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[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Roya Sadat!

"Credited as one of the first women to direct film in post-(2001) Taliban Afghanistan, Roya Sadat centers feminism, truth-telling, and the stories of Afghan women and girls in the face of repression."

Read more in I Care If You Listen's 5 Questions to Roya Sadat (film and opera director).

A Letter to the President | Namai Ba Rahis Gomhor (2017)

"The film’s fury isn’t just directed at the obvious villains in the piece. It argues that the system itself is sick and that oppression sometimes manifests itself even through men seemingly armed with good intentions. "

Read more in The Hollywood Reporter's review.

A Thousand Splendid Suns [opera] world premiere Feb 25-26, 2023

"Two years ago, moments before her first in-person meeting to discuss directing “A Thousand Splendid Suns” for Seattle Opera, Afghan film director Roya Sadat got a text message: The Taliban were retaking power in her home country."

"Sadat says the Taliban’s return is not the only way “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is all too relevant. Its themes are universal — and yet not often portrayed. In art, women are often described from a male perspective that emphasizes their beauty and value as love objects. When you see women in literature, “most of them are written with the pen of men,” she said. In contrast, this story is about the courage of women told through powerful female voices."

Read more in Seattle Times' Seattle Opera’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’: How a new opera is born.

Learn more about Sadat's work on her website.

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Kamila Andini! "It’s important for me when I can see myself in a movie (even if it is a movie from a different country), when I see my society, problems I can relate to… Hollywood movies are like a dream, something unrealistic and distant, detached from reality. In Indonesia, we are not very confrontational people. We don’t put the conflict on a dining table and don’t talk about it. We hide our feelings. People of the East have a different way of talking about conflict."

Read more in Asian Movie Pulse's Interview With Kamila Andini: We, Women, Often Don’t Have a Sense of Ownership Even of Ourselves.

Yuni (2021)

"Throughout, the film asks, what is Yuni willing to risk to have control over her life, and will the world she lives in let her get it?"

Read more on Seventh Row's review.

The Seen and the Unseen | Sekala Niskala (2017)

"The film's quiet pace, as well as its lack of dialogue, encourages total immersion in this magical universe.... The assimilation of the magical dimension of reality is not just about the protagonist. The film itself undergoes a certain metamorphosis following this new mystical revelation. It’s at this point that The Seen and Unseen becomes a wonderful succession of dream sequences that transports us from one universe to another."

Read more in Cineuropa's review.

The Mirror Never Lies | Laut Bercermin (2011)

"This immersive film from the Wakatobi islands in Indonesia is a fascinating snapshot of the lives of the Bajo tribe and a sweetly worked narrative about family and friendship that also offers powerful commentary about the state of our seas and our curation of them." Read more in Eye for Film's review.

Learn more about Andini on her website.

Explore Andini's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Kira Muratova! "The Ukrainian filmmaker summoned forth an explosive cinema of displacement and daring"

Read more in Film Comment's In Memoriam: Kira Muratova.

"Although her films may not be subject to censorship anymore, they continue to threaten the fragility of human nature by poking into its flaws, and looking at the darkest side of humanity in the eye with humor and defiance. Delving into her absurdist oeuvre is part sociological study, part shock therapy, yet absolutely a must for those interested in cinema and taking an honest look at the world’s taboos."

Read more in The Calvert Journal's Kira Muratova: where to start with her films.

The Asthenic Syndrome | Астенический синдром (1989)

"Released in 1989, Kira Muratova’s The Asthenic Syndrome immediately became a sensation and still remains one of the most groundbreaking films of the late 1980s. An epic and shocking portrait of those turbulent times, it is also a clear manifesto of Muratova’s vision."

Read more in Senses of Cinema's review.

Explore Muratova's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Heiward Mak!

“We think time is going forward as linear, actually time is looping infinitely. This came from my subconscious, when I’m facing something from my past and I can jump out to that flashback or memory and redo it.” Read more in Eastern Kicks' interview.

Fagara (2019)

"It’s about the value of limitations we put on ourselves, and the concept of relationship and marriage when they are all under the same traumatic experience of having been abandoned."

Explore her filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Kirsten Tan!

"A versatile filmmaker with a penchant for bold visual storytelling, Kirsten Tan's works are marked by their humanity and off-beat humor."

Learn more on Tan's website.

Pop Aye (2017)

"The idea for Pop Aye came when she was on a beach in Thailand and saw a group of boys showering an elephant in the sea. It became a road tale about a man who takes an elephant he saw performing on the streets of Bangkok to a small village, and the characters they meet along the way."

