There’s an array of choices to support female-centric and/or women-directed films in May. The month kicks off with “Gayby Baby,” a documentary that explores the increased number of children being raised by same-sex parents. The feature examines the lives of some of these children and what they think about their parents.
Written and directed by Valerie Weiss, “A Light Beneath Their Feet” stars “Orange is the New Black” fave Taryn Manning as a mother battling bipolar disorder. Her relationship with her daughter, played by Madison Davenport, is the subject of this gripping family drama, set to open May 6.
Helmed by Jodie Foster, “Money Monster” stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney, as a television producer and host (respectively), who must find a way to appease a man who holds them hostage — with a bomb. The high-stakes thriller considers the consequences of the money-hungry stock trade.
Also releasing mid-month is “Love & Friendship,” a treat for fans of period English stories such as “Downton Abbey.” Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) takes temporary residence with her in-laws in an effort to escape rumors about her behavior in their mannered society. Her plans to secure a husband and future for her herself and her daughter (Morfydd Clark) become complicated as she encounters devious characters along the way.
The month ends on a pitch perfect note with the documentary “Presenting Princess Shaw,” which showcases the life and times of New Orleans YouTube singer Samantha Montgomery (Shaw). Her incredible voice has become a sensation, and the feature is a study of the woman behind the music.
Here is a list of women-centric, directed, and written films releasing in May. All descriptions are from press materials, unless stated otherwise.
May 1
“Gayby Baby” (Documentary) — Directed by Maya Newell (Opens in NYC; Also available on VOD)
Kids being raised by same-sex couples are growing in numbers worldwide. We are in a Gayby-Boom. But who are these kids? What do they think about having same-sex parents? And do they face different issues to other kids? At a time when the world is debating marriage equality, these questions are more pertinent than ever. Told from the perspective of the kids, “Gayby Baby” is intimate and sometimes humorous account of four children and their families.
May 6
“Dark Horse” (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Louise Osmond (Opens in LA and NYC)
“Dark Horse,” winner of the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, is the heartwarming real-life fairy-tale about how a Welsh barmaid from a workingman’s pub in a poor coal-mining town decided to breed a racehorse and take on the sport of kings.
“Behind the White Glasses” (Documentary)
“Behind the White Glasses” is a documentary dedicated to the career of the Italian film director, Lina Wertmüller, the first woman in film history to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 1978, for her masterpiece “Seven Beauties.” It is a journey into the creative soul of the director, reach of rhythms, music, memories and testimonies of colleagues, actors and artists, whose lives and careers have crossed paths with Wertmüller.
“Mothers and Daughters” — Written by Paige Cameron (Also available on VOD)
“Mothers and Daughters” features interwoven stories about what it means to be a mom, which are tied together via single gal Rigby Gray (Selma Blair), a rock photographer who’s riding a career high when an unlikely and unexpected pregnancy forces her to turn her lens inward. As Rigby slowly comes to terms with what it might mean to change her life forever, she discovers with fresh eyes her own relationship with her estranged mother. Through a series of photographs documenting motherhood in all its varieties, she considers what it means to be maternal at all.
“A Light Beneath Their Feet” — Directed by Valerie Weiss; Written by Moira McMahon
Emotionally raw and bracingly honest, this coming-of-age drama balances the pull of family obligation against personal aspirations. In a commanding performance, SAG award-winning actress Taryn Manning plays Gloria, a mother wrestling with bipolar disorder and an imminent empty nest. Dedicated daughter Beth (Madison Davenport) has a bright future ahead, but must decide if she will stay near home to care for her unpredictable mom or follow her own path.
“Memoria” — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Nina Ljeti
Based on James Franco’s “Palo Alto Stories” and “A California Childhood,” Ivan Cohen is a young boy living in Palo Alto, California. Unsatisfied by his slacker group of friends, his love for a girl who doesn’t know he exists, and a dysfunctional family life, he is struggling to find his place in the world. “Memoria” raises questions about the memories we choose to keep, the ones we try desperately to forget, and the ones we use as fuel to create our future.
