1. I Am a Sex Worker
Two foreigners meet in Barcelona and become friends after discovering that they both work in the same business: sex work. Their conversations offer an insider’s view into the differences between women and men in the sex industry.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
2. EMPOWER: Perspectives of Sex Workers (Empower: Perspectives de travailleuses du sexe)
EMPOWER is a series of three portraits of sex workers with heterogeneous trajectories crossing paths of migration, Trans identities, feminism, the fight against HIV, the fight against precariousness and discrimination. Interweaving personal journeys, political analysis, and strategies of collective resistance, Aying, Giovanna Murillo Rincon, and Mylène Juste demand for the rights of minorities. Far from the objectification often at work in documentaries, EMPOWER is a tribute to the voices of sex workers through an active collaboration in production with the protagonists.
3. Karam Camera
Two Syrian refugee girls document each others' attempts at making their first films.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
4. Like a Prayer
Produced by the activist video collective ACT UP/NY called DIVA TV , this tape analyzes the collaborative demonstration "Stop the Church" by WHAM! and ACT UP/NY on December 10, 1990, against Cardinal John O'Connor and the Roman Catholic Church's murderous stand on abortion rights, safer sex, and homosexuality.
5. Afghan Women
The words of the women and the rhythm of their lives in the seclusion of family compounds suggests both the satisfying and the limiting aspects of a woman's role in a rural Afghan community. Filmed in the Balkh Province, an area inhabited by Tajik and other Central Asian peoples. The town of Aq Kupruk is approximately 320 miles northwest of Kabul. The theme of the film focuses on women. The film and accompanying instructor notes examine the economic, political, religious, and educational status of women, their legal and customary rights, and the degree of change in their actual and perceived roles.
6. Kvinnorna på fröken Frimans tid (Kvinnorna på fröken Frimans tid)
The story of the road to women's suffrage in Sweden featuring interviews with relatives of the main characters.
7. We Weren't Given Anything for Free (Non ci è stato regalato niente)
Annita Malavasi was just 22 when the Germans occupied Italy, their former allies, in 1943. As a partisan in the Italian resistance named “Laila”, she moved throughout the Apennines with and between fighting units, delivering information, transporting weapons, and taking part in battles. She spent over a year in the Apennines, fighting against the German occupation. At the same time, she had to assert herself against the men of the mountain villages. By the end of the war, Laila had risen among the ranks to become one of the few female commanders in the Italian resistance. This film chronicles the story of a lifelong struggle for emancipation that began with the battle for Italy’s liberation from fascism. Laila and her two comrades, Gina “Sonia” Moncigoli and Pierina “Iva” Bonilauri talk about their time in the Resistenza and what it meant to them and many other women.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
8. Quand les pouvoirs s'emmêlent (Quand les pouvoirs s'emmêlent)
(Quand les pouvoirs s'emmêlent)
9. Ciudad a la Espalda (Ciudad a la Espalda)
María and Isabel are two women in their fifties who, like many others, recycle in Quito, where there is no recycling system. María leads a collective fight for basic labor rights; while Isabel transmits her knowledge of environmental care while she raises her daughters.
10. You Have Struck a Rock!
You Have Struck A Rock! commemorates the special contribution of South African women to the success of the anti-apartheid struggle. It recovers the remarkable "women's campaigns" of the 1950s against the hated pass system. This massive, non-violent civil disobedience movement was only finally crushed by the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the banning of anti-apartheid organizations. Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Dora Tamana and other leaders recall this struggle and their imprisonment and banning. Yet they remain undaunted, demonstrating the South African proverb: "When you have touched a woman, you have struck a rock."
11. Pussy Riot, rage against Poutine (Pussy Riot, rage against Poutine)
(Pussy Riot, rage against Poutine)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
12. Atatürk, père de la Turquie moderne (Atatürk, père de la Turquie moderne)
(Atatürk, père de la Turquie moderne)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
13. A Powerful Noise
Bookended by call-to-action quotes from Margaret Mead and Mahatma Gandhi, this inspiring documentary follows three extraordinary women -- in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mali, and Vietnam -- as they lead day-to-day battles against ignorance, poverty, oppression, and ethnic strife.
14. Empathy
Em is an escort girl and a heroin addict. From New York to Los Angeles via Pittsburgh, Em’s daily life is revealed.
It has an average vote of 2 on TMDB.
15. Yours in Freedom, Bill Baird
In an America where more and more women and trans people are losing legal bodily autonomy, the history of Bill Baird’s long fight for women’s right to abortion is as relevant as ever. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa doesn’t just give us a portrait of Baird, but also creates a historical register of allyship and activism that those fighting to uphold freedom and choice can access, and perhaps emulate.
16. The Stroll
The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
17. West End Jungle
1961 documentary about the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho.
It has an average vote of 4.7 on TMDB.
18. Outlawed in Pakistan
Outlawed in Pakistan tells the story of Kainat Soomro as she takes her rape case to Pakistan's deeply flawed court system in hopes of getting justice. The 13-year-old Kainat accuses four men of gang rape and shortly after is ordered to be killed by her village elders. Spanning over five years, the story is told through the perspective of Kainat and the four men accused of her rape.
19. My So-Called Selfish Life
Motherhood: a subject so deeply ingrained in our society, we take it for granted as part of the natural order. It's assumed all women want children, that motherhood is not only a biological imperative but the defining measure of womanhood. Titled after one of the myths it challenges, this film draws upon a heady mix of culture, science, and history–revealing the rich and diverse lives of people who said no to children, and the forces that have marginalized them in society.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
20. No Job For a Woman
Martha Gellhorn, Ruth Cowan, Dickey Chappelle: Three tenacious journalists who forged legendary reputations as war correspondents during a time when battlefields were considered no place for a woman. Their repeated delegation to the sidelines to cover the “woman’s angle” succeeded in expanding the focus of war coverage to bring home a new kind of story— a personal look at the human cost of war. Featuring an abundance of archival photos and interviews with modern female war correspondents, as well as actresses bringing to life the written words of these remarkable women.