Read more in The Strait Times' It Changed My Life: Film-maker Kirsten Tan's journey from quirky distraction to movie magic.

Cold Noodles (2010)

"Inspired by an iconic photo of an immigrant eating noodles on a fire-escape by Magnum photographer, Chien-Chi Chang, Cold Noodles is an absurdist black comedy."

Learn more on Tan's website.

Explore Tan's filmography on Letterboxd:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Margot Benacerraf!

"Margot`s  extraordinary energy; intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity have always remained steadfast, bringing everlasting beauty to the art of filmmaking." Read more on vaeart's website.

Araya (1959)

"Araya resists categories, leans forward while looking back. Here past and future collapse, along with poetry and poverty, documentary and invention. Reimagined here, Araya is at once endless and utterly finite."—CYNTHIA FUCHS, POPMATTERS

Read more on the film's website.

Reverón (1952)

"My idea from the start was not to make a documentary about Reverón but to develop an essay on film as I would on paper, that is, specifically, to investigate through the filmmaking process the moment of creation and the relationship between creativity and madness…"

Read more (and access the film) on Milestone.vhx.tv.

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Edith Carlmar! "Edith Carlmar was not only Norway’s first female director, but she made what is considered to be country’s first film noir (Death Is a Caress) and introduced the great actress Liv Ullman to audiences around the world with The Wayward Girl (1960). All of her films were box-office hits, which means she is one of the most successful directors in Norwegian history." Read more in Film at Lincoln Center's Who Is Edith Carlmar?

The Wayward Girl | Ung flukt (1959) "...a surprisingly vital film, with a vibrant Liv Ullmann in her screen debut.”  Read more on The Association of European Cinematheques' A SEASON OF CLASSIC FILMS: ‘THE WAYWARD GIRL’ BY EDITH CARLMAR.

Fools in the Mountains | Fjols til fjells (1957)

"One of the most popular Norwegian films of all time, actress and director Edith Carlmar’s Fools in the Mountains (1957) is exactly what one might expect from a situational comedy. Characters mistake characters for other characters, making for confusion and frustration among the cast but great fun for the audience." Read more in The Hot Pink Pen's Norwegian Favorite ‘Fools in the Mountains’ is a Situational Comedic Treat.

Death Is a Caress | Døden er et kjærtegn (1949)

"The movie’s looming menace offers a glimpse at the essential tragic conflict between sex and society, between a woman’s public life and her intimate yearnings." Read more in Richard Brody's Rare Classic Films by Female Directors in The New Yorker.

Explore Carlmar's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Beeban Kidron!

"I have always seen part of my role as filmmaker being a public conversation with the world, and giving voice to those who may not have equal access to the airwaves." Read more in the Raising Films interview.

InRealLife (2013)

"Beeban Kidron's quietly alarming investigation of the bowels of the internet (we open, significantly, in a sewer) moves from the testimony of teens addicted to online porn to a wider examination of information ownership and market-driven manipulation." Read more in Mark Kermode's review in The Guardian.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)

“Bridget was such a calling card for women and I was just really interested in that character and why we all identified so insanely strongly with her.” Read more in The Independent.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

"It’s a film that at quick glance seems light & frivolous, campy even, as three typically macho stars don drag and bring their diva stories to life. Yet underneath the fabulous wigs & makeup are heartfelt & honest messages about tolerance & acceptance, both of others and of oneself." Read more on Queer Film Reviews.

Carry Greenham Home (1983) directed with Amanda Richardson

"Shot on video, its depiction of the courage, creativity and humour of the Greenham women contrasted greatly at the time with mainstream media portraits, giving greater insight into their motivations, and remains a seminal work of British feminism on film."

Read more on Star and Shadow Cinema's website.

Explore Kidron's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Cheryl Dunye!

"There’s a fundamental joy and curiosity in the work of Cheryl Dunye; a desire for knowledge and connection that underlies her exploration of, and experiments with film."

Read more on the Women in Film website.

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

"To this day, The Watermelon Woman is an impressive landmark work, a wry, deeply stylish comedy that is a must-watch for ’90s essentialists." Read more in Vanity Fair's The Watermelon Woman: The Enduring Cool of a Black Lesbian Classic.

Read more in Frames of Reality in Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman” by Laura Ivins on IU Cinema's Establishing Shot blog.

Learn more about Dunye's work on the Jingletown Films website.

