Film Festival Focus on Women

GIRLS' POV: NYICFF RETROSPECTIVE
These six international short films come direct from the acclaimed New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) landmark programme, Girls' POV - aimed at providing intelligent, diverse and compelling films that speak to the unique experience of girls.

INCLUDED IN THE FOR ALL AGES PROGRAMME

AS I OPEN MY EYES

(� PEINE J'OUVRE LES YEUX)
Tradition butts up against progress in Leyla Bouzid's debut, a musically charged French-Tunisian film that follows a young woman in a band as she navigates familial and cultural strictures on the eve of the Jasmine Revolution.

CERTAIN WOMEN
Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart are beautifully attuned to  Meek's Cutoff director Kelly Reichardt's intimately observed, interwoven tales of three independent women in contemporary small town Montana.

EQUITY
Written, produced and directed by women and with women in all the key roles, this smart and entertaining film about an ambitious investment banker (Anna Gunn) puts a feminist twist on the Wall Street thriller.

FATIMA
Winner of the 2016 C�sar for Best Film, Fatima is a beautifully nuanced portrait of an immigrant single mother giving everything to better the lives of her two very different teenage daughters.

HAPPY HOUR
An epic, richly understated contemporary drama of friendship and relationships told through the lives of four Japanese women. Winner of acting and screenwriting awards at the Locarno Film Festival 2015.

THE INNOCENTS (LES INNOCENTES)
Based on a true story from post-World War II Poland, this satisfying drama follows a young female French doctor who finds herself caught up in the lives of nuns, traumatised and shamed by their wartime suffering.

LOVESONG

Jena Malone and Riley Keough play former college friends whose infrequent meetings run deep in director So Yong Kim's intimate, beautifully nuanced study of friendship and the attraction of opposites.

A QUIET PASSION
Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle and Keith Carradine star in Terence Davies' lively, witty and ultimately intensely moving dramatisation of the sheltered life of 19th-century New England poet Emily Dickinson.

SAND STORM (SUFAT CHOL)
Elite Zexer's mesmerising debut feature portrays the emotionally layered relationship between a Bedouin mother and her spirited daughter, both bound by village custom while struggling to adapt to a changing world.

CAMERAPERSON
Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson assembles excerpts and offcuts from her remarkable career (to date) to evoke an assortment of uneasily resolved questions about ethics and compassion in documentary film.

FREE TO RUN
Rich with clips and lively interviews, this doco traces the running movement over the past 50 years - the struggle for the right to run, especially for women, then the explosion of grassroots road races and marathons.

HOOLIGAN SPARROW
Filmmaker Wang Nanfu shares alarming risks with her subject, accompanying fearless Chinese women's rights activist Ye Haiyan on a mission while facing intimidation at every turn.

THE LIVES OF TH�R�SE

(LES VIES DE TH�R�SE)
Filmed over the last months of her life, this compelling and inspiring portrait of the French feminist thinker and activist Th�r�se Clerc celebrates her extraordinary evolution and vital legacy.

WELLINGTON ONLY

VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT
This new documentary provides insight and historical perspective on the life and work of philosopher Hannah Arendt, illuminating her relevance to some of the most troubling phenomena of our own times.

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS
A 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl breaks a gender barrier to follow her father and train hunting eagles in this spectacular and entertaining documentary.

You can find more films made by women by selecting the Women Make Movies page under Films by Genre on the NZIFF website.