20 Films about Female Scholars

A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.

After showing how fundamental mathematics is to our lives, Marcus du Sautoy explores the mathematics of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. In Egypt, he uncovers use of a decimal system based on ten fingers of the hand, while in former Mesopotamia he discovers that the way we tell the time today is based on the Babylonian Base 60 number system. In Greece, he looks at the contributions of some of the giants of mathematics including Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras, who is credited with beginning the transformation of mathematics from a tool for counting into the analytical subject we know today.

Despite himself, accomplished physicist and avowed bachelor Pierre Curie falls for brilliant student Marie, and together they embark on the discovery of radium.

Based on Robert Reid's biography of the famed Polish scientist Marie Curie this 5-part mini-series shows essential key moments from the life of of Marie Curie: How she discovered radium and polonium and received the Nobel prize.

During WWI, the young Boudreau sisters decide to aid the war effort by catching spies. The strange activities of Nobel-Prize winning scientist Marie Curie make her a prime suspect.

This documentary series highlights the lives of extraordinary women through history. Women of different backgrounds, cultures, and industries.

After years of political agitation, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and Leo Jogiches form a revolutionary German party, the Spartacists.

In the early 1900's, Tsuruko Haraguchi traveled alone to New York City to study psychology at Columbia University. She was one of the first Japanese women to earn a doctorate in psychology, and accomplished this in only 5 years. During her time in school she met and married Takejiro Haraguchi, a future Waseda University professor. Upon returning to Japan, Haraguchi continued her work and gave lectures on a regular basis. Unfortunately she died of tuberculosis at the age of 29, but left behind a complete record of her days at Columbia which was turned into a book entitled "Happy Memories" in 1915. Haraguchi's independent spirit and willingness to follow through with her ambitions served and continues to serve as an inspiration to young women. This documentary combines Haraguchi's own words with images from the time and interviews with people that knew her.

One person was interviewed by a German television broadcaster, in the Günter Gaus celebrity, special politician.

A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for 'The New Yorker' on the trial of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Biographical film about French writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre and their relationship.

Violette Leduc, born a bastard at the beginning of last century, meets Simone de Beauvoir in the years after the war in St-Germain-des-Prés. Then begins an intense relationship between the two women that will last throughout their lives, a relationship based on the quest for freedom through writing for Violette and conviction for Simone to have in their hands the fate of an extraordinary writer.

Drama about the pioneers of the science of human sexuality whose research touched off the sexual revolution.

The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG is an intimate and nuanced investigation into the life of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century. Passionate and gracefully outspoken throughout her career, Susan Sontag became one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation. The documentary explores Sontag's life through archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, as read by Patricia Clarkson. From her early infatuation with books to her first experience in a gay bar; from her early marriage to her last lover, REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG is a fascinating look at a towering cultural critic and writer whose works on photography, war, illness, and terrorism still resonate today.

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Jane Goodall, now 75, decided to give up her career as a primatologist, as well as her private life, in order to devote all her energy to saving our endangered planet. Since then she's been spending 300 days a year scouring the globe on her mission to spread hope for future generations. She has taken on the responsibilities of a UN Messenger of Peace, and has been honored with countless awards. In Jane's Journey, we accompany her on her travels across several continents, and receive unprecedented access to her intense and exciting past. From her childhood home in Bournemouth, England, we embark to Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Tanzania, her second home. It's where she began her groundbreaking research nearly half a century ago, and she still returns every year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees that made her the internationally recognized activist so loved and deeply respected.This documentary offers an intimate portrait of the private person behind the world-famous icon, possibly the most fascinating woman of our time, whose scientific breakthroughs are considered to be among the most important of the past 100 years.

Love, science, sex, infidelity, disease and comedy, the wild, mostly true story of the irrepressible Annie Parker and the almost discovery of a cure for cancer.

A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry.