Zeitgeist Films; video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

You like the internet? Thank Hedy Lamarr: inventor, visionary, sex symbol. Lamarr's story is suffused with transformation and survival; inspiration; invention and reinvention again. The forebear of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Lamarr was the Jewish-born wife of a businessman with Nazi ties. Her dramatic escape from the regime led to a second life on the silver screen, where Lamarr was judged by her beauty rather than her cutting intellect. 

In this 2017 Documentary, Lamarr comes to life as a whole person, with thoughts and dreams. Refreshingly unabashed in her groundbreaking role as a contributor to technology and science, Lamarr, in her own words, reveals herself as an innovator who knew her worth.

--Jessica Dolcourt

Hulu

This historical miniseries has a stacked cast, including Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne and Sarah Paulson. Blanchett plays Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist who caused unexpected backlash to the political movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Prominent feminists of the '70s pop up, like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. For a vivid look at history through powerhouse performances, Mrs. America is tremendous. 

--Jennifer Bisset

Disney Plus

For a  true, uplifting story, Hidden Figures ticks all the boxes. The Oscar-nominated biopic follows the Black female mathematicians who were instrumental in helping NASA during the space race. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson are the names that hopefully you'll remember after watching, and the three women are brought to life by the unwaveringly excellent performances of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe.

--Jennifer Bisset

Amazon

When I joined my first newsroom in the early 1990s, I had no idea how far women journalists had come in such a short period of time. Then I watched Good Girls Revolt. The single-season series is based on the true story of the young women who worked in the Newsweek newsroom in the late 1960s and faced utterly ridiculous sexism. They worked their butts off as researchers – i.e., male reporters' assistants -- yet were never allowed to become reporters or get bylines. They were also paid substantially less than their male counterparts.  

This Amazon Original series isn't completely serious, though. I delighted in the fashion, hair, morality and revolutionary feel of the time. And I cringed at the women's (often poor) choices in romantic and sexual partners. I also sent Amazon an incredulous note when this series was canceled after one season. If you give Good Girls Revolt a try, you'll understand why. 

--Natalie Weinstein

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

In 1980, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda starred in a comedy about three working women who kidnap their sexist, egotistical boss (Dabney Coleman) and then run the company's division -- to great success -- by pretending all the decisions and new initiatives (an onsite daycare center) were his. There's more to it than that, but the trio made an important point at the time about how many women working office jobs were underpaid, overlooked and treated badly by misogynistic bosses. 

It's in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Funniest Amerian Movies of all time. Forty years later, Parton, Fonda, Tomlin and Coleman reunited for the documentary Still Working 9 to 5, which will premiere at SXSW on March 13. The documentary looks at gender challenges in the workplace and the role the movie played in bringing some of the issues to light.

--Connie Guglielmo 

Netflix

You have to have pretty thick skin to be an activist in the public eye. But lawyer Gloria Allred has championed women's rights for decades, seeming completely immune to the childish taunts thrown her way. This 2018 documentary is an utterly fascinating look at the life and motivations of one of America's best-known attorneys.

--Rebecca Fleenor 

Disney

A soaring feel-good movie from 2016 about a young woman who achieves greatness. The best part? Queen of Katwe is based on a true story about the first titled female chess player in Ugandan chess history. Life in the Katwe slum is a constant struggle, but when Phiona Mutesi discovers her talent for chess, she starts believing she can do bigger and greater things. Starring Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo, Queen of Katwe is a winning checkmate.

--Jennifer Bisset

BBC

I've often had romantic notions of writers of yore meandering through their days, dreaming of their next story while sipping tea and taking walks through their estates. To watch this 2016 film and learn the brutal reality the Bronte sisters faced is a true wakeup call. 

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte struggled in ways I cannot fathom. They were poor and isolated. Their alcoholic brother drained their family financially and emotionally. And they faced a publishing world that had zero interest in women authors. Yet they wrote and published (under male pseudonyms) some of the greatest works of English literature: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This film is simultaneously haunting and inspiring. 

--Natalie Weinstein

Magnolia Pictures

In the last decade of her life, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg achieved a status her colleagues hadn't: She became a pop culture icon, aka the Notorious RBG. As the 2018 documentary RBG makes clear, it was largely because of her pointed dissents defending everything from reproductive rights to pay equity to voting rights. But long before she sat on the nation's highest court, she was fighting for gender equality. In the movie, Gloria Steinem describes her as "the closest thing to a superhero I know." 

The film features interviews with Ginsburg, her children, granddaughter, friends, former colleagues and even a few politicians -- those who agreed with her decisions and those who didn't. It also makes good use of audio from the cases she argued in front of the Supreme Court (she won five out of six). 

One of those cases is dramatized in the enjoyable but mostly forgettable On the Basis of Sex, which stars Felicity Jones as Ginsburg and includes a powerful cameo by the Notorious RBG at the end. (It's the movie's best scene.) Pass the tissues, please. 

--Anne Dujmovic 

Magnolia Pictures; video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

After the wonderful documentary The Wolfpack, director Crystal Moselle wrote and directed this story about a group of female skaters based in New York who called themselves Skate Kitchen. Most of the cast in this 2018 drama are nonprofessional actors playing a fictionalized version of themselves. Honest and delicate, Skate Kitchen is a beautiful portrayal of teenage girls taking over spaces that too often seem to be reserved for boys. 

--Marta Franco 

Hulu

I Am Greta chronicles the remarkable story of teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg. The 2020 documentary is an intimate look at Thunberg's one-person school strike for climate action outside the Swedish parliament. We also see a little of her life as a shy student with Asperger's. The rare footage is in the sure hands of Swedish director Nathan Grossman, following one young woman's galvanizing impact from Sweden to the rest of the world.

--Jennifer Bisset

Sky Atlantic

I Hate Suzie is a show that says something that hasn't been said on screen before. Writer Lucy Prebble manages to discuss female identity through low-key lines delivered by her flawed and lost yet powerhouse women. "I feel like my whole life I've just seen everything from other people's points of view and I've never asked myself like, 'What do I want?'" 

The titular Suzie, played by Billie Piper with a weird, skittish energy, experiences trauma after life-upending pictures on her hacked phone are leaked. Even though the character is a celebrity actress, she's relatable, vulnerable and unpredictable. It's probably too much to say this is a modern Odyssey, but thanks to the frenetic, almost frenzied filmmaking, by the end it feels like you've experienced something big. 

--Jennifer Bisset

Hollywood Pictures

As someone with immigrant parents, I connected deeply with this 1993 film (and the Amy Tan novel it was based on). But the beautiful, complicated relationships between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters can resonate with anyone struggling to navigate complex bonds with people who may have different backgrounds and life experiences. 

The film explores the importance of tradition and the power of love to connect people regardless of challenges or differences. It also speaks to the resilience of women to overcome immense difficulties, no matter their background.

--Abrar Al-Heeti

Music Box Films; video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

Mary Dore's 2014 documentary looks back at the sec