1. Seed (Seed)
Naomi Kawase describes Sakura Ando, the lead character in her film, as "a mysterious creature" who is "like a fairy. SEED is the story of the journey this girl takes from the enchanted nature of Nara to the chaos of Tokyo, and the encounters she has along the way. A boy offers her the gift of an apple, which she in turn gives to a homeless man, who proffers a soft piece of chiffon fabric in return. Moving like a tree that sways in the wind, the girl embodies a spirit that secretly runs through places and living things. The eleventh film commissioned by Miu Miu Women's Tales was directed by the multiple Cannes award-winning Japanese director Naomi Kawase.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
2. Road's End (Vägens ände)
Road's End is the story of Daina who lives in Latgale in Eastern Latvia, close by the Russian border. She lives two miles from the nearest road, with no electricity or running water. The roof has collapsed. She is completely dependent upon herself in order to cope with her everyday life. Daina’s children have both emigrated, her son to Norway and her daughter to Italy. When she feels lonely, she goes to her husband's grave and sits there talking with him as if he were still alive. Road’s end is a both poetic and existential film about choices we make in life, about obstinacy, love and betrayal.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
3. Farmer/Veteran
After three combat tours in Iraq, Alex Sutton attempts a fresh start hatching chickens and raising goats on 43 acres in rural North Carolina. Alex embraces life on the farm with his new love Jessica, but cycles between a state of heightened alert and “feeling zombified” from a cocktail of prescriptions meant to stabilize his injured mind. When Jessica becomes pregnant, the dark past Alex has tried to escape—the loss of his first family, the war he was forced to leave—closes in on him. The farm becomes another battleground. Farmer/Veteran attempts to reconcile the identity of a perfect soldier with the reality of a haunted man determined to hold onto the best chance at peace he’s ever known.
4. 1789 (1789)
Recording of the play 1789, a collective creation by Théâtre du Soleil at La Cartoucherie de Vincennes in 1970, edited from several shows.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
5. Untold: Deal with the Devil
Christy Martin broke boundaries and noses as she rose in the boxing world, but her public persona belied personal demons, abuse and a threat on her life.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
6. Untold: Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner's unlikely path to Olympic glory was inspirational. But her more challenging road to embracing her true self proved even more meaningful.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
7. Stendali (Still They Toll) (Stendalì: Suonano ancora)
A unique documentary on the traditional dirge in Griko, an ancient language of Salento.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
8. The Chant of Tiber’s Branches (La Canta delle Marane)
On a hot summer day, a group of boys of the Roman suburbs play and laugh in one of the many rivers that surround the city. The camera scrutinizes them, approaches them, reveals the gestures and glances, wraps them in a sort of visual dance, while the words of the commentary narrate the stories, desires, dreams, the future.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
9. Eternal Princess
In 1976, a 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci became an overnight sensation after she accomplished what no one had ever done before in professional gymnastics—she scored a perfect 10. ETERNAL PRINCESS is an intimate look at her inner struggles, personal dedication, and greatest success.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
10. Waiting for B. (Waiting for B.)
This observational documentary follows the journey of Beyoncé’s super-fans who, unable to pay for the most expensive tickets, camped out for two months to secure their front row spots. Living with this makeshift community bring to light important issues, such as economic class, black identity, homophobia, feminism, and what it means to make this sacrifice for a media phenomenon larger and more powerful than themselves.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
11. My Prairie Home
A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
12. The Last Impresario
Michael White might just be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. A notorious London theatre and film impresario, he produced over 300 shows and movies over the last 50 years. Bringing to the stage the risqué productions of Oh! Calcutta!, The Rocky Horror Show and to the screen Monty Python’s The Holy Grail, as well as introducing Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch and Yoko Ono to London audiences, he irrevocably shaped the cultural scene of the 1970s London. Playboy, gambler, bon vivant, friend of the rich and famous, he is now in his eighties and still enjoys partying like there’s no tomorrow. In this intimate documentary, filmmaker Gracie Otto introduces us to this larger-than-life phenomenon. Featuring interviews with 50 of his closest friends including Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, John Waters and Barry Humphries and, of course, the man himself, Otto pays a vibrant tribute to a fascinating entertainer.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
13. Fourteen's Good, Eighteen's Better
Profile on three young Adelaide women. Diana, Kerry and Josie are now 18 years old, and continue to have open and frank discussions about their lives.
14. Not Fourteen Again
An exploration of the hopes and expectations of three working class women from Adelaide, and the differences and similarities they share with their daughters.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
15. Lily Tomlin
Backstage record of how Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner and their associates put together "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," Miss Tomlin's one-woman Broadway play.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
16. Loretta Lynn: My Story In My Words
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of "Coal Miner’s Daughter," the Loretta Lynn song that became a book, a feature film, and an indelible part of popular culture. Like so many other songs written by Lynn, the lyrics told the story of her life and spoke to women who struggled to make ends meet. Lynn’s simple, straightforward song stories gave legitimacy to the joys, heartaches, struggles and triumphs.
17. The Do Gooders
British documentary filmmaker Chloe Ruthven’s grandparents were aid workers in Palestine. Growing up, she had avoided getting too involved in the subject, recalling how mention of the country made all the adults in her life angry. In her forties, after revisiting her grandmother’s book on the subject, she starts to research a documentary on the effects of foreign aid in the area and is shocked at the continued reliance on it there. Along the way she meets Lubna, a Palestinian woman who acts as her driver and fixer, and who is fiercely critical of Western aid efforts in her country. What begins as a quest to better understand her family history turns into a deeply emotional account of two women trying to understand one another. Ruthven’s determination to focus her film on deeply subjective analysis results in a unique joining of the acutely personal and complexly political.
18. Le film du cinéma suisse
Thirteen Swiss filmmakers, each from their own point of view, chronicle and reconstruct the narrative of Swiss cinema, from its beginning to the present day, and in doing so, retrace the history of the country.
19. Hoover Street Revival
Documentary about the lives of worshippers from the congregation of the Greater Bethany Community Church in South Central LA and the sermons of its Bishop Noel Jones
20. Late at Night: Voices of Ordinary Madness
‘You have no choice about being here, you’ll have no choice about when you leave’ proclaims a woman in Xiaolu Guo’s latest film, a documentary about the personal and physical journeys of the people of London’s East End. Herself an immigrant to the area, Guo’s sensitive character studies hint at an affinity with the push and pull of feelings of alienation, a theme she has previously explored as a filmmaker and novelist . This empathy is also apparent in her playful stylistic approach that layers Warhol-esque news reports, archival material and a soundtrack including Linton Kwesi Johnson and Fela Kuti, to comment on the human cost of capitalism. The resulting film is both a penetrating portrait of a frenetic place that feels deeply authentic, and a powerful piece of protest film.
