Women's Voices For Change

The streaming services have also provided opportunities for writers, directors, and actors who are often overlooked by mainstream Hollywood. Several of Netflix's current offerings are by, for, and with women.

'The Chaperone' is a story about a woman who is changing alongside a changing country, making discoveries about herself in late middle age.

"Great Performances: Julius Caesar" on PBS features an all-female cast and is set in a contemporary women's prison. Immediate and relevant, passionate and bold, but hardly what Shakespeare might have imagined.

Women all over the world are changing history for themselves, their peers, and future generations in sometimes small and quiet ways. Two of these less glamorous but equally inspiring stories have been made into compelling short films.

This year's Academy Awards took steps to reinvent itself, recognizing that viewing habits are changing and that Hollywood needs to represent more of America — more women, more blacks, Latinos, Asians, and immigrants — in the films and filmmakers it honors.

Calling it a "good film" seems incongruous, given the tragic subject matter. But other words come to mind: wondrous, stunning, strangely and irrationally beautiful.

"Egg" is a film that will likely be appreciated by women more than men. (Not that the reverse ever stopped Hollywood from making a movie.)

In recent years, exploitive movies have featured female victims who turn the table on their attackers. With graphic and violent rape scenes precursing any acts of vengeance, these often feel more like male fantasies than tales of true female empowerment. 'Rust Creek' is different.