Girlfight (2000)

Plot Summary: Diana, a troubled Latina teenager from Brooklyn, decides to become a boxer, despite the scorn of both her father and men involved in the sport. When she masters the sport, she is presented with a dilemma when she must enter a bout against her boyfriend, a fellow boxer in her weight class.

Trigger/content warnings: This blog entry contains discussions of racism, suicide, domestic abuse, misgendering and fear of attacks/murder by men.

Girlfight is a sports drama film that deserves to be a classic. Released at the turn of the millennium alongside other independent films about young people mastering sports not traditionally considered appropriate for their gender (such as Billy Elliot and Bend It Like Beckham), Girlfight is an electrifying look at a girl of colour who learns to value herself and demand respect through mastering a sport. (The content under the cut contains spoilers.)

Anita and Me (2002)

Plot summary: 1972. Meena is a British Indian girl who lives with her family in the sleepy White, working-class mining village of Tollington in the Black Country. Meena meets Anita, a White fourteen-year-old whom she comes to idolise. However, a rift arises between the two girls due to Anita’s acceptance of her boyfriend’s racism toward Indians.

Trigger/content warning: This blog entry contains discussions of racist violence, racist slurs, statutory rape, internalised homophobia and fat-shaming.

Anita and Me was released within a small vogue for films about British Indians, characterised by East is East and especially Bend It Like Beckham. It was often compared unfavourably to Bend It Like Beckham, which I find unfair, considering that they’re both valuable stories, but quite different ones. (The content under the cut contains spoilers.)

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

Plot Summary: In Western Australia, 1931, children with mixed Aboriginal and White ancestry are forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated at the Moore River Native Settlement, to be trained as servants for White people. Sisters Molly and Daisy and their cousin Gracie escape the settlement. Their aim: to walk the 1500 kilometres home to Jigalong, across unforgiving terrain, pursued by the authorities.

Trigger/content warnings: This blog post includes discussions and/or mentions of forced removal of Aboriginal children, rape, racism, child abuse, sexual assault, racism and suicide. It also includes names and images of Aboriginal people who have passed away.

Rabbit-Proof Fence was a smash hit when it was released in Australia in 2002. For me, it’s one of the ultimate girl power films, and all the more powerful for having been based on true events. (The content under the cut contains spoilers.)

The Hairy Bird (1998)

Plot Summary: 1963. At Miss Godard’s, an upscale Connecticut girls’ academy, five ambitious and rebellious girls have formed a secret society, where they work to realise their most cherished dreams of what they want to be. But their group is split in two when they discover that Miss Godard’s will be merging with St Ambrose Academy, a boys’ school.

Trigger/content warnings: This blog post contains discussions of bulimia/eating disorders, racism, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

I have never met a woman or girl who didn’t enjoy The Hairy Bird (also known as Strike! in Canada and All I Wanna Do in the USA). My twenty-eight year-old sister loves it, my sixteen-year-old sister loves it (and has done since she was about six), my toddler nieces … will be booted out of the family if they don’t succumb to The Hairy Bird’s siren song as soon as they’re old enough to sit through a movie which includes the phrase, “Go snarf the big kielbasa, Mr Dewey!” (The content under the cut contains spoilers.)