Věra Chytilová - Daisies (1966)

Věra Chytilová has embodied a unique cinematographic language and style that does not rely on any literary or verbal conventions, but rather utilizes various forms of visual manipulations to create meaning within her films. Chytilová uses observations of everyday life in accordance with allegories and surreal contexts to create a personalized film style that is greatly influenced by the French New Wave, and Italian Neo-Realism. Chytilová actively uses a filmic style that is similar to cinema verite in order to allow the audience to gain an outside perspective of the film. Her use of cinema verite is best illustrated in her 1966 film Daises in which these techniques create a “philosophical documentary, of diverting the spectator from the involvement, destroying psychology and accentuates the humor”. Through these manipulations Chytilová has created a legacy of creating a disjunctive viewing experience for her audience forcing them to question the meaning of her films.

Věra Chytilová is cited as a militant feminist filmmaker. Josef Skvorecky states that Chytilová “In a true feminist tradition Vera combined intensive intellectual effort with a feminine feeling for beauty and form”. Daises is seen as a feminist film due to its attitude and active critique of male attitudes towards sex However Chytilová does not see herself as a feminist filmmaker, but rather believes in individualism, stating that if a person does not believe in a particular set of conventions or rules then it is up to that individual to break them.

Samira Makhmalbaf - The Apple

I found The Apple just with portuguese subtitles.

Samira Makhmalbaf - At Five in the Afternoon

At Five in the Afternoon is the first feature film to made in a post-Taliban environment. Samira talks about her film to BBC, "I wanted to show reality, not the cliches on television saying that the US went to Afghanistan and rescued the people from the Taliban, that the US did a Rambo," said Makhmalbaf."Though the Taliban have gone, their ideas are anchored in peoples' minds, in their traditions and culture, there is still a big difference between men and women in Afghanistan." 

In an interview with BBC she talks about the difficulties that women directors face in Iran. "Traditionally, it is in the minds of everybody that a woman cannot be a film maker. It is therefore very much harder for a woman. Also, when you live in this kind of situation there is a danger that you can start to develop a similar mind-set and so the thing is to challenge this situation, and then slowly the situation will change also in the minds of others. I very much hope that in the advent of freedom and democracy Iran can produce many more women directors.

Barbara Loden - Wanda (1970)

 For Wanda - a great article about the film on The Senses of Cinema by Bérénice Reynaud: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/wanda/

Barbara Hammer - Sanctus (1990)

Leni Riefenstahl - Olympia (1936)

Samira Makhmalbaf - How Samira Made The Blackboard

Barbara Kopple - Harlan County USA (1976)

Jane Arden - Vibration (with Jack Bond, 1975)

Shirley Clarke - Bullfight (1955)

Liliana Cavani - La Donna Nella Resistenza (1965)

Liliana Cavani - Francesco d'Assisi (1966)

Shirley Clarke - Bridges-Go-Round (1958)

Clarke's film Bridges Go-Round (1959) is a major example of abstract expressionism in film, with two alternative soundtracks, one with electronic music by Louis and Bebe Barron and the other consisting of jazz created by Teo Macero. She used the camera to create a sense of motion while filming inanimate structures.

Shirley Clarke - Portrait of Jason (1967), excerpt

Shirley Clarke - Portrait of Jason (1967)

Portrait of Jason is a 1967 documentary film directed, produced and edited by Shirley Clarke and starring Jason Holliday (1924-1998). 

A gay, African-American hustler and aspiring cabaret performer, Jason is the sole on-screen presence in the film. He narrates his troubled life story to the camera, behind which Clarke and her partner at the time, actor Carl Lee, provoke and berate Jason with increasing hostility as the film progresses. The film employs avant-garde and cinéma vérité techniques to reach the tragedy underlying Jason's theatrical, exaggerated persona.

Liliana Cavani - Galileo (1968)

Joan Rivers - Rabbit Test (1978)

Ida Lupino - The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Agnès Varda - Les glaneurs (2000)

Shirley Clarke - Skyscraper (1959)

She received an Academy Award nomination for Skyscraper (1960). Mainly shot in 1958, the short film captures the construction of 666 Fifth Avenue which began in 1957. The 20-minute film also includes shots of the Roxy Theatre which was demolished the year Skyscraper was released. In 1959, it won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.