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Vera Farmiga!

"Honestly, it was pretty easy to jump in and take control. I think most anybody with vision, ideas, taste, awareness, instinct, and the will, can direct. I don't think an extensive film education or film history is compulsory." Read more in the Female.com.au Vera Farmiga Higher Ground Interview.

Higher Ground (2011)

"Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground explores one woman’s experience of faith, doubt, community, alienation, and transformation in the non-denominational evangelical movement that remade American Protestantism in the 1970s."

Read more in #DirectedbyWomen's #Crucial21DbW: Higher Ground directed by Vera Farmiga.

I do hope we don't have to wait forever for Farmiga to direct her next film.

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Sanaa Hamri!

“I am a person who always wants to innovate, and I like pushing boundaries; I like being outside of the box. I like making people think and being daring, but one doesn’t create just to do that. One creates out of the truth of the character.”

Just Wright (2010)

"... it was great having Sanaa at the helm, because she brought a fresh perspective to the project in terms of her vision that made it easy for women to relate to it, given how my character was portrayed as sensitive and a good person. But, by the same token, she was also wise enough to balance that with his chi energy as an NBA player to attract a male audience as well." Read more of the interview with Common on The Skanner.

Something New (2006)

"We're saying you should follow your heart. ... [The movie] is really just about trying not to care so much about what others think and following your heart"

Read more on Oprah.com.

Explore Hamri's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Regina King! "We still managed to smile, dance, laugh, love, even with all of the things that we are up against, just in day-to-day life." Read more in the NY Times interview Regina King: Speaking Truth to Power Through Her Art.

One Night in Miami... (2020)

"At this moment in time, King’s directorial debut arrives like a thunderclap." Read more in Sara Stewart's ‘One Night in Miami’ review: Regina King’s directing debut electrifies in NY Post.

Learn more about King's directing work on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Donna Deitch! "When you’re making a film, you never know how it’s all going to end up. Are you going to sell it? Are people going to see it? These are all unpredictable things that one tries not to think about. I made the movie I wanted to see—that was my guide." Read more in the Criterion interview Breaking Ground: A Conversation with Donna Deitch.

Desert Hearts (1985)

"Donna Deitch’s swooning and sensual first narrative feature, Desert Hearts, was groundbreaking upon its release in 1985: a love story about two women, made entirely independently, on a shoestring budget, by a woman.... With undeniable chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by Robert Elswit, Desert Hearts beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candor." Read more on Criterion Collection's website.

It's Valentine's Day. So I'm simply going to keep the focus on the amazing, romantic Desert Hearts, but definitely explore more about the rest of Deitch's work on her website.

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Julie Dash! "Thirty-one years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke through racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) Daughters of the Dust. She became the first African American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film. The Library of Congress placed Daughters of the Dust and her UCLA MFA senior thesis Illusions in the National Film Registry. These two films join a select group of American films preserved and protected as national treasures by the Librarian of Congress." Visit Dash's website for more information about her extensive and varied career.

Standing at the Scratch Line (2016)

"Standing at the Scratch Line is a short film about returning to sacred spaces of departure and arrival. Multi-media artist Julie Dash portrays the stories of a people seeking refuge and freedom in the African Methodist Episcopal Denomination."

Learn more about the project on The Great Migration website.

Give Me One Reason [music video] (1996)

Daughters of the Dust (1991) "Dash’s first feature — Daughters of the Dust (1991) — was the first film by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release in the United States; the Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry in 2004."

Learn more at UCLA Library Film & Television Archive.

"...Julie Dash’s vast yet intimate drama, set in 1902, about the preparations of an extended family on one of the Sea Islands, off the coast of Georgia, to migrate to the American mainland. It’s a movie that runs less than two hours and feels like three or four—not in sitting time but in substance, in historical scope and depth of emotion, in the number of characters it brings to life and the novelistic subtlety of the connections between them, in the profusion of its ideas and the cinematic imagination with which they’re realized, in the sensuous beauty of its images and sounds and the indelibly exalted gestures that it impresses on one’s memory.... The movie’s images have a luminous fullness, a decentered dynamism, and a dance-like flow that separate them from mere illustration and raise them to a visual music that matches the movie’s bold dramatic construction."

Read more in Richard Brody's The Return of Julie Dash’s Historic “Daughters of the Dust” in The New Yorker.

Learn more about the film in Dash's book Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman's Film, "which includes Dash's complete screenplay, describes the story of her extraordinary sixteen-year struggle to complete the project."

