ARUSI Persian Wedding
A film by Marjan Tehrani
Iranian American filmmaker Marjan Tehrani chronicles her brother Alex’s return to Iran during the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as he travels with his American wife Heather to have a traditional Persian wedding and explore his lost heritage — just as his own Iranian father and American mother did back when Iran and the U.S. were allies. More.

Club Native
A film by Tracey Deer
On the Mohawk reserve where director Tracey Deer grew up, there were two very firm but unspoken rules: Don’t marry a white person, and don’t have a child with one. The consequences of ignoring these rules were equally simple: Lose all status as a Native person, and have your children forfeit their status as Native people. Not only did breaking either of these rules deplete “the Nation,” but was a de facto betrayal of one’s community and family. More.

Documentary Film and Video
         Festival (DOXA), Colin Low Award for
         Best Canadian Documentary
First Peoples' Festival (Land InSights)
         Kodak-Vision Globale Award for Best
         Canadian Film

Courting Justice
A film created by Ruth Cowan, Directed by Jane Thandi Lipman
From tyranny to democracy. Fourteen years after the defeat of apartheid, South Africa’s fledgling democracy is acclaimed for its constitutional promise of comprehensive human rights and unprecedented judicial reform. But what is essential for transformation to succeed? COURTING JUSTICE profiles indomitable female judges charged with the task of guarding those rights and enacting transitional justice. More.

Encounters: South African International
       Documentary Festival
Durban International Film Festival

The Feminist Initiative
A film by Liv Weisberg, Produced by
Boris Jordan-Mirchev
THE FEMINIST INITIATIVE, by director Liv Weisberg, reveals the passion, pitfalls and promise of a diverse group of women working to establish the world’s first feminist political party in Sweden in the spring of 2005. Charting every step (and misstep) along the way, Weisberg follows an ex-party leader, a couple of ‘70s feminists, a group of homo-bi-transsexuals, and several enthusiastic younger women from their energetic start to the climatic moments of their inspiring, celebrity-supported rally. More.

In Sickness and In Health
A film by Pilar Prassas, Edited by
Peter Heacock
This bittersweet documentary captures gay rights activists and longtime partners Marilyn Maneely and Diane Marini when their battle to legalize same-sex marriage turns into a race against a deadly disease. Prassas lovingly captures a partner's heartbreak, the coming together of a community and the quest of five children to help their mother live her last days with dignity and purpose. More.

Philadelphia Int'l Gay and Lesbian
         Film Festival, Jury Award for Best
         Documentary & Festival Favorite
Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film
         Festival, Audience Award Best
         Documentary

License to Thrive: Title IX at 35
A film by Theresa Moore
Smart and highly-entertaining, this film explores and celebrates the unique history of the Title IX legislation and its critical role over the past 35 years in creating female leaders. Title IX provides educational access and opportunity for women and young girls throughout the United States, and no piece of legislation since the 19th Amendment has been more crucial to opening doors and creating leadership opportunities for women in all arenas from science and math, to arts and athletics. More.
 

My Israel – Revisiting the Trilogy
A film by Yulie Cohen
In My Israel – Revisiting the Trilogy, Tel Aviv-born Yulie Cohen revisits her acclaimed works My Terrorist (2002), My Land Zion (2004), and My Brother (2007) with new footage, fresh perspective, and her trademark sensitivity to Israeli-Palestinian relations. Embarking on a difficult and emotional journey, she attempts to free the surviving terrorist who attacked her, to question the myths of the state that she grew up in, and to reconcile with her ultra-orthodox brother after 25 years of estrangement. It is an account of remarkable courage and understanding that combines Cohen’s 10-year oeuvre in an incisive and refreshing new way. More.
 

Nollywood Lady
A film by Dorothee Wenner
Sharing her vision for transforming preconceptions about Africa and African images, “Nollywood Lady” Anyiam-Fibresima, producer, filmmaker, and founder of the African Academy of Motion Pictures, takes viewers on an all-access tour to film locations, markets, and sit-downs with Nollywood professionals in the vibrant production hub of Lagos. This vibrant documentary is an insider’s primer to Nollywood’s dynamic $250 million industry, interspersed with clips from the more than 1,500 direct-to-video, mostly low budget, culturally distinct, and immensely popular films Nollywood produces each year. More.

Toronto Int’l Film Festival
Berlin Int’l Film Festival

Rough Aunties
A film by Kim Longinotto
Fearless, feisty and resolute, the "Rough Aunties" are a remarkable group of women unwavering in their stand to protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. This newest documentary by internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto (SISTERS IN LAW, DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE) follows the outspoken, multiracial cadre of Thuli, Mildred, Sdudla, Eureka and Jackie, as they wage a daily battle against systemic apathy, corruption, and greed to help the most vulnerable and disenfranchised of their communities. More.

Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema
        Jury Prize in Documentary
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival,
        Best Feature
 

Salata Baladi (An Egyptian Salad)
A film by Nadia Kamel
Award-winning Egyptian filmmaker Nadia Kamel’s heritage is a complex blend of religions and cultures. Her mother is a half-Jewish, half-Italian Christian who converted to Islam when she married Nadia’s half-Turkish, half-Ukrainian father. Prompted by the realization that her 10-year-old nephew Nabeel is growing up in an Egyptian society where talk of culture clashes is all too common, she urges her feminist, pacifist, activist mother, Mary Rosenthal, to share their diverse family history. More.

Mumbai Int'l Film Festival, Golden
       Conch, Best Long Documentary, & Special
       Prize, Int'l Critics Jury FIPRESCI
San Francisco Arab Film Festival, Noor
       Award, Outstanding Documentary

The Sari Soldiers
A film by Julie Bridgham
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, THE SARI SOLDIERS is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties. More.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival,
       New York, Nestor Almendros Prize
Rencontres Int’l du Documentaire de
       Montréal (RIDM), “Camera as Activist”
       prize: best socio-political film
 

Searching 4 Sandeep
A film by Poppy Stockell
Single, frustrated and lonely in the middle of Sydney’s thriving gay community, director Poppy Stockell decides to “research” a light-hearted look at the lesbian Internet-dating scene. To her surprise and delight, she forges a deep online connection with an English woman, Sandeep Virdi. When their innocent flirtation turns into true attachment, Poppy sends Sandeep a camcorder and viewers watch as Poppy and Sandeep’s virtual relationship blooms into a poignant love complicated by the reality that Sandeep is Sikh, lives at home with her conservative family, and has kept her sexuality a secret. More.

Sydney Film Festival,
       World Movies Channel Audience Award
WOW Film Festival, Best Documentary
       & Audience Award
 

Shooting Women
A film by Alexis Krasilovsky
Shot over a period of six years and featuring more than 50 camerawomen from around the world, including Ellen Kuras, Sandi Sissel and Agnès Varda, Shooting Women celebrates the amazing talent and unflinching spirit of image-making women from the sets of Hollywood and Bollywood to the war zones of Afghanistan. Broaching the persistent issues of the glass ceiling, sexual harassment, and childcare for professional camerawomen around the globe, this film offers viewers a compelling glimpse of how women behind the camera are changing the world. More.

San Francisco Women’s Film Festival,
         Best Women in Cinema Award &
         Tribute Award
Female Eye Film Festival,
         Best Documentary Film

Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema
A film by Kay Sloan
In the days before movies could talk, silent films spoke clearly of sexual politics. This rare and wonderful assemblage of silent era footage opens a historic window on how filmmakers on both sides of the women’s suffrage issue used the exciting new medium to create powerful propaganda and images about women. Through clips from films like A Lively Affair (1912), A Busy Day (1914) and What 80 Million Women Want (1913), the film raises key issues about the struggle for gender equality and the portrayal of women in the media, which remain as fascinating, engaging, and relevant today as yesterday. More.

Miami Int'l Film Festival
 

Tiger Spirit
Directed by Min Sook Lee
Korea is a divided nation. Millions of families were split apart in the 1950s and few ever imagined their good-byes would be forever. Korean-Canadian director Min Sook Lee’s search for both the real and symbolic “Tiger Spirit” of Korea leads her on an amazing journey along the Koreas’ border and into the lives of families dreaming of the day they can once again see their lost loved ones. With unprecedented access and never before seen footage of North Korea’s industrial zone and state-sanctioned reunification centers, Lee brings us an emotionally-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary families. More.

Hot Docs Int’l Documentary
         Film Festival
Rencontres Internationales du
         Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM)
 

We Want Roses Too
A film by Alina Marazzi
Skillfully utilizing interviews and television footage, advertisements and animation, diary entries and photo stories, award-winning Italian documentarian Alina Marrazi creates a kaleidoscopic, funny and absorbing story of sexual liberation and revolutionary struggle in Italy during the '60s and '70s. More.

Int’l Doc Fest Amsterdam (IDFA)
Locarno Int'l Film Festival

Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker?
A film by Barbara Caspar
A multi-layered work featuring animation, archival footage and interviews with the likes of William Burroughs, Carolee Schneemann and Richard Hell, this is a thoughtful biography/essay on the late outlaw writer and punk icon, whose formally inventive novels, published from the ’70s through the mid-’90s, appropriated texts from Great White Male writers and challenged assumptions about gender roles, sexuality, and the literary canon. This film captures the essence of both Acker the writer and Acker the person, while celebrating the avant-garde legacy of an artist who forever expanded the limits of self-expression. More.

Hot Docs Int’l Documentary
         Film Festival
Outfest, Los Angeles