Weekly Update for June 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening

I Am I — Written and Directed by Jocelyn Towne

Here’s something you don’t see much in Hollywood: a completely original premise. In her writing and directing debut, Jocelyn Towne, who also stars, presents a grief-stricken woman who pretends to be her deceased mother to her dementia-suffering father in order to get to know both her parents better. In my Los Angeles Times review, I wrote, “Towne takes an admirably novel stab at familial dysfunction in her father-daughter drama I Am I.” (Inkoo Kang)

Watch Women and Hollywood’s exclusive clip from I Am I.

The Amazing Catfish — Written and Directed by Claudia Saint-Luce

22-year-old Claudia lives alone in Guadalajara. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with signs of appendicitis. There she meets Martha, lying on the bed next to her. 46-year-old Martha has four children and an endless lust for life in spite of her illness. Moved by the lonely young woman, Martha invites Claudia to come and live with her when she leaves the hospital. At first, Claudia is bewildered by the somewhat chaotic organization of the household, but soon she finds her place in the tribe. And while Martha is getting weaker, Claudia’s bond with each member of the family gets stronger day by day. (Indiewire)

All Cheerleaders Die

Teenage outsider Maddy (Caitlin Stasey) is keeping some dark secrets and holding a serious grudge against the captain of the Blackfoot High football team. When Maddy joins the school’s elite and powerful cheerleading squad, she convinces her new friends to help inflict her revenge. After a late-night party goes awry, their plans take an unexpected turn for the worst and all of the girls die. A sinister, supernatural power intervenes and the girls mysteriously appear at school the next day with a killer new look… and some unusual new appetites. (Press Materials)

Violette

Violette Leduc (Emmanuelle Devos), born out of wedlock at the beginning of the 20th century, encountered Simone de Beauvoir in the post-WWII years in St-Germain-des-Pres. The intense relationship between the two women would last their entire lives, a relationship based on the quest for freedom through writing for Violette and for Simone, on the conviction that she held the fate of an extraordinary writer in her hands. (Press Materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Belle — Directed by Amma Asante; Written by Misan Sagay (Opens in the UK)

Obvious Child — Written and Directed by Gillian Robespierre

Small Small Thing: The Olivia Zinnah Story (doc) — Directed by Jessica Vale

The Moment — Directed by Jane Weinstock; Written by Gloria Norris and Jane Weinstock

The Fault in Our Stars

Maleficent — Written by Linda Woolverton

We Are the Best!

Elena (doc) — Directed by Petra Costa

Lucky Them — Directed by Megan Griffiths; Co-Written by Emily Wachtel

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs — Directed by Grace Lee

The Immigrant

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return — Co-Written by Randi Barnes

Mom’s Night Out — Co-Written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell

For a Woman — Written and Directed by Diane Kurys

Ida

The Other Woman — Directed by Melissa Stack

Redwood Highway

Nymphomaniac: Part Two

Under the Skin

Finding Vivian Maier (doc)

Divergent — Co-Written by Vanessa Taylor

Films Directed by Women Opening

Hellion — Written and Directed by Kat Chandler

Writer-director Kat Candler’s Hellion paints a powerful portrait of a family on the brink of dissolution set against the haunting backdrop of the refineries of Southeast Texas. Obsessed with heavy metal, dirt-bike racing and partaking in the occasional act of vandalism with his band of delinquents, the behavior of 13-year-old Jacob Wilson (Josh Wiggins in his feature film debut) has begun to raise concerns around town, especially when it starts to involve his younger brother Wes (newcomer Deke Garner). While the boys’ father Hollis (two-time Emmy Award-winner Aaron Paul) loves his sons, he is still reeling from the loss of their mother, spending more time drowning his sorrows at the local bar and working on his damaged beach house than being an active parent. (Press Materials)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Citizen Koch (doc) — Co-Directed by Tia Lessin

The Only Real Game (doc) — Directed by Mirra Bank

The Animal Project — Written and Directed by Ingrid Veniger (Toronto and VOD)

Burning Bush — Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Night Moves — Directed and Co-Written by Kelly Reichardt

Palo Alto — Written and Directed by Gia Coppola

Fed Up (doc) — Directed and Co-Written by Stephanie Soechtig

The German Doctor — Written and Dircted by Lucia Puenzo

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (doc) — Co-Directed by Dayna Goldfine and Co-Written by Dayna Goldfine and Celeste Schaefer Snyder

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Burning Blue — Co-Written by Helene Kvale