Feminism as a concept has gone in and out of vogue since the first suffragette demanded the right to vote, but throughout history there have always been remarkable women, prepared to claim their power in the name of a cause ('Ride to Freedom: The Rosa Parks Story', 'Veronica Guerin'), or just to rediscover their own self-worth ('Shirley Valentine', 'My Brilliant Career'). This collection does not only contain films about the political struggle of women to achieve equality ('Iron Jawed Angels'), if it did it would be a very short list because despite the fact that the rise of women in the workforce and in politics was one of the defining movements of the 20th century, very few films have been made on the subject - filmmaking being still a largely male-dominated pusuit. Now, as women are making films in greater numbers than ever, our own Niki Caro is a good example of someone ready and willing to tell a story about the oppression, and ultimate triumph of women in the 'post-feminist' 1980s ('North Country'). Perhaps women as an audience are now ready and willing to hear their own stories.
Jane Campion's remarkable award-winning film based on the autobiographical writing of Janet Frame is a portrait of a sweet-natured, imaginative, painf... Read more
AKA "The Company Of Strangers". Seven elderly women, previously strangers, are forced to spend three days together in a dilapidated house and draw on... Read more
Based on Carrie Fisher's best selling autobiographical novel and revolving around the caustic relationship between a mother and daughter and satirisin... Read more
Adapted from the acclaimed stage play about a group of 'Strong Women' or 'Steel Magnolias' in a small southern town. The magnificent cast includes Shi... Read more
A gem of a film about a witty housewife, bored with the hum-drum routine of suburban life, who jumps at the chance to rediscover herself when she join... Read more
A young woman is gang-raped in a bar while onlookers cheer on the attack. The subsequent court trials question her 'easy' lifestyle and whether she in... Read more
They met at the beach when they were children and formed a friendship that would last a lifetime. Filled with song and sentiment, this is a serio-comi... Read more
This enchanting and affectionate fable unveils, in a series of wonderful vignettes, the developing friendship between several oddball characters. Mari... Read more
Steven Spielberg's magnum opus, with Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover in an adaptation of Alice Walker's seminal book. A richly-textured, decades-span... Read more
Absorbing story of author-educator Sylvia Ashton-Warner, who brought new educational techniques to the teaching of the Maori students in 1940's New Ze... Read more