Spotlight
Wondering which films to watch? Spotlight presents thematically grouped, must see films, hand-picked by Fandor's curators.
Beyond Bechdel
The criteria for the Bechdel Test is simple:
1. Two female characters talk to each other.
2. They talk about something other than men.
3. Their characters have names (not Lady in Grocery Line #3).
However, it's alarming how few films pass this basic test.
Let’s go above and beyond basic with films that shed light on complex relationships between women. Whether sisters, friends or lovers, the women in these films engage in meaningful dialogue, putting the Bechdel to the test.
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Selected Films
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Teknolust
Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton plays four roles in this award-winning science fiction film about Rosetta Stone and her three Self-Replicating Automatons which she clones from her own DNA. Though they look human, the SRA cyborgs were bred as intelligent machines and are immortal. In order to...Watch Movie
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In Bloom
Early nineties, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is immersed in violence, there's a war on the Black Sea coast in Abkhazia and vigilante justice plagues society. But for Eka and Natia, fourteen-year-old inseparable...Watch Movie
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Butter on the Latch
Former performance artist Josephine Decker's stunning debut feature is a deeply subjective and mysterious portrait of a frantic young woman, Sarah, who leaves the city for the apparent safety of a Balkan music camp hidden deep in the California woods. Once there she reconnects...Watch Movie
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Tall as the Baobab Tree
In a rural Senegalese village poised at the outer edge of the modern world, a teenage girl hatches a secret plan to rescue her eleven-year-old sister from an arranged marriage. A powerful voice from Africa's young generation, TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE poignantly depicts a family...Watch Movie
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Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness
Two sisters share a complex and compelling relationship in the well crafted film about sibling rivalry. Anna seems dependent, emotionally and economically, on Maria. Successive inward turns of the screw reveal them, Siamese twin-like, bonded to one another, so that eventually...Watch Movie
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Jellyfish
Poignant, often witty and exceedingly cinematic, JELLYFISH tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the...Watch Movie
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Starlet
STARLET explores the unlikely friendship between twenty-one year old aspiring actress Jane and elderly widow Sadie after their worlds collide in California's San Fernando Valley. Jane spends her time getting high with her dysfunctional roommates and taking care of her chihuahua Starlet while...Watch Movie
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Beeswax
BEESWAX revolves around the personal and professional entanglements of twin sisters Jeannie and Lauren (played by extraordinary newcomers Tilly and Maggie Hatcher) living in Austin, Texas. Jeannie co-owns a bright, candy-colored vintage clothing store. When a conflict with her business partner...Watch Movie
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All the Light in the Sky
Jane Adams stars as an actress living in Malibu who faces harsh realities of the industry as her age exempts her from more and more acting opportunities. Amidst this career and life crisis enters the actress's niece, played by Sophia Takal, who arrives for a weekend stay and...Watch Movie
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The Maid
After twenty-three years working as a devoted maid in an upper class Chilean household, embittered and ailing Raquel can no longer care for the family alone. Trapped by guilt, matriarch Pilar refuses to let Raquel go, even though it is clear their longtime maid is slowly unraveling. Instead,...Watch Movie
