Two masterful documentaries about disenfranchised women are among the highlights of the 11th Annual Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema, which opens tonight, April 3, with Jane Anderson’s Normal (7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre; it’ll be followed at 10 by the opening-night gala) and runs through Sunday at the Brattle Theatre and the Coolidge Corner. One of the most ambitious festivals on the local circuit, this year’s BIFWC boasts one of its best line-ups in years, offering documentaries and features that give voice to marginalized women with an eloquence and a truthfulness rarely seen even in mainstream independent films.

In What I Want My Words To Do for You (2002; April 6 at 1:45 p.m. at the Brattle, with the filmmakers present), Madeleine Gavin, Judith Katz, and Gary Sunshine go inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum-security prison in New York. Playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) teaches writing workshops at the prison, and the film offers an extraordinary look at this process, part group therapy, part empowerment workshop. Like a nurturing teacher and psychologist, Ensler encourages the women to write honestly about their crimes; this produces eloquent and searing testimony to pain and, for some, redemption. The crimes include murder and manslaughter, but a disturbing number of women are also doing hard time for lesser infractions like armed robbery and drug possession. Pamela Smart is a portrait in self-loathing and vulnerability that belies the media presentation of her as calculating femme fatale. Former Weather Underground member Judy Clark is articulate and maternal; her fellow revolutionary Kathy Boudin writes poetry that’s so soul-searching, it reduces inmates to tears

Crisply edited, the film culminates in a reading of the workshop writings by actresses Mary Alice, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei and Rosie Perez. As the camera pans over the faces of the authors during the reading, What I Want My Words To Do for You becomes a heart-wrenching indictment of the prison system and a moving reminder of the power of words to confront and to heal.

In Jennifer Dworkin’s Love and Diane (2002; April 4 at 7 p.m. and April 6 at 1 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre), Diane, the mother of six and a former drug addict, tries to rebuild her life through a job-training program and by reconnecting with her eldest daughter, Love, who grew up in foster homes and now, with a baby son of her own, seems destined to repeat her mother’s mistakes. In one of many poignant moments, Diane asks Love who’s responsible for her being HIV-positive and for her losing her son to the foster-care system. " Who did it, Love? " Diane asks, again and again. She’s met with Love’s defiant silence. Diane becomes pleading and provocative; finally, Love answers, " You did! " The moment packs an emotional wallop; Diane seems to have pushed Love into confronting both their demons. Dworkin, who will attend the festival, spent five years tracking her subjects, and the intimacy she gets on camera is riveting. Love and Diane shatters stereotypes about the welfare cycle, and it emerges as one of the most honest and surprising mother/daughter films ever.

Of the seven feature films in the festival, two present the kind of marginal, solitary, flawed female characters that are still rare in cinema. Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar (2002; April 4 at 5:15 p.m. and April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre) is her follow-up to the well-received Ratcatcher. Samantha Morton — who starred in 1997 British TV versions of Emma (as Harriet) and Jane Eyre (as Jane) and was Iris in Carine Adler’s exquisite Under the Skin (part of the 1998 BIFWC) — plays the title character, whose life takes a literal and figurative journey following the suicide of her boyfriend. Morvern travels from Scotland to Spain to an inventive score that ranges from the Mamas and the Papas to techno rock. Ramsay, who is currently directing the screen version of Alice Seybold’s novel The Lovely Bones, creates an affecting, complex character in the disconnected Morvern, who can’t even bring herself to tell her best friend about the suicide. Part road movie, part emotional journey, part female-buddy film, Morvern Callar should vault Ramsay into the upper echelon of young indie directors.

Another distinctive new talent is Wiebke von Carolsfeld, director of the understated Canadian film Marion Bridge (2002; April 4 at 3:15 and April 6 at 5:50 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre), which stars Molly Parker, a veteran of two other BIFWC films, Lynne Stopkewich’s Kissed and Suspicious River. Like Morvern, Parker’s Agnes embarks on a journey that isn’t clear even to herself as she returns to Nova Scotia from Toronto to help her two sisters care for their dying mother. Winner of the Best First Feature award at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, Marion Bridge is on the surface a female-bonding mother/daughter film, but it escapes cliché and defies easy categorization. As the newly sober Agnes, who’s trying to come to terms with a traumatic past, a present tinged with denial, and an uncertain future, Parker is luminous, unsettling, and ultimately triumphant.

New Zealander Niki Caro’s second feature, Whale Rider (2002; April 6 at 7:55 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre), is an accomplished mix of myth, family drama and feel-good movie. Young Keisha Castle-Hughes suggests Jennifer Beals as a child, and she delivers a magnetic performance as the unwanted girl in a family of traditional Maori. Pai, who’s been named for a Maori ancestor, is smart and spirited, but her grandfather wants a boy to inherit the mantle of tribal leader. Alternately a portrait of a dying culture and an uplifting celebration of girl power, Caro’s film combines crowd-pleasing elements with serious questions about tradition, destiny, and family expectations.

In a thoughtful nod to an older, established director, the BIFWC will host Italian director Liliana Cavani and her new Ripley’s Game (2002; April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Brattle). Best known for her controversial, cultish The Night Porter (1973; April 6 at 3:15 p.m. at the Brattle), which confirmed Charlotte Rampling as an international star, Cavani has based this one on the Patricia Highsmith novel (it was previously made by German director Wim Wenders as Der amerikanische Freund/The American Friend); the cast includes John Malkovich (as Tom Ripley), Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, and Lena Headey.

An icon of sorts in the making can be seen in the timely film version of Reno’s one-woman show at New York City’s La MaMa café. Reno: Rebel Without a Pause (2002; April 4 at 10 p.m. and April 6 at 9:45 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner, with Reno present April 6) presents this one-of-a-kind comic’s pointed reflections on September 11 in a feminist-laced political monologue. Directed by Nancy Savoca (True Love, Dogfight), the film reveals Reno to be a distinctive, alternative voice on the comedy/performance scene as her improvised monologue takes on President Bush, his hawkish cabinet, war, New Yorkers, anthrax, and all manner of modern problems with intelligence, passion, and biting wit. Reno is just one of the many honest portraits of women and a vibrant, example of the original filmmaking assembled here.