Illusions (1982)

"In this thirty-four-minute featurette, from 1982, Julie Dash ingeniously revives classic-Hollywood themes and styles in order to subject them to a sharp historical critique.... Dash blends intimate portraiture with echoing reflections and multiple exposures, capturing Hollywood’s harrowing game of multiple hidden identities." Read more in Richard Brody's review in The New Yorker.

Four Women (1975)

"Pioneering, provocative and visionary, the L.A. Rebellion films form a crucial body of work in post-war cinema… Julie Dash's dazzling film is both a critical response to female stereotypes and one of the most brilliantly released films about dance."- George Clark, Tate Modern Learn more at Third World Newsreel.

Explore Dash's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Elizabeth Lo!

"Elizabeth Lo is an award-winning nonfiction filmmaker who is interested in finding new, aesthetic ways of exploring the boundaries between species, class, and unequal states of personhood."

Learn more on Elizabeth Lo's website.

Stray (2020)

"I think that, on some level, the film is indeed trying to channel this immigrant experience, the feeling of being an outsider. I showed the film in China once, and someone asked me why I like to occupy this outsider’s perspective. They very astutely pointed out that because I grew up in Hong Kong, culturally American with a Chinese-American mother, and later moved to America, I’m familiar with this experience of being an outsider. And yes, that’s probably why I’m drawn to the outsider’s gaze. Being a foreigner in Turkey was a very comfortable position for me." Read more in Guernica Magazine's Elizabeth Lo: “Like the dogs, I existed in a limbo where I wasn’t entirely part of human society.”

Bisonhead (2016)

“A quietly devastating glimpse into the modern indigenous struggle, focused just as intently on the snowy land and sturdy bison, as it is on the faces of the native tribe. Rendered with a non-showy compassion, director Elizabeth Lo pairs poetic visuals of Yellowstone with a haunting wind-swept soundscape to gracefully document the gutted native culture attempting to persevere.” (No Budge)

Hotel 22 (2014)

"The metallic bus railings and seats generate a neon, blue-ish hue and give the film a sci-fi feel. But this is not a work of fiction, instead it’s the grim reality that many Bay Area homeless persons face each night." Read more in The Independent Magazine.

Explore Lo's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Sara Driver!

“She has a kind of wonder at things, the strangeness of the world. It’s a wonder that doesn’t get jaded.” Read more in the New York Times' Sleepwalking in Fantasy Worlds Like This One.

When Pigs Fly (1993)

Sleepwalk (1986)

"Sara Driver’s first feature — a luminous, oddball comic fantasy about ancient Chinese curses and Xerox machines, set in Manhattan’s Chinatown and its immediate environs — may well be the most visually ravishing American independent film of its year (1986). "

Read more in Jonathan Rosenbaum's review on his website.

You Are Not I (1981) "This featurette by Sara Driver, from 1981—an adaptation of a story by Paul Bowles—is a frank and piercingly intimate reckoning with mental illness.... Driver conjures vast spans of harrowing experience in infinitesimal gestures." Read more in The New Yorker. Explore Driver's filmography on MUBI:

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Carol Nguyen!

"Carol Nguyen wins the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, which carries a $10,000 purse, courtesy of Labatt. By age 20, the Vietnamese Canadian was already turning heads worldwide with acclaimed short films drawn from her life." Read more in today's post on Toronto Film Critics Association.

Nanitic (2022)

"I think Nanitic is a wonderful, gritty exploration of culture and its fragility within families. Can’t wait to see what other films Nguyen creates in the future." Read more in TIFF 2022: Carol Nguyen’s ‘Nanitic’ is a deeply personal exploration of culture.

No Crying at the Dinner Table (2019)

"After the shoot, my family started saying "I love you" to each other - a really big step in our relationship. It took my dad a while though."

Read more in the FAQ on Nguyen's website.

Uprooted (2013)

I was present at Heartland Film Festival when Carol Nguyen won the High School Competition for her film Uprooted. She was in 10th grade at the time. I was so moved by her stop motion animated short which conveys the story of her father's challenging journey fleeing Vietnam and finding his way to Canada. I've been a big fan ever since. I revisit it often and share it with friends. It's a joy to see her work continue to evolve. Take a few moments to watch her acceptance speech. It's charming.

"I would like my biggest thanks to go to my good friend Duct Tape, because without duct tape I wouldn't have been able to make my film."

Visit Nguyen's website to learn more about her work: