16 Documentaries Featuring Remarkable Women: Part 1

It’s Friday and you know what that means… another curated list of films to stream from the Full Frame team! This week, we’ve pulled together a list of festival alums from the last few years that feature important and remarkable women, shining a light on their lives, impact, and stories.

One Child Nation (Directors: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang)  – 2019 Grand Jury Award
In this brave and sensitive film, Nanfu Wang examines the traumatic history of China’s One Child Policy. With the birth of her first baby, she begins to question her family’s own experiences under the program, which gives way to a broader exploration of its lasting imprint. Amazon Prime

A Thousand Girls Like Me (Director: Sahra Mani)  – 2019 Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award
Counter to cultural tradition, a resilient Afghan woman in her early 20s publicly speaks out against years of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of her father. Vimeo On Demand

Crannog (Director: Isa Rao)  – 2019 alum
Believing no being should have to die alone, a young woman creates a hospice for animals, where chickens, sheep, and pigs spend their final days in the embrace of her warmth and compassion. Vimeo

Santuario (Directors: Christine Delp, Pilar Timpane)  – 2019 alum
Juana Luz Tobar Ortega, a quiet grandmother from Guatemala, took refuge in a Greensboro, N.C., church in the summer of 2017. Nearly two years later, she’s still there. PBS / Reel South

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders) – 2019 alum
In this deft and stirring portrait, candid interviews with the legendary author, as well as colleagues and contemporaries, celebrate Morrison’s inimitable writing career and its profound impact on American literature. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play

Amazing Grace – 2019 Closing Night Film
Resurrected footage from 1972 captures Aretha Franklin’s electrifying performance with the Southern California Community Choir for the live recording of the late singer’s Amazing Grace, one of the bestselling gospel records of all time. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play

RAISE HELL: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (Director: Janice Engel) – 2019 alum
This dynamic biography captures late political columnist Molly Ivins, the funny, fiery, whip-smart journalist who was unafraid to challenge the political and media establishments, no matter the cost. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play

Knock Down the House (Director: Rachel Lears) – 2019 alum
Following the campaigns of four political newcomers, all women, Knock Down the House charts their course in the runup to the 2018 congressional midterms as the neophytes challenge powerful incumbents in the Democratic primary. Netflix

Ask Dr. Ruth (Director: Ryan White)  – 2019 alum
Famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer changed the conversation around intimacy with her frank and exuberant advice. Ask Dr. Ruth charts her meteoric rise, and the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor reveals how her incredible life shaped a profound desire to help people find pleasure. Hulu

The Cave (Director: Feras Fayyad) – 2019 Winter Series alum
Amidst air strikes and bombings, a group of female doctors in Ghouta, Syria struggle with systemic sexism while trying to care for the injured using limited resources. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Youtube, Google Play

RBG (Directors: Betsy West, Julie Cohen) – 2018 Opening Night Film
This triumphant look at the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revisits landmark cases and decisions, but also reveals the woman behind the robe and the personal experiences that continue to shape her legacy. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Youtube, Google Play

Girl-Hearted (Director: Anne Scheschonk)  – 2018 Audience Award Short
Gracefully, and with open hearts, seven-year-old Nori and her mother, Josephin, reflect on their life together; Nori, who was born a boy, is actually a girl. Vimeo On Demand

The Judge (Director: Erika Cohn) – 2018 alum
Devoted to the law and unwilling to mince words, Kholoud Al-Faqih is the first female judge in the family court system of the West Bank, navigating its bureaucracy and providing a rare glimpse into Islamic courts and gendered justice. Amazon Prime, Youtube, Google Play

On Her Shoulders (Director: Alexandria Bombach) – 2018 alum
When ISIS devastates her Yazidi community, survivor Nadia Murad becomes the predominant voice for her people. Following Murad as she recounts her harrowing experience time and again, this film intimately details the burden of imploring the world to intervene. Amazon Prime,  Vimeo On Demand, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play

The Rape of Recy Taylor (Director: Nancy Buirski) – 2018 alum
In 1944, Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black woman, was abducted and raped by six white men in Alabama. The film centers on her unprecedented response—a fight for justice, with the aid of Rosa Parks and other black activists—whose profound influence on the civil rights movement still reverberates today. Starz, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play

Shirkers (Director: Sandi Tan) – 2018 alum
A film lover’s dream quickly turns to nightmare: Sandi Tan recounts making her first film in Singapore in 1992 and how she loses everything when her mentor, Georges Cardano, steals the footage. This unique diary is a bright ode to cinema, and a moving story of friendship, betrayal, and failure. Netflix