Criterion Deep-Dive: 31 Films Celebrating Women's History Month! (Part Two of Two)
Highlighting 31 Films by Women Directors from The Criterion Collection & The Criterion Channel
The Criterion deep-dive continues! Last month I compiled a list of cinematic gems from The Criterion Collection and The Criterion Channel to celebrate critically-acclaimed films made by Black directors. [Click here to read Part One and Part Two]. It is now March, and in honor of Women's History Month, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to discuss a sampling of great films directed by women filmmakers.
Despite some recent box office blockbusters, women directors are still woefully underrepresented in films by major Hollywood studios. And yet women have been making powerful film masterpieces for over a century! Which is why I've chosen to represent the films on this list in chronological order, to give a sense of the vast scope and scale of women's contributions to film herstory.
I’ve delved into the Criterion catalog to bring you 31 renowned films by women directors that are currently available via The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray & DVD) and/or The Criterion Channel (streaming). One great film for each day of Women’s History Month!
31 Critically-Acclaimed Films by Women Directors from The Criterion Collection & The Criterion Channel: Part Two of Two (in chronological order)
The Piano (1993) – directed by Jane Campion
A personal favorite, The Piano was a feminist revelation when I first saw it as a young teenager. Growing up in an era of popular blockbusters, I had never seen a film like this before. The Piano changed me. With a transcendent soundtrack by Michael Nyman, multi-award winning performances by Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin, lush cinematography, and a compelling original screenplay, it’s no surprise that Jane Campion won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993. (What is surprising is that she was the first woman director in history—the first of only three women directors ever—to win the award.) [available on 4K UHD & Blu-ray]
Bound (1996) – directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
Three years before The Wachowski Sisters changed science fiction forever with The Matrix, they made their impressive directorial debut with Bound. This sensuously sapphic neo-noir thriller, starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, was one of the first mainstream productions to hire an on-set intimacy coordinator (author and sex educator Susie Bright, who has a cameo in the film). And though its status as a lesbian cult classic was cemented years ago, Bound was recently announced as an upcoming addition to The Criterion Collection (digitally restored in 4K no less), just in time for Pride Month! [coming soon to 4K UHD & Blu-ray, available June 18, 2024]
Eve's Bayou (1997) – directed by Kasi Lemmons
What a cast! Acting legends Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Diahann Carroll and Debbi Morgan are the featured ensemble, alongside star Jurnee Smollett in her breakout role as Eve Batiste. The directorial debut of Kasi Lemmons, this Southern Gothic coming-of-age family drama, tinged with elements of magical realism, has scenes so potent that they still linger in my memory years after my first viewing. [available on Blu-ray]
Beau Travail (1999) – directed by Claire Denis
Is Beau Travail the most homoerotic film ever made? Claire Denis artfully flips the script on the male gaze in this devastating takedown of toxic masculinity and colonialism. Set in Djibouti among the French Foreign Legion, the plot is loosely based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, with much of the score utilizing music from Benjamin Britten’s opera of the same name. Watching the shirtless legionnaires performing tightly choreographed military exercises to Britten’s voluptuous music is the definition of aesthetic arrest. Abs aside, this film is a genuine masterwork, and I wholeheartedly agree with the legions (get it?) of directors and critics worldwide who consider Beau Travail to be one of the greatest films of all time. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
La Ciénaga (2001) – directed by Lucrecia Martel
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So said Tolstoy. And the turmoil surrounding this dysfunctional family, apparently inspired by Lucrecia Martel’s own childhood memories, certainly makes them a fascinating subject for La Ciénaga, Martel’s inventive and enthralling first feature. Born in Argentina, Lucrecia Martel has since gone on to become one of the most highly lauded directors in both Latin America and world cinema as a whole, but this biting satire of bourgeois decadence still carries a sting. In 2022, over two decades after its premiere, La Ciénaga was ranked the best Argentine film of all time by an overwhelming margin. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Love in the Time of AIDS (2006) – directed by Deepa Dhanraj
Deepa Dhanraj is one of my heroes. In 1980 she co-founded Yugantar, India’s first feminist film collective, and for the past 44 years she’s made dozens of bold documentaries challenging the status quo and consistently speaking up for the most marginalized members of society. Born in Hyderabad and based in Bangalore, her wide-ranging documentaries (in at least eight languages) have confronted topics like Hindu-Muslim tensions, the caste system, child labor, reproductive health, the rights of domestic workers, and the role of all-women’s councils in battling Sharia law. I’m especially fond of her 2006 gem, Love in the Time of AIDS, a documentary she made to promote safe sex among a community of kothis (a term for femme-identified individuals, including gay/queer men, trans women and nonbinary people). Reminiscent of a rural southwest Indian version of Paris is Burning, the kothis tell their own stories, uncensored and in their own words, with a wistful candor that effortlessly shifts between bawdy hilarity, tender longing, and courageous resilience in the face of oppression. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Editor’s Note: I couldn’t find a trailer for Love in the Time of AIDS, but here’s a short interview with Deepa Dhanraj discussing another one of her important documentaries, Invoking Justice (2011), which is also currently streaming on The Criterion Channel:
Pariah (2011) – directed by Dee Rees
The first feature film by one of my favorite living directors, Pariah sensitively tells the coming-of-age story of Alike, a 17-year-old Black teenager exploring her gender and sexual identity. With echoes of the vital intersectional work of Audre Lorde (the film begins with a quote by Lorde: “Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.”), Pariah was also the very first narrative film from the 2010s to be selected for preservation by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Pariah is definitely all three. [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
Atlantics (2019) – directed by Mati Diop
