Laura Poitras

The win was rare and certainly unexpected: Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed walked away with the top honor of the 79th Venice Film Festival. Only one documentary won Mostra's highest award before, Gianfranco Rosi’s Sacro Gra in 2013.

(First of a two-part series on the women filmmakers in the 79th Venice International Film Festival) Filmmaking is such a competitive field that we herald the women who share their cinematic vision without any excuses and qualms. These are women who we boldly call “film daredevils” as they juggle homemaking, motherhood, marriage, relationships, and social expectations and still march on and shine in the time-demanding task or labor of love called “filmmaking.