Today is International Women’s Day – ROAR!
Let’s face it, it’s a pretty weird, awesome, sometimes creepy, time to be a woman. Women flexed their collective muscles in the largest display of solidarity EVER with the Women’s March. We’ve seen women writing post cards, calling legislatures, donating, volunteering, protesting, standing up for themselves, standing up for others. We’ve had feisty debates about feminism. We don’t all agree, and that’s ok.
Let’s just take a moment to look backward with gratitude and forward with optimism… and to enjoy some really, really kick-ass women in film.
1. Chisholm ’72 Unbought & Unbossed (2004)
Before Hillary Clinton, and before President Obama, there was Shirley Chisholm.
Chisholm was the first African American woman to be elected to congress and the first African American PERSON to throw down a serious bid in the presidential primary. Meet the candidate in this documentary!
2. Suffragette (2015)
Suffragette starring Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter is a no-brainer! What’s more inspiring than watching fearless rebel chicks from across the pond fight for the basic rights that we enjoy today? Don’t forget where we started, ladies! Roar!
3. La Vie En Rose (2007)
This Edith Piaf biopic gives us the opportunity to live in the skin of one of France’s most treasured artists. It becomes clear pretty early on in this movie, that our protagonist gives zero figs about other people’s expectations. Marion Cotillard kills it in this story of street urchin to international star. We love the fierce and formidable Edith Pilaf.
4. Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 (2003-2004)
Strong and complicated female characters populate all of Quentin Terantino’s films, but the Kill Bill series screams to our inner female warrior! It’a a classic revenge story with Terantino’s muse, Uma Thurman, using physical and mental prowess to parcel out justice to those who betrayed her.
5. Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Cleopatra Jones played by Tamara Dobson, is a fierce, fur-clad special agent determined to bust up drug rings stateside and abroad! She’s taking out opium fields in Turkey and corrupt cops in L.A. We have the biggest lady crush on her!
6. Erin Brockovich (2000)
We love a true story based on a strong female. Erin Brockovich is the story of a legal assistant who used her brain and her sass to stick it to Pacific Gas & Electric for polluting the water supply of Hinkley, California. For real, she’s a real life hero!
7. Frida (2002)
Hello, magical surrealism! Here we have another biopic, this time of iconic Mexican painter, political activist and all around hell-raiser, Frida Khalo. Frida smokes, drinks, kicks it with communists, overcomes physical impairment and tragic love to become one of the most enduring and creative forces in art. Roar!
8. Hunger Games Series (2012)
Ladies can be revolutionaries too! Jennifer Lawrence brings down an entire world order when she takes on the role of Katniss Everdeen. We wonder how many little girls requested bow and arrows for Christmas when the fist installment of this movie came out.
9. He Named Me Malala (2015)
“There is a moment when you have to choose, whether to be silent or to stand up,” ~Malala Yousafzai. The documentary He Named Me Malala is a true story of courage and perseverance. When Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani woman, dared to fight for her right to an education, she was targeted and shot in the head by the Taliban, but she did not die. She survived. And she did not hide in fear. She fought back. She is a true inspiration and a reminder of all the work left to do.