Female Protagonists

Anne of Avonlea: The Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables
Anne leaves Green Gables and Gilbert Blythe's proposal of marriage for a teaching position. When she returns, she finds Gilbert ill with scarlet fever and is forced to re-evaluate her true feelings for him. Starring Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst.

Anne of Green Gables
Follows the life of Anne Shirley, a spirited orphan with a vivid imagination, from her struggles as an adolescent to her triumphs as a young woman. Starring Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst.

Anne of the Thousand Days
Based on the play by Maxwell Anderson.

Annie
Little Orphan Annie's week with a billionaire stretches into many weeks in the New York City of the 1930s.

Arabian Nights
The tale follows the adventures of a slave girl as she rises to power over a great city. Around her revolve the stories of magic and lust, mystery and fantasy that derive from three cultures (Persia, Egypt and India) and range from the ninth century to the Renaissance.

Beyond Rangoon
Laura leaves the US after the murder of her husband and child only to become separated from her traveling companions in Burma. She is trapped in a government crackdown on democratic movements, but finds new life in helping others. Starring Patricia Arquette.

84 Charing Cross Road
Helen Hanff, a vivacious New York writer with a passion for literature, writes to a London bookstore in search of rare English classics. Frank Doel, a good-natured, reserved Englishman, answers her request--thus beginning an extraordinary relationship that spans two continents and two decades.

Cinderella
Cinderella comes to life in this enchanting version of the most beloved fairy tale.

The Color Purple
An uneducated woman living in the rural American south who was raped by her father, deprived of the children she bore him and forced to marry a brutal man she calls "Mister" is transformed by the friendship of two remarkable women, acquiring self-worth and the strength to forgive. Starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Contact
Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway (Foster) receives an encrypted message, apparently from a solar system many light-years away. Starring Jodie Foster and Angela Bassett.

Desperately Seeking Susan
Susan is an elusive and oddly engaging renegade on the lam from a host of enemies and admirers. She and her boyfriend communicate through a series of personal ads, until their public pronouncements of love unexpectedly spark the attention of others. Roberta is a bored suburban housewife who is at first intrigued by and then strangely obsessed with Susan. In a last-ditch effort to add passion and intrigue to her own hum-drum life, she resolves to trail Susan to learn more about her strange and nomadic existence. But when Roberta is unexpectedly hit on the head, she begins to believe that she actually is Susan, unraveling an adventure of mistaken identity.

Double Happiness
East clashed with West and generations collide in this comedy about a young Chinese woman struggling to appease her old-fashioned father, and at the same time pursue her modern dreams.

Emma
The story of a rich, clever, and beautiful young woman who can't resist orchestrating other people's love lives. Based on the novel by Jane Austen.

Europa, Europa
The true story of a Jewish teenager who survived World War II by living as a Nazi for 7 years and through 3 countries.

Fargo
A midwestern policewoman investigates a series of brutal and interconnected crimes. Steadily, she tightens the net on the killers and their accomplices in a kidnapping scheme gone wildly wrong.

Flirting
A kindred spirit, and the only black student at a girls boarding school is recognized by a boy having trouble fitting in at a posh all-boys school across the lake, and the flirtation begins. Starring Nicole Kidman.

Frida

Grace of My Heart
A fifteen-year journey that follows songwriting sensation Denise Waverly, who struggles to escape the shadow of pop-music icons and emerge a singer in her own right. In crafting the hits the whole world sings, Denise draws on her relationships with the men in her life: a brilliant but self-destructive composer, and her songwriting partner.

Henry and June
Sensual June, her husband, anunconventional American author named Henry Miller, and a young Parisian writer, Anais Nin, forge an unforgettable journey into the uncharted territory of human relationhips.

Jane Eyre
A dramatization of the Charlotte Bronte classic about a lonely orphan who learns to survive by relying on her independence and intelligence. As a grown woman she obtains a position as governess to the daughter of the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Just as she is about to win the happiness with him that she has long deserved, a dark secret comes to light.

Major Barbara
The story of the daughter of an armaments millionaire who joins the Salvation Army but later joins her new husband in his business when she realizes that his factory will enable her to save more souls than her charity work. The factory also will serve as an avenue for more money for the Salvation Army.

Mississippi Mermaid
The mail-order bride is a mystery. Her appearance doesn't match the photo she sent, her likes and dislikes aren't those described in her letters. By the time her identity is discovered by the lonely businessman husband, it is too late and her life is in danger.

Much Ado About Nothing
A dramatization of William Shakespeare's play of a romantic comedy of love involving an innocent heroine who is denounced for unchastity by her intended bridegroom.

Northanger Abbey
In 18th century Bath, a girl bursting with freshness and passion for macabre Gothic novels experiences intrigue, adventure, and romance, espeically when she is invited to romantic Henry Tilney's ancestral home.

The Pelican Brief
Two Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. One lone law student has stumbled upon the truth. An investigative journalist wants her story. Everyone else wants her dead. Starring Julia Roberts.

The Piano
A young mute woman and her child travel to Australia in the 1800s for an arranged marriage to a farmer there. After the marriage she meets another man, and the competition for her love begins. Only one of the men realizes that her affections can only be won through her beloved piano.

Ruby in Paradise
Ruby Lee Gissing, having left the mountains of Tennessee, arrives in Panama City Beach, Florida, where she begins her journey to find herself and create a life that's right for who she is, not one based on what everyone else wants her to be. Adventure, excitement, love--and trouble--are all waiting for her. Starring Ashley Judd.

The Sleeping Beauty: A Ballet
An adaptation of the fairy tale about the beautiful princess who falls asleep after pricking her finger, and remains asleep until she is awakened by the kiss of a prince.

The Story of Qiuju (Ch`iu-Chu Ta Kuan Ssu)
The story of a village woman who goes to great lengths to sue the village chief who beats her husband in a dispute over land rights.

The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy, her dog Toto, and three friends set off for the mysterious Emerald City in search of the Wizard. Although pursued by the Wicked Witch of the West, they finally reach the Emerald City and receive an audience with the Wizard. Starring Judy Garland and Margaret Hamilton.