In 2019, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop became the first Black woman to have a film screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Atlantics won the Grand Prix. Both a ghost story and a romance, Atlantics deftly tackles a host of issues (from the refugee crisis to the power of grief) all with the haunting symbol of the Atlantic Ocean as an ever-present backdrop to the film’s scintillating drama. [Mati Diop’s Atlantics (2019) was previously announced as coming soon to Blu-ray for The Criterion Collection! In the meantime, her original short film, Atlantiques (2009), is included in Five Films by Mati Diop, which is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Lingua Franca (2019) – directed by Isabel Sandoval
In the last five years or so, there’s been a gratifying and long-overdue explosion of spectacular films by directors representing perspectives we’ve never seen on screen before. For this list I’ve chosen a whopping nine films released since 2019 (I easily could have chosen a dozen more), and Lingua Franca is a shining example of everything I’m loving about this new cinematic renaissance. Writer/director Isabel Sandoval stars as Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman who becomes the live-in caregiver for Olga, an elderly Russian-Jewish woman in the early stages of dementia (played by the always brilliant Lynn Cohen). An emotional and beautifully composed drama, Lingua Franca was thankfully acquired by ARRAY, the independent distribution company launched by Sandoval’s mentor, the great Ava DuVernay. This is a film I can’t imagine getting made (let alone finding a distributor) 25 years ago, and I’m so grateful that it exists. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) – directed by Céline Sciamma
The eye of the painter. The face of the beloved. Fluttering hands, deft brushstrokes. The folds of a green dress. The curl of the lips. The arch of an eyebrow. There are art films and there are films about art. This film is pure Art. With a capital A. It’s essentially a moving tableau, with countless winks and nods to celebrated artworks from the past. And though I am in rapturous awe of French director Céline Sciamma’s virtuosic artistry, I’m also completely swept away by the romance between Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). From the moment when Marianne first glimpses Héloïse running in the wind to the final extended shot . . . Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the embodiment of aesthetic perfection. [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
Farewell Amor (2020) – directed by Ekwa Msangi
Can a family stay together after living apart? What are the consequences of separation? In this riveting emotional tale of the contemporary immigrant experience, Tanzanian-American filmmaker Ekwa Msangi relates the different perspectives of father Walter (Ntare Mwine), mother Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), an Angolan family reunited for the first time in New York, where Walter has been working for the past 17 years. Three top-notch performances are combined with a flawless script, impeccable cinematography and a sensational soundtrack. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Clara Sola (2021) – directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
One of the most original characters in recent film, Clara is a sheltered 40-year-old woman living in a remote Costa Rican village, who is revered as a healer by the community. Clara adores the natural world of the jungle, seemingly able to communicate with animals and insects. She suffers from a painful spinal curvature, which doctors are willing to repair, but her tyrannical mother refuses to let her undergo surgery because she believes Clara’s body is “a gift from God.” Director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s visually stunning first feature film is the story of Clara’s liberation, and dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya (in her debut film role) owns the screen in her mesmerizing portrayal of Clara. I cannot wait to see what they both do next. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Faya Dayi (2021) – directed by Jessica Beshir
A visual poem. A dreamlike reverie. A trance, a dance of smoke, shadows and light. This lyrical documentary by Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir explores the complexities surrounding khat, a psychoactive plant which plays an important role in Ethiopia’s economy and culture. A decade in the making, every single frame of this black-and-white tableau is perfectly composed. Sheer aesthetic arrest. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
The Blue Caftan (2022) – directed by Maryam Touzani
Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani weaves together the emotional entanglements between a closeted gay tailor, his beloved yet ailing wife, and the handsome young apprentice they’ve recently hired at their shop specializing in traditional caftans made in the old style without any machinery. Stitch by stitch, the love triangle unfolds as the film’s eponymous blue caftan is being carefully sewn by hand. Bolstered by raw, honest performances from all three leads (Saleh Bakri as Halim, Ayoub Missioui as Youssef, and especially Lubna Azabal as Mina), combined with sumptuous shots of the ornately brocaded textiles, The Blue Caftan is utterly spellbinding. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Plan 75 (2022) – directed by Chie Hayakawa
We live in a world of dystopian fictions, from zombie apocalypses to killer robots to extraterrestrial invasions. But occasionally a dystopian idea comes along that feels disturbingly plausible and all-too-real. Set in a crowded near-future Japan with an aging population, Chie Hayakawa’s film imagines a government plan offering everyone over the age of 75 a decent sum of cash, to either give away or spend however they want, in exchange for free euthanasia and burial. Lead actress Chieko Baisho literally gives the performance of a lifetime in the role of Mishi Kakutani, an elderly woman with no family who must make a terrible decision. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Saint Omer (2022) – directed by Alice Diop
Inspired by a harrowing true story, this emotionally intense courtroom drama is a captivating psychological portrait of a Senegalese woman who left her 15-month-old daughter on a beach to be swept away by the tide. French-Sengalese director Alice Diop actually attended the real-life trial, and every character in this film (including the defendant herself, brilliantly played by Guslagie Malanda in what is essentially a master class in acting) is trying to answer just one question: Why? [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
There you have it! 31 critically acclaimed films by women directors, all currently available via The Criterion Collection and/or The Criterion Channel. [Click here if you missed Part One.]
For even more great films (including many spectacular short films), have a look at the following collections: Women Filmmakers on The Criterion Channel, Female Filmmakers in The Criterion Collection and Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers on The Criterion Channel.
And if you’d like instant streaming access to The Criterion Channel’s staggeringly prolific (and beautifully curated) library of critically acclaimed films, sign up for a 7-day free trial of The Criterion Channel here!
Happy Women’s History Month everyone! Let’s celebrate the achievements of women filmmakers (as well as women writers, musicians, actors, dancers, chefs, and artists in every medium) all year round!
And if you’d like to read about 29 critically acclaimed films by Black directors, have a look at my two-part article from last month:
