For Women’s Month, we’re turning our attention to the talents behind beloved artistic works through these five documentaries.
We know their names. We’ve read the books, listened to the records, seen the art hanging on museum walls or circulating endlessly online. But the stories behind these works are often less visible. This documentary list gathers five works centered on women writers, musicians, and visual artists whose creative lives unfold alongside the realities of motherhood, womanhood, race, and the demands of working within—and sometimes against—a patriarchal cultural landscape.
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Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019)
In this intimate portrait, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison reflects on the ideas that shaped her work: race, memory, power, and the long shadow of American history. The film moves between Morrison’s own recollections and readings from her novels, as well as interviews with longtime friends and admirers, including Hilton Als, Barack Obama, Fran Lebowitz, and Angela Davis.
Kusama: Infinity (2018)
This documentary traces the improbable rise of Yayoi Kusama, from a conservative childhood in postwar Japan to the downtown New York art scene of the 1960s. There, Kusama confronted sexism, racism, and financial precarity while developing the visual language that would later make her famous like her obsessive polka dots and the now-iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms. The film follows her decades-long struggle for recognition, culminating in global acclaim that arrived surprisingly late in life, even as she chose to live and work voluntarily from a Tokyo psychiatric hospital.
Everything Is Copy (2015)
Directed by her son Jacob Bernstein, this documentary looks back at the life and career of writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron. Beginning with her early years in journalism and moving through a Hollywood career that produced beloved romantic comedies, the film reveals how Ephron mined her own life (including relationships, heartbreaks, professional rivalries) for material.
Beyond The Visible: Hilma af Klint (2019)
This documentary brings long-overlooked Swedish painter Hilma af Klint back into the center of art history. Decades before abstraction took hold in Europe, af Klint produced vividly symbolic paintings shaped by her spiritual practice and interest in the occult. The film examines how institutional biases sidelined her legacy and sparked a broader reconsideration of modern art’s origins.
The Only Girl In The Orchestra (2023)
This short documentary centers on double bassist Orin O’Brien, who in 1966 became the first woman to join the New York Philharmonic as a full-time musician, helmed by conductor Leonard Bernstein. Directed by her niece Molly O’Brien, the film reveals a musician who resisted the spotlight despite her groundbreaking position.
