The Best Female Director Movies and TV Shows on Free Services

What it's about: Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Six months after the events depicted in The Matrix, Neo has proved to be a good omen for the free humans, as more and more humans are being freed from the matrix and brought to Zion, the one and only stronghold of the Resistance. Neo himself has discovered his superpowers including super speed, ability to see the codes of the things inside the matrix and a certain degree of pre-cognition. But a nasty piece of news hits the human resistance: 250,000 machine sentinels are digging to Zion and would reach them in 72 hours. As Zion prepares for the ultimate war, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are advised by the Oracle to find the Keymaker who would help them reach the Source. Meanwhile Neo's recurrent dreams depicting Trinity's death have got him worried and as if it was not enough, Agent Smith has somehow escaped deletion, has become more powerful than before and has fixed Neo as his next target.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: An emotionally scarred highway drifter shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her, and ultimately becomes America's first female serial killer.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV, Vudu & 1 other), stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle & IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV, Vudu & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: After leaving her daughter Jessica in a small town in Pernambuco to be raised by relatives, Val spends the next 13 years working as a nanny to Fabinho in São Paulo. She has financial stability but has to live with the guilt of having not raised Jessica herself. As Fabinho’s university entrance exams approach, Jessica reappears in her life and seems to want to give her mother a second chance. However Jessica has not been raised to be a servant and her very existence will turn Val’s routine on its head. With precision and humour, Anna Muylaert turns her eye on the subtle and powerful forces that keep rigid class structures in place and how the youth may just be the ones to shake it all up.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and neglected. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Julia Child and Julie Powell – both of whom wrote memoirs – find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 6 others).

What it's about: Filmmaker Sarah Polley interviews members of her family as they look back on decades-old events.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Tribeca Short List), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & IMDb TV), stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: Chris is the top brain who just wants to party, Mitch is the 15-year-old college wiz kid. Supposedly hard at work on a lab project with a mysterious deadline, they still find time to use their genius to discover new ways to have fun.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Two women, one from the United States and one from the United Kingdom, swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. Each woman finds romance with a local man but realizes that the imminent return home may end the relationship.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes the boy on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 5 others).

What it's about: A semi-fictionalized documentary about a day in the life of Australian musician Nick Cave's persona.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Cinefest, Qello Concerts & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shout Factory TV & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: A paedophile returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV) & stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now & Kanopy).

What it's about: Angelique, a young student, is in love with a married doctor. We see her attempts to make him leave his pregnant wife, but he does not appear for meetings or finally the booked journey to Florence. Then the movie is turned back to the beginning, and the view changes: We are now following the view of the doctor instead of Angeliques. And things look quite different now...

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Based on the experiences of Nebraska cop Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) who discovers a deadly sex trafficking ring while serving as a U.N. peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Risking her own life to save the lives of others, she uncovers an international conspiracy that is determined to stop her, no matter the cost.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Showtime & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime & Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Alex, an intersexed 15-year-old, is living as a girl, but she and her family begin to wonder whether she's emotionally a boy when another teenager's sexual advances bring the issue to a head. As Alex faces a final decision regarding her gender, she meets both hostility and compassion.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Kanopy & Realeyz).

What it's about: Elle Marja, 14, is a reindeer-breeding Sami girl. Exposed to the racism of the 1930s and phrenological examinations at her boarding school, she starts dreaming of another life. To achieve this other life she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu, Fandor & 2 others) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: James is a new speech teacher at a school for the deaf. He falls for Sarah, a pupil who decided to stay on at the school rather than venture into the big bad world. She shuns him at first, refusing to read his lips and only using signs. Will her feelings change over time?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Dr. Louis Creed's family moves into the country house of their dreams and discover a pet cemetery at the back of their property. The cursed burial ground deep in the woods brings the dead back to life -- with "minor" problems. At first, only the family's cat makes the return trip, but an accident forces a heartbroken father to contemplate the unthinkable.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (CBS All Access), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true; two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms, Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Daring Docs, Fear Factory & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 3 others).

What it's about: Víctor receives an unusual proposal, to carry 7 boxes of unknown content through the Market Number 4 but things get complicated along the way.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Some 200 women defiantly cling to their ancestral homeland in Chernobyl’s radioactive “Exclusion Zone.”

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Adam Goldberg delivers "an uproarious study in transatlantic culture panic" as Jack, an anxious, hypochondriac-prone New Yorker vacationing throughout Europe with his breezy, free-spirited Parisian girlfriend, Marion. But when they make a two-day stop in Marion's hometown, the couple's romantic trip takes a turn as Jack is exposed to Marion's sexually perverse and emotionally unstable family.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & PlayStation Store).

What it's about: The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and ultimately the fall of Versailles.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle & IMDb TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: "Which Way Home" is a feature documentary film that follows unaccompanied child migrants, on their journey through Mexico, as they try to reach the United States.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO & Docurama), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: In the fall of 1963, Eddie Birdlace is an 18-year-old Marine Corps volunteer who is about to ship out with three of his buddies for a tour of duty in Viet Nam. Planning a massive blowout for their last night in San Francisco, Eddie, his buddies, and a number of other Marines set up a contest they call a "dogfight."

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A homeless musician finds meaning to his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Documents the true story of the final weeks of rehearsal for the Young at Heart Chorus in Northampton, MA and many of whom must overcome health adversities to participate. Their music going against the stereotype of their age group. Although they have toured Europe and sang for royalty, this account focuses on preparing new songs for a concert in their home town.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, two rebellious teenagers from Southern California, become the frontwomen for the Runaways -- the now-legendary group that paved the way for future generations of female rockers. Under the Svengali-like influence of impresario Kim Fowley, the band becomes a huge success.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle), stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Follows three young, committed Public Defenders who are dedicated to working for the people society would rather forget. Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: For Shirin, being part of a perfect Persian family isn't easy. Acceptance eludes her from all sides: her family doesn't know she's bisexual, and her ex-girlfriend, Maxine, can't understand why she doesn't tell them. Even the six-year-old boys in her moviemaking class are too ADD to focus on her for more than a second. Following a family announcement of her brother's betrothal to a parentally approved Iranian prize catch, Shirin embarks on a private rebellion involving a series of bisexual escapades, while trying to decipher what went wrong with Maxine.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Realeyz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, PlayStation Store & FandangoNOW).

What it's about: Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (Shout Factory TV & The Criterion Channel), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).