The Secret Soldier
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
In 1808, Joanna Żubr could no longer stand to be apart from her husband, so she disguised herself as a man and joined the Polish army to fight alongside him in the Napoleonic Wars, as Poland tried to regain independence. She fought 17 battles, but during Napoleon's retreat, she was separated from her division and managed to escape from Russia on her own. She was the first woman to receive the highest Polish military award, the Virtuti Militari. This is an incredible story of resilience, bravery, and love against all odds. It also honours a really amazing woman who risked her life time and time again just to be near her husband, creating one of the most famous untold love stories.
Wherever You Are
115 min running time
Twenty-nine-year-old Annie is happy, content, and excited as she is imminently due to marry the love of her life, or so she thought. Six weeks before their wedding she catches her fiancéé, Luke, with her best friend. Amidst the chaotic devastation of what follows, Annie decides that while she has given up on love- she is not ready to give up on herself. After pawning her engagement ring, moving out of her home with Luke, (and despite her family and friends thinking she has gone totally nuts) she embarks on a backpacking journey around Australia. Not only does Annie discover more about herself and those who surrounded her while on her journey, but she also meets the dashing photographer, Henry, who is on tour with his gay father’s amdram group while they perform Pricilla Queen of the Desert around Aus. Henry is a classic case of right person at the wrong time—but as their paths continue to cross during Annie’s trip, can the stars align for them before it’s too late, and can Annie find it within herself to give love one last try?
Trouble in the Turret
115 min running time
Scottish clans, Clan Gregor and Clan Campbell, have owned neighboring castles and been sworn enemies for over 200-years, but when the handsome James Campbell returns back from Edinburgh University and runs into Rose Gregor at a party- the two start a romance that shakes the very foundations of their lineage. From revenge pranks to fist fights and beyond, can the warring families work out their issues before it’s too late for Rose and James?
The Idle Women
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
The "Idle Women" were a group of around 45 women who operated canal narrowboats during World War II. Nicknamed “the land girls of the waterway” the British government actively enlisted female volunteers to operate canal barges during World War II. They took over vital freight transport to replace men who had gone to fight. They played a crucial role on the Home Front and their grueling, highly demanding work involved hauling cargo, intense 20 hour days, and heavy labour all to keep London with fuel and therefore electricity throughout the war. Without them the spies, government, hospitals and civilians could not have done their jobs.
Everything You See
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
From Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi to Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, this film starts during the French Revolution when the Reign of Terror saw the destruction of works by prominent female artists, and flits back and fourth between different time periods to focus on the systematic erasure of women from art history, such as the misattribution of female-authored paintings to male counterparts and the destruction of some of the most iconic pieces of art world the world has ever seen.
Pat
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Pat Moss was a legendary British Mortosport pioneer and one of the most successful rally car drivers of all time. The younger sister of Formula 1 icon Stirling Moss, she made history by standing toe-to-toe with the world's best male drivers and securing major outright international rally ictories. She won the grueling, multi-day Liège-Rome-Liège in 1960 driving a heavy Austin-Healey 3000, and claimed victory at the 1962 Tulip Rally in a Mini. She also won the European Ladies' Rally Champion five times, being crowned the champion in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, and 1965. She was the first woman to break the top ten in several major endurance rallies, including the Alpine Rally, the RAC Rally, and the East African Safari, yet her legacy remains largely unexplored.
William Brown
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
‘William Brown’ was a Black woman who joined the Royal Navy under a man’s name in the early nineteenth century. Her actual name is unknown but she is regarded as the first female to serve in the Royal Navy. She served on the Queen Charlotte disguised as a man and worked her way up from low rank and served as a seaman in the Royal Navy for upwards of eleven years, several of which she served as the captain of the fore-top, highly to the satisfaction of the officers. She signed up after a quarrel with her husbander and left him in the Caribbean.
