of Amsterdam, has an MA in Drama from the University of Birmingham, England. With Antonia's Line she became the first woman to direct a movie that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Three women, all strangers to each other, meet in a dress boutique. One of the three is approached by the male proprietor as she is shoplifting a garment. When he approaches her the other two join her in beating the man to death. Other female shoppers ignore the whole situation and leave when the crime is complete. The court appoints a female psychiatrist to examine the women; contrary to public opinion the psychiatrist finds they are not insane but implies the rage expressed by the crimes is a result of the male dominated society.
In early 20th-century Britain, the growing suffragette movement forever changes the life of working wife and mother Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan). Galvanized by political activist Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Watts joins a diverse group of women who fight for equality and the right to vote. Faced with increasing police action, Maud and her dedicated suffragettes must play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, risking their jobs, homes, family and lives for a just cause.
This documentary explores the slow but steady rise of the women's art community, which first blossomed when the Feminist Movement exploded in America during the 1960s and 1970s, thereby increasing cultural awareness of women artists. Through archival footage and interviews, the stories of activists such as the Guerrilla Girls and performance artists like Yoko Ono and Judy Chicago are told. The documentary also touches on the gender politics of the art world.
In the film the Princess and I the director follows Marianne Pitzen, director of the first worldwide Museum for Women in the Arts and one of the nine founders of the group “Zart&Zackiq”, which was known for fighting to establish a place for women in the arts. The film follows her work as an artist and particularly on a trip to Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai in 17 search of Chinese women artists in 1998. The film follows Pitzen on her journey to care a place for women in the art world through protests and through exhibitions.
Men Show Movies and Women their Breasts
Isabell Šuba made it – or so she thinks! One of her short films is screening at the filmfestival in Cannes. But instead of a red carpet a cruel reality awaits her: not a single film from a female director is shown in the official competition. Even in Cannes, there is no exception to the rule: Men show movies & women their
Linda was raped 15 years ago, but did not press charges. Since then she’s tried everything to “get over” the incident. She finally decides to press charges. We follow her through three tough years, exploring rape as a social issue while facing her own demons and the frustrating bureaucratic system.
The story of the little girl who loved butterflies
Where she wanted to go, she had to go alone. No one could come with her, especially her past. How traumatized events in our childhood can keep us in pain and suffering without even realizing it.
Elena was a factory worker, and a car accident bonded her with violin at the age of 26. She becomes a violin teacher, but earns no more than before. After having worked flat out for eight years, she finds herself alone with no potential suitor in sight. Therefore she decides to find herself a husband within a year to start a happy new life. Nonetheless, it proves to be harder than she expects.
Violette
Born out of wedlock early in the last century, impoverished and unloved Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in post war Saint-Germain-des-Prés. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette’s quest for freedom through writing and on Simone’s conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.
Winner of the Sakharov Prize 2014, Doctor Mukwege is internationally known as the man who mends thousands of women who have been raped during the 20 years of conflicts in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the poorest countries on the planet, despite its extremely rich sub-soil. His endless struggle to put an end to these atrocities and denounce the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators is not welcome. At the end of 2012, the Doctor was the target of another attempt on his life, which he miraculously survived. Threatened with death, this doctor with an exceptional destiny now lives cloistered in his hospital in Bukavu under the protection of the United Nation peacekeepers. But he is no longer alone in his struggle. The women to whom he has restored physical integrity and dignity, stand beside him, true activists for peace, hungry for justice.
Li Xiaolu, 16, meets the bookish student of the class, Wang Xiaobing. They become best friends. During their short period of friendship, they read Sanmao, and discover the most beautiful places in Baocheng - the orchard and the riverbank. However, over time they become less close. Serious differences lead to their separation. In the summer holidays after the college entrance exams are over, Xiaobing comes to see Xiaolu for the last time. As memorable as their first encounter, the friends who have not met for two years reconcile on this day.