Inspirational Women's History Humanitarian Biopics
Each March in the USA, we recognize female achievements during Women's History Month. Biographical movies are a great way to educate the public about landmark events in the struggle for gender equality. At the same time, these movies honor and celebrate each woman's achievement with the star power they deserve. Bios Source: Wikipedia.com In honor of these trailblazing women:
Which of these female humanitarians* who championed social change or justice inspires you the most, or alternatively their biopic does? * Political Activist, Social or Human Rights Champions, Humanitarians, Whistle-Blowers, Rebels, Etc.
Women's History Month Companion Polls Leader Biopics : Trailblazer Biopics : Humanitarian Biopics : Sports Biopics : Writer Biopics : Singer/Musician Biopics : Visual Artist Biopics : Performance Artist Biopics
Discuss the topic here.
Which of these female humanitarians* who championed social change or justice inspires you the most, or alternatively their biopic does? * Political Activist, Social or Human Rights Champions, Humanitarians, Whistle-Blowers, Rebels, Etc.
Women's History Month Companion Polls Leader Biopics : Trailblazer Biopics : Humanitarian Biopics : Sports Biopics : Writer Biopics : Singer/Musician Biopics : Visual Artist Biopics : Performance Artist Biopics
Discuss the topic here.
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- 33 titles
- DirectorWilliam RieadStarsJuliet StevensonRutger HauerMax von SydowA drama that explores the life of Mother Teresa (Juliet Stevenson) through letters she wrote to her longtime friend and spiritual advisor, Father Celeste van Exem (Max von Sydow) over a nearly fifty-year period.Mother Theresa: Religious Order Founder, the Saint and Nobel Peace Prize winner founded Missionaries of Charity. Her order with 4500 sisters serving in 133 countries touches millions of the world's poorest souls. Alternate Biopics: Mother Teresa (2003), Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor (1997)
- DirectorSarah GavronStarsCarey MulliganAnne-Marie DuffHelena Bonham CarterIn 1912 London, a young working mother is galvanized into radical political activism supporting the right for women to vote, and is willing to meet violence with violence to achieve this end.Emmeline Pankhurst and British Suffragettes: Political Activists, helped women win the right to vote in Britain and set in motion a shift in society that would change everything.
- DirectorTim RobbinsStarsSusan SarandonSean PennRobert ProskyA nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.Helen Prejean: Roman Catholic Nun, a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. She ministers to inmates on death row. She also founded Survive, an organization devoted to counseling the families of victims of violence.
- DirectorJohn Lee HancockStarsQuinton AaronSandra BullockTim McGrawThe story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.Leigh Anne Tuohy: Hero Mother, she showed making a big difference in the world can start by forever changing the course of one life.
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.Sophie Scholl: Anti-Nazi Political Activist, a German national who stood up to Hitler and was executed for high treason. Her resistance group, the White Rose tried to stop the Nazis by exposing their atrocities to the German people and marshaling a movement of passive resistance.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsNaomi WattsSean PennSonya DavisonCIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration.Valerie Plame: CIA Operative, a central figure in "Plamegate" scandal that would rock the White House. She and her husband uncovered hard evidence against the justification for the war in Iraq and bravely exposed it as the lie it was.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsJulia RobertsAlbert FinneyDavid BrisbinA flamboyant law firm secretary works tirelessly to gain justice for a small town wrecked by a utility company's pollution.Erin Brockovich: Environmental Activist, the legal clerk was instrumental in securing a record breaking legal judgment against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), despite no formal legal training.
- DirectorKatja von GarnierStarsHilary SwankMargo MartindaleAnjelica HustonA little known, yet integral piece of American history: based on the lives of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two young radical women who were instrumental in getting women the right to vote in America.Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and American Suffragettes: Political Activists, helped women win the right to vote in America and set in motion a shift in society that would change everything. Alternate American Suffragettes Biopic: True Women (1997)
- DirectorNiki CaroStarsJessica ChastainJohan HeldenberghDaniel BrühlKeepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, must save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion in WWII Poland.Antonina Zabinski: Hero Author, she and her husband rescued, sheltered, fed and cared for hundreds of Jews in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Both were active members in the Polish underground during the war and helped undermine the Nazi's hold on Warsaw.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsMeryl StreepKurt RussellCherA worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.Karen Silkwood:, Chemical Technician and Labor Activist, her activism and death highlighted the cover-up of poor corporate health and worker safety practices in the nuclear industry.
- DirectorRam MadhvaniStarsSonam KapoorShabana AzmiYogendra TikkuThe story of courageous Neerja Bhanot, who sacrificed her life while protecting the lives of 359 passengers on Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986 when it was hijacked by a terrorist organization.Neerja Bhanot: Hero Stewardess, her courage against terrorism helped save the lives of 359 passengers and posthumously earned her India's highest peacetime award for bravery.
- DirectorJohn Kent HarrisonStarsAnna PaquinGoran VisnjicMichelle DockeryThe story of Irena Sendler, a social worker who was part of the Polish underground during World War II and was arrested by the Nazis for saving the lives of nearly 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto.Irene Sendler: Hero Nurse, she smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, saving them from the Holocaust. She saved more Jews than any other individual during the Holocaust, aside from a few diplomats who helped Jews flee Nazi-occupied Europe by issuing them exit visas.
- DirectorLarysa KondrackiStarsRachel WeiszMonica BellucciVanessa RedgraveA drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex trafficking scandal.Kathryn Bolkovac: Police Detective, she uncovered sex trafficking as a UN contract official in Bosnia. When her efforts to stop it were subverted by her bosses, she exposed their corruption and complicity within the UN peace-keeping mission to the BBC.
- DirectorAmma AsanteStarsGugu Mbatha-RawMatthew GoodeEmily WatsonThe biracial daughter, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), of Royal Navy Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) is raised by aristocratic Great-uncle Lord William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) in 18th century England.Dido Elizabeth Belle: Human Rights Champion, her speculated influence on her great-uncle, the Lord Chief Justice of England led to favorable judgments in the Zong Massacre and Somersett trials. Both decisions are seen to set the stage for the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and end of slavery in England.
- DirectorArthur PennStarsAnne BancroftPatty DukeVictor JoryThe story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind, deaf and mute child Helen Keller how to understand and communicate.Helen Keller or Anne Sullivan: Disability Activist or Miracle Worker, Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA, plus leader, author and speaker in worker, women's and handicapped rights movements
- DirectorPaul ShapiroStarsDana DelanyHenry CzernyRod SteigerMargaret Sanger, a nurse who, in 1914, became a pioneering crusader for women's reproductive rights after she published a booklet on birth control techniques that flew in the face of a law established by Anthony Comstock forbidding the dissemination of information on contraception. Sanger later helped to establish America's first birth control clinic in 1916, and in 1925 was one of the founders of Planned Parenthood.Margaret Sanger: Political Activist, her crusade to legalize birth control changed the game and spurred the movement for women's liberation.
- DirectorJames VanderbiltStarsCate BlanchettRobert RedfordDennis QuaidNewsroom drama detailing the 2004 CBS "60 Minutes" report investigating then-President George W. Bush's military service, and the subsequent firestorm of criticism that cost anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes their careers.Mary Mapes: News Producer, the Peabody Award winning CBS producer broke a number of important stories. None more important than the one that could change the course of US presidential election, a story she got right but nonetheless cost her job.
- DirectorJeff NicholsStarsRuth NeggaJoel EdgertonWill DaltonThe story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose arrest for interracial marriage in 1960s Virginia began a legal battle that would end with the Supreme Court's historic 1967 decision.Mildred Loving: Wife, her landmark case, Loving v. Virginia and defiance brought down the South's anti-miscegenation laws that stood for a century, setting the precedent to do the same for same-sex marriage laws fifty years later.
- DirectorKasi LemmonsStarsCynthia ErivoJanelle MonáeLeslie Odom Jr.The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.Harriet Tubman: Abolitionist, an escaped slave herself, she was the leader of the Underground Railroad. She made some thirteen trips back to rescue some seventy slaves and help fifty others to freedom. Current Biopic: A Woman Called Moses (1978)
- DirectorSimon CurtisStarsHelen MirrenRyan ReynoldsDaniel BrühlMaria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.Maria Altmann: Holocaust Survivor, best known for her successful legal campaign to reclaim from the Austrian government five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt stolen by the Nazis.
- DirectorSherry HormannStarsSoraya Omar-ScegoIdriss Abdillahi HoufanehAwa Saïd DararWaris Dirie, born 1965 in Somalia, flees at thirteen when sold to be a mans fourth wife. She works as a maid at the Somalian embassy in London, then in a McDonald's where she's discovered and becomes an international top model.Waris Dirie: Fashion Model, abandoned her career to stop Female Genital Mutilation, a practice common in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She became it's leading spokesperson by starting the Desert Flower Foundation and a UN Special Ambassador. Her efforts to raise awareness have put the topic center stage around the world.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsCate BlanchettColin FarrellBrenda FrickerAn Irish journalist writes a series of stories about drug dealers.Veronica Guerin: Crime Reporter, she exposed Irish drug criminals, despite repeated threats to her life and family. She remained vigilante and undeterred, paying the ultimate price.
- DirectorMick JacksonStarsRachel WeiszTom WilkinsonTimothy SpallAcclaimed writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must battle for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred when David Irving, a renowned denier, sues her for libel.Deborah Lipstadt: Historian, she fought for justice, historical truth and to prevent the re-victimization of Holocaust survivors, when sued for libel for claiming the Holocaust was real.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsAudrey HepburnPeter FinchEdith EvansAfter leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.Marie Louise Habets: Nurse, the nun nurses the poor and sick, first in a mental institution and later in Congo combating tropical diseases. Eventually, she leaves the order to combat greater injustice in the Belgian resistance and as a war nurse. (Sister Luke aka Gabrielle van der Mal)
- DirectorJulie DashStarsAngela BassettPeter Francis JamesTonea StewartA seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Activist, Parks' act of defiance and the following Montgomery Bus Boycott became a watershed moment in and symbols of the freedom movement.