Angel of Prisons
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Elizabeth Fry was a pioneering English Quaker, philanthropist, and major social reformer who revolutionised the British prison system. She is best known for fighting for the humane treatment, education, and rehabilitation of female inmates. After visiting London's Newgate Prison in 1813, she was horrified by the filthy, overcrowded, and dangerous conditions in which women and their children were kept. She established the first prison school for the children of inmates and provided materials for women to knit and sew, helping them make goods to sell so they could support themselves. After successfully fighting to have female prisoners separated from male inmates and supervised exclusively by female guards, Fry's tireless campaigning directly influenced the 1823 Gaols Act, which mandated the separation of sexes and the provision of female warders for women. She went on to improve conditions on prison ships transporting convicts to Australia, providing inmates with parcels of useful supplies to help them survive the journey.
Runner 261
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Katherine Switzer was the first ever woman to run a marathon. In 1967 at the Boston marathon, she managed to get herself on the running ballot, convinced that women were perfectly capable of endurance running, and ran alongside her husband. Despite multiple officials trying to pull her off the running track, she made it to the end. Switzer later won the 1974 New York City Marathon and campaigned extensively for women's distance running. She was highly influential in successfully lobbying to get the women’s marathon added to the Olympic Games. She also founded 261 fearless, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering women through running.
WASPS
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
The WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) were a civilian organization of nearly 1,100 trained female pilots who flew military aircraft for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. These pilots underwent strict military training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, logging over 60 million flight miles and flying almost every aircraft in the Army Air Force inventory. Despite taking the same risks as male military personnel, with 38 WASPs loosing their lives in the line of duty, the WASP were disbanded in late 1944 and denied official military status. This meant families received no military burial benefits for those who died. It wasn't until 1977 that they were granted veteran status, and in 2009, the group was collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Woodhull for President
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
The first woman to run for president and the first female stock broker on Wall Street, Victoria Woodhull achieved remarkable success in finance, journalism, and politics. A spiritualist, suffragist, and free love advocate, Woodhull was an iconoclast who fought for her beliefs no matter how controversial they were at the time. Her presidential campaign was not taken seriously by much of the public. Further, Woodhull’s political reputation was declining: her radical views supporting free love, communism, and spiritualism alienated many and suffrage leaders distanced themselves from her with the worry her views were too wild- even for them!
Jumping Over the Moon
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Alice Coachman was a pioneering American track and field athlete. She made global history at the 1948 London Olympic Games by becoming the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal. Overcoming poverty and strict racial segregation in the American Jim Crow South, Coachman taught herself to jump using sticks, rags, and ropes, and practiced by running barefoot on dirt roads. She also became the first African American female athlete to earn an international corporate endorsement when she was signed by Coca-Cola in 1952
Maverick
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, also known as ‘Christine Granville’, was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. She became celebrated for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. Known as Churchill’s “favourite spy’ She was the first female agent of the British to serve in the field and the longest-serving of all Britain's wartime women agents. Her resourcefulness and success have been credited with influencing the organisation's decision to recruit more women as agents in Nazi-occupied countries, including faking tuberculosis to survive the Gestapo.
Nawal
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
Nawal El Saadawi was an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician. She wrote numerous books on the subject of women in Islam, focusing on the concerns of women in the Global South pertaining to sexuality, patriarchy, social class, and colonialism. Many films told about feminism are done so through the lens of white intersectional feminism- the story of Nawal’s life challenges this status quo and offers up a different kind of hero.
Pleasant
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
After the success of Netflix’s Madam CJ Walker’s show, it felt only right to highlight the life of Mary Ellen Pleasant. She was a pioneering American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, preceding Madam C. J. Walker by decades. Operating during the California Gold Rush, she built a massive fortune in San Francisco through real estate and shrewd investments while secretly funding the Underground Railroad. Often called the "Mother of California’s Civil Rights Movement," she successfully sued San Francisco streetcar companies in the 1860s and 1870s after being denied service, setting early legal precedents against segregation on public transit.
Susan Salter
Based on a True Story
Feature Film- 115 min running time
In 1887 a group of men decided to play a prank on a local woman by nominating her for Mayor in order to ridicule her, but she won the election. From 1887 to 1888, she was mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman to serve in that role in the United States and one of the earliest in any U.S. political office. What began as a prank to teach some politically-minded ladies a lesson ended with the first female elected to public office in the history of the United States. Salter only served one term as mayor of Argonia. Though it turned out to be a fairly uneventful term, it began a ripple effect throughout the country. In the next year 5 more towns would not only go on to elect female mayors but entire city councils made up of women. And the landscape for SheHeroes in politics would forever be changed.
