“Death”. The biggest subject in life, the most universal subject—no wonder that Japan’s Kinuyo Tanaka, Canada’s Caroline Leaf, Spain’s Ana Mariscal, Holland’s Paula Van der Oest, and other great filmmakers in this chapter embrace it.

“Endings”. We begin to end our epic road movie with films from Sonja Heiss, Larisa Shepitko, Ida Lupino, Lizzie Borden, Claire Denis, and Maya Deren.

“Song and Dance”. End with a song, they say, so our story does. Huang Shuqin, Vera Stroyeva, Margaret Tait, Alice Guy-Blaché, Edith Carlmar, Céline Sciamma, Gilda de Abreu, Joan Micklin Silver, Shirley Clarke, Dorothy Arzner, and Beyonce make music with their films. We conclude our story, our road movie, and end in an unexpected place...