The Hour of Liberation
With The Hour of Liberation, Lebanese director Heiny Srour (b. 1945) became the first Arab female filmmaker to see her film screened in competition at Cannes. Centering the feminist guerrilla movement of the Dhofar Rebellion in Oman, Srour and her small crew trekked deep within the conflict to record the emancipatory People’s Liberation Army, producing a powerful record of a war and the sweeping social reforms that resulted from the uprising. Always outspoken about improving women’s place in Arab society, Srour’s empowering documentary fearlessly embodies female liberation both in front of and behind the camera.

Sambizanga
Born in rural France to parents of West Indian and French descent, Sarah Maldoror (1929–2020), like Varda, was 90 when she passed. After working as assistant director on The Battle of Algiers (1966), Maldoror would imbue the same radical spirit as Pontecorvo’s film in her adaptation of José Luandino Vieira’s novella about the events preceding the armed struggle against Portuguese rule in Angola as told through the eyes of Maria, a dock worker’s wife who travels on foot to beg for her husband’s release after his labor organizing efforts lead to his arrest.