Something Happy
117 min running time
After her parents rocky divorce, nineteen-year-old Maya Adams and her seventeen-year-old sister, Anna, move from the UK back to their fathers family home in Massachusetts. After answering an ad at the local store for a job as a cleaner, when Maya turns up at her supposed employers house, she is confronted by a disgruntled middle-aged Henry Cavanar. As time goes on Maya discovers Henry has been keeping a dark secret that has been eating away at him. As the pair form an unbreakable bond, Maya has to make a difficult decision about moving to New York, but when she returns after a trial weekend away, she makes a discovery that alters her life forever and sees her having to walk a path Henry could not.
The Night of Epiphany
115 min running time
1505, Yorkshire, England.
Mary and Elizabeth, two medieval nuns devoted to religious life at the abbey, fall in love after Mary is placed there for the Christmas period in order to help with a mission. As their secret love affair blossoms they struggle to hide their affections as the night of Epiphany - know in Christian England as the Twelfth Night of Christmas which traditionally marked the end of the 12 days of Christmas, quickly approaches. The two women surrender to each other and whatever fait awaits them.
A Diamond of the First Water
115 min running time
Lady Charlotte Willet, the wayward daughter of polite British society and the only child of Lord Sedham, is of marrying age. But much to her mothers’ resentment, she remains unmatched after her third season out in society. Charlottes mother offers her an ultimaatum- marry by the end of this season- or be married off against her will to someone of her parents choosing. Just when Charlotte thinks all hope is lost, she collides with the handsome Captain Beckford.
What appears at first to be a classic regency love story turns wild when.
Sunflowers and Parsnips
120 min running time
Wes Anderson style feature film about a family who, after emigrating from New Zealand to Cornwall with nine children, move to a farm with their old orange van. The only thing they can afford to grow after their father chokes on a wishbone and dies, are sunflowers and parsnips. With their financial future uncertain and their arrival in the community creating tectonic shifts the children secretly make a plan to help their mother survive: they are going to grow the biggest parsnip in England and win the money from the Guinness book of world records.
Swipe Right
115 min running time
Bree, 33, is the most judgmental woman in London. But after an embarrassing incident, her friends hold an intervention. Bree rebels, but her girlfriends retaliate by setting her a challenge she can!t resist. If she!s not shallow, then she won!t mind going on date with every man on a dating app that likes her profile for the next month. One date per night, a different man every night. Can Bree challenge her limitations enough to see past just looks and riches— and perhaps even find the one?
In a generation that can pass by true love at the swipe of a hand, have we become so caught up in appearances, we!ve lost sight of what really matters?
The Last Train to Richmond
115 min running time
After the trains are cancelled on the District line, handsome surgeon Charlie and live-in nanny Poppy are left stranded in central London and both accidentally climb into the same cab. After realising they are heading to the same area they, decide (resentfully) to ride together. However, they soon discover they are due to attend the same birthday party that night. From that moment onwards, they seemingly can!t escape bumping into one another.
Set in the London area of Richmond Upon Thames, this heartfelt romantic comedy blends the sentimental with community-focused narratives, set against the most picturesque of backdrops.
Women-led True Stories:
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FEATURE FILMS
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TU You You
Tu Youyou is a groundbreaking Chinese pharmaceutical chemist who discovered artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu), a life-saving malaria treatment. Her innovative extraction method blending ancient Chinese texts with modern science has saved millions of lives across the globe and earned her the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Tu also famously and courageously volunteered to be the first human subject to consume the drug, proving it safe before it was given to patients.
Fairy or Foe
115 min running time
This comedy carries an important message for children about team work and the environment. When a climate change driven storm wreaks havoc on an English field, known as ‘Homefield” to two fairy courts, the two fairy communities who had previously lived at one end of the field each harmoniously have to battle it out in order to regain the territory that’s still safe, between pranks and plunders- can these two communities work together to save Homefield?
The Unimaginable for the Bonefontes
120 min running time
A wealthy and eccentric British family are thrown into disarray after being cursed by a local mystic who they chucked off their land. As chaos unfolds, and family secrets come to light, they must find the witch, pay their karmic debts and lift the curse before it’s too late.