Letters Live from the Archive: International Women’s Day

An experimental musical period drama about the witchhunts in 1595 in the south of the Netherlands. The film depicts the last days of the life of the young woman Heylken.

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

A film portrayal of a pioneering aviator and best-selling author whose extraordinary public life had a deep impact on her inner world.

Women’s voices rise to deliver testimonies of victims of sexual violence. By reconstructing a story with these fragments of experience, a societal portrait is painted throughout the documentary. Like a mosaic, the pieces stick together to build a unique story that could belong to any human.

Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives.

After their mother's femicide, three siblings are separated and forced to live in different places. Years later they gather to raise their voices and fight to be made visible in a country where orphans for femicide are ignored by the state and invisible to society. It's up to them to tell their story.

In an era of antifeminist backlash, this articulate documentary by the makers of Thank God I’m a Lesbian forcefully reminds us that the revolution continues. Powerful interviews with feminist leaders including bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, and Urvsahi Vaid are intercut with documentary sequences to engagingly explore the past and present status of the women’s movement. Discussing the unique contributions of second wave feminism, they explore their racial, economic and ideological differences and shared vision of achieving equality for women. Anessential component of women’s studies curricula, My Feminism introduces feminism’s key themeswhile exposing the cultural fears underlying lesbian baiting, backlash, and political extremism.

BRIDE KIDNAPPING documents in harrowing detail four such abductions, from the violent seizures on city streets and the tearful protests of the women, who are physically restrained and persuaded to accept their fate by the women of the groom's family, to the often tense negotiations between the respective families, and either the eventual acquiescence or continued refusal of the young women.

This film explores the complexity of female infanticide in southern India and shows steps that are being taken to eradicate the practice. Every year in India thousands of baby girls are killed. Partly because of the dowry system which makes a daughter a liability to a family. In a country where being a woman means living a life of hardship, the murder of female infants may be seen by the mothers as being a humane solution. URISE, a non-governmental agency, is working in the villages to promote the idea among women that female children are equal in the eyes of the law and can be an asset in the family, setting up associations called sanghams to support pregnant women and mothers in their decision to keep their daughters. When a girl is born, the sanghams celebrates her arrival with gifts, showing that a girl is something to be valued. This sensitive film does not dwell on the horrors of the practice. Rather, it allows the women to speak for themselves showing how they can be empowered.

This film shows the work done by the "socorristas" feminist network. Through informative talks and stories about the actions of emotional containment these women have with others who need support, it seeks to eliminate the stigmas on abortions while also bringing out the reality of the clandestine abortion.

The women of Ghana have a reputation for independence. They, rather than the men, sit enthroned at the market stalls and run a large proportion of the nation's retail trade. But Ghanaian women are now thrusting even more vigorously into the arena of power and influence

A woman of nobility battles patriarchal norms in order to improve educational access for women in early 1900s Indonesian society.

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.

The Burden of Virginity explores the deeply rooted traditions surrounding virginity in Uzbekistan, focusing on the expectations placed on brides to remain "pure" until their wedding day. The film follows the story of a young Uzbek woman who faces public humiliation and familial rejection after failing to prove her virginity. Her ordeal leads her to contemplate suicide, highlighting the extreme pressures imposed by societal customs.