Weekly Update for June 16: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Rough Night — Co-Written and Directed by Lucia Aniello

In this edgy R-rated comedy, five best friends from college (played by Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) reunite 10 years later for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami. Their hard partying takes a hilariously dark turn when they accidentally kill a male stripper. Amidst the craziness of trying to cover it up, they’re ultimately brought closer together when it matters most. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Maudie — Directed by Aisling Walsh; Written by Sherry White (U.S. Premiere)

“Maudie” was such an unexpected delight. With terrific performances from Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, “Maudie” brings us into the lives of Maud and Everett Lewis, two people who come together out of necessity and end up falling in love. The couple creates a life that suits them and allows Maud to become the artist she was destined to be. (Melissa Silverstein)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Aisling Walsh.

Find tickets and screening info here.

47 Meters Down (Also Available on VOD)

Two sisters (Claire Holt and Mandy Moore) vacationing in Mexico are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean. With less than an hour of oxygen left and great white sharks circling nearby, they must fight to survive. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Lost in Paris — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Fiona Gordon (Opens in NY)

When Fiona’s (Fiona Gordon) orderly life is disrupted by a letter of distress from her 88-year-old Aunt Martha (Emmanuelle Riva), who is living in Paris, Fiona hops on the first plane she can and arrives only to discover that Martha has disappeared. In an avalanche of spectacular disasters, she encounters Dom (Dominique Abel), the affable but annoying tramp who just won’t leave her alone. “Lost in Paris” is a wondrously fun and hectic tale of peculiar people finding love while lost in the City of Lights. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Fiona Gordon.

Find screening info here.

Hearing Is Believing (Documentary) (Opens in NY and LA) (Available on VOD June 20)

Born 15 weeks premature, Rachel Flowers lost her eyesight due to Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). When she was two years old, Rachel began picking up melodies from her musician parents and was soon playing every song she heard by ear. Starting her formal musical education at the age of four, Rachel spent the next 10 years studying at the Southern California Conservatory of Music. “Hearing is Believing” is an engaging portrait of a year and a half in the life of a tight knit American family, a single mom and her two kids living paycheck to paycheck in working class Oxnard, California, with Rachel’s stunning music as the soundtrack. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Whitney: Can I Be Me (Documentary) (Opens in the UK)

“Whitney: Can I Be Me”: Tribeca Film Festival

Documentarian Nick Broomfield and iconic music video director Rudi Dolezal offer a never-before-seen backstage look at the height of Whitney Houston’s stardom and trace with penetrating detail the forces that contributed to her shortened career and subsequent death in 2012, at age 48. Whether it be racism, religion, drugs, sexuality, self-doubt, gossip, rivalry, insufficient training, the demands of parents and the industry, a troubled marriage playing out in headlines, or the inevitable toll those stresses take from so muscular and passionate a singer, the directors leave nothing unturned. They create a picture of a remarkable woman who needed more help than she received and provide an unflinching, gripping, and wholly committed exploration of talent given and taken away. (Tribeca Film Festival)

Find screening info here.

From Hollywood to Rose — Co-Directed by Liz Graham (One Week Only in LA)

In the City of Angels, everyone is on a quest. A disheveled, middle-aged woman (Eve Annenberg) in a bridal gown boards a Metro bus on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of the night. As the bus heads further west, she meets an assortment of eccentrics and social outcasts who make her question where she’s been and where she’s going. Each person she meets is at their own personal crossroads, who in turn shape the course of her bizarre journey. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Pray for Rain — Written by Christina Moore and Gloria Musca

A young New York journalist (Annabelle Stephenson) returns to the idyllic Central California farming community where she was raised only to find it has been ravaged by drought and has become a place ruled by gangs, violent threats, and greed. She is forced to investigate the suspicious circumstances of her father’s death even though it puts her in great danger. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Can Hitler Happen Here? — Directed by Saskia Rifkin; Written by Catherine May Levin

An elderly shut-in (Laura Esterman) believes she’s being harassed by her neighbors and government officials in this surreal, hypnotic drama. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Megan Leavey — Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite; Co-Written by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo
Beatriz at Dinner
As Good As You — Directed by Heather de Michele; Written by Gretchen M. Michelfeld
Moka
Wonder Woman — Directed by Patty Jenkins
Sámi Blood — Written and Directed by Amanda Kernell (Opens in LA June 30)
Letters from Baghdad (Documentary) — Directed by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum
Past Life
Didi’s Dreams
Love, Kennedy
Beautiful Accident
Berlin Syndrome — Directed by Cate Shortland
The Women’s Balcony — Written by Shlomit Nehama
Hermia & Helena
Everything, Everything — Directed by Stella Meghie
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Linda Saffire
Snatched — Written by Katie Dippold
Paris Can Wait — Written and Directed by Eleanor Coppola
The Wedding Plan — Written and Directed by Rama Burshtein
Manifesto
Like Crazy — Co-Written by Francesca Archibugi
The Circle
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (Documentary)
A Quiet Passion
Colossal
Their Finest — Directed by Lone Scherfig; Written by Gaby Chiappe
The Zookeeper’s Wife — Directed by Niki Caro; Written by Angela Workman
Beauty and the Beast
A Woman, a Part — Written and Directed by Elisabeth Subrin
Personal Shopper
Hidden Figures — Co-Written by Allison Schroeder

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement and the Swami Who Started It All (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Jean Griesser and Lauren Ross (Opens in NY; Opens in LA June 23)

1965: America is in turmoil. Unprecedented introspection and questioning of societal norms roil the country. Prabhupada, an unassuming 70-year-old Swami from India, arrives in New York City alone and without support or money. “Hare Krishna!” is the true story of the unexpected, prolific, and controversial revolutionary. The film takes the audience behind-the-scenes of a cultural movement born in the artistic and intellectual scene of New York’s Bowery, the hippie mecca of Haight Ashbury, and the Beatle mania of London, to meet the Swami who started it all. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Long Live the King (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Trish Geiger (Opens in LA)

A feature documentary about the enduring appeal of the character King Kong, and how he has inspired so many of the great filmmakers and artists since 1933. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Raising Bertie (Documentary) — Directed by Margaret Byrne
P.S. Jerusalem (Documentary) — Directed by Danae Elon
Band Aid — Written and Directed by Zoe Lister-Jones (Also Available on VOD)
Wakefield — Written and Directed by Robin Swicord (Also Available on VOD)
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe — Co-Written and Directed by Maria Schrader
Risk (Documentary) — Directed by Laura Poitras
Buster’s Mal Heart — Written and Directed by Sarah Adina Smith
Obit. (Documentary) — Directed by Vanessa Gould
Tomorrow (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Mélanie Laurent
Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Lydia Tenaglia
Alive and Kicking (Documentary) — Directed by Susan Glatzer; Written by Susan Glatzer and Heidi Zimmerman (Also Available on VOD)
David Lynch: The Art Life (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Cezanne and I — Written and Directed by Danièle Thompson
Jasper Jones — Directed by Rachel Perkins (Australia)

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

Cars 3 — Co-Written by Kiel Murray

Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) sets out to prove to a new generation of racers that he’s still the best race car in the world. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

I Love You Both — Co-Written by Kristin Archibald (Also Available on VOD)
Awakening the Zodiac — Co-Written by Jennifer Archer (Also Available on VOD)
Radio Dreams — Co-Written by Aida Ahadiany
Churchill — Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
3 Idiotas — Co-Written by Martha Higareda
God of War — Co-Written by Maria Wong
Champion — Written by Missy Reed and Sarah Inabnit
Smurfs: The Lost Village — Written by Stacey Harman and Pamela Ribon

TV Premieres This Week

Cardinal — Created by Aubrey Nealon (Premieres June 16 on Hulu)

Demoted for a hunch about a case that he wouldn’t let go, Cardinal (Billy Campbell) is brought back to the Homicide Unit when the body of missing 13-year-old Katie Pine is discovered, proving his instincts correct. Back on the case, his search for her murderer soon becomes an all-consuming race to stay ahead of a serial killer. Meanwhile, Cardinal must manage his own precarious family issues and secrets, and keep a watchful eye on his new partner, Detective Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse, “Revenge”), who he believes may have her own secret agenda. (Press materials)

My Mother and Other Strangers (Premieres June 18 on PBS)

Set in Northern Ireland during World War II, “My Mother and Other Strangers” follows the fortunes of the Coyne family and their neighbors as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a huge United States Army Air Force (USAAF) airfield, with 4,000 servicemen and women, lands in the middle of their rural parish. Meanwhile, Rose Coyne (Hattie Morahan, “Sense & Sensibility”), the parish school teacher and a pillar of the local community, finds herself in a dangerous love triangle between her husband, Michael (Owen McDonnell), and the charming USAAF liaison officer, Captain Dreyfuss (Aaron Staton, “Mad Men”). Meanwhile, the Coyne children have no idea of the strains under which their parents’ marriage creaks. (Press materials)

Loch Ness (Premieres June 19 on Acorn TV)

In a community nourished and sustained by myth and bordered by untamed nature, the search for a serial killer becomes a matter of life and death for local detective Annie Redford (Laura Fraser, “Breaking Bad”). Within the tightly knit town, a sense of horror begins to dawn as the villagers realize that there is more than one kind of monster in their midst. (Press materials)

Big Pacific (Docuseries) — Directed by Rachel Tansley (Premieres June 21 on PBS)

Plunge into the Pacific with researchers and cinematographers who display the ocean’s rare and dazzling creatures in a way never before seen on television. Filmed in cinematic 4K, the program breaks the boundaries between land and sea, examining an ocean that covers one-third of the Earth’s surface, holds half of the world’s water, and hides the deepest place on the planet. (Press materials)

Straight/Curve (Documentary) — Directed by Jenny McQuaile (Premieres June 21 on EPIX)

Ninety percent of young women and girls say they do not feel represented in the fashion industry or in media, and that the imagery they consume on a daily basis makes them feel “disgusting” and “less than.” “Straight/Curve” examines the industries and obstacles responsible for this body image crisis and showcases the dynamic leaders fighting for more diversity of size, race, and age. At a time when our brain processes images 60,000 times faster than words, “Straight/Curve” sets out to change the imagery we are seeing and to bolster a movement that is redefining our culture’s unrealistic and dangerous standards of beauty to impact society at large. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Altitude (VOD/DVD, June 20)
Everybody Loves Somebody — Written and Directed by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta (VOD/DVD, June 20)
This Beautiful Fantastic (VOD/DVD, June 20)

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