“Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” the 1985 pop hit, would be an appropriately militant theme song for the new edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. This year’s focus is on women’s rights around the globe, and more than half the 18 features in the festival, which opens Friday and is being presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, are directed by women, alone or with co-directors.
Both the opening- and closing-night selections are portraits of fiercely determined female activists “standin’ on their own two feet/and ringin’ on their own bells” (to quote the lyrics), risking their safety to advance women’s rights in repressive political climates.

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