“Belladonna of Sadness” (Restored Print) (Opens in NYC; Opens in LA May 13)
One of the great lost masterpieces of Japanese animation, never before officially released in the U.S., “Belladonna of Sadness” is a mad, swirling, psychedelic light-show of medieval tarot-card imagery with horned demons, haunted forests and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” equal parts J.R.R. Tolkien and gorgeous, explicit Gustav Klimt-influenced eroticism. [In the film] a young woman, Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) is violently raped by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge, she makes a pact with the Devil himself (Tatsuya Nakadai) who appears as an erotic sprite and transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire.
May 13
“Money Monster” — Directed by Jodie Foster
In the real-time, high stakes thriller “Money Monster,” George Clooney and Julia Roberts star as financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty, who are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor who has lost everything (Jack O’Connell) forcefully takes over their studio. During a tense standoff broadcast to millions on live TV, Lee and Patty must work furiously against the clock to unravel the mystery behind a conspiracy at the heart of today’s fast-paced, high-tech global markets.
“High-Rise” — Written by Amy Jump (Available now on VOD)
“High-Rise” stars Tom Hiddleston as Dr. Robert Laing, the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper whose lofty location places him among the upper class. Laing quickly settles into high society life and meets the building’s eccentric tenants: Charlotte (Sienna Miller), his upstairs neighbor and bohemian single mother; Wilder (Luke Evans), a charismatic documentarian who lives with his pregnant wife Helen (Elisabeth Moss); and Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons), the enigmatic architect who designed the building. Life seems like paradise to the solitude-seeking Laing. But as power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war.
“Sunset Song” (Opens in LA, NYC, and Toronto)
The film takes place during the early years of the 20th century, with the conflicts and choices a young woman experiences reflecting the struggle between tradition and change — a struggle that continues to resonate today. Set in a rural community, “Sunset Song” is driven by the young heroine Chris (Agyness Deyn) and her intense passion for life, for the unsettling Ewan (Kevin Guthrie) and for the unforgiving land. WWI reaches out from afar, bringing the modern world to bear on the community in the harshest possible way, yet in a final moment of grace, Chris endures, now a woman of remarkable strength who is able to draw from the ancient land in looking to the future.
“Love & Friendship”
Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, “Love & Friendship” focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws’ estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) — and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny), but two particularly handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her orchestrations.
May 18
“Black Girl” (Opens in NYC)
The New York theatrical premiere run of the new 4K restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s classic of Senegalese cinema, “Black Girl (1966),” will play at BAMcinematek from Wednesday, May 18, through Tuesday, May 24. Both a landmark of world cinema and a devastating indictment of colonialism’s tragic legacy, “Black Girl” was the first African film to receive international acclaim. Senegalese housemaid Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) is brought to France by the white family she works for, finding herself isolated in an unfamiliar country and trapped in a life of domestic servitude, a situation that the dignified Diouana refuses to accept.
May 20
“Maggie’s Plan” — Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller (Opens in LA and NYC)
Greta Gerwig and Academy Award-winner Julianne Moore find themselves competing for the same man in this heart-warming witty comedy from director Rebecca Miller. Maggie (Greta Gerwig) wants a baby, but she’s never held on to a relationship for longer than six months. Just as she is embarking on her plan for artificial insemination, she meets John (Ethan Hawke), an unhappily married academic, who is smitten by her enthusiasm for life. He leaves his eccentric high-achieving wife (Julianne Moore) and the two settle down and have a daughter together. Everything has gone according to Maggie’s plan — so why isn’t she happy? And what sort of meddlesome scheme will she concoct next?
“Weiner” (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Elyse Steinberg
An examination of disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign and the landscape of today’s political landscape.
“Ma ma” (Opens in NYC, Opens in LA and Miami May 27)
In “Ma ma,” Penelope Cruz delivers a powerful and dynamic performance as a woman diagnosed with breast cancer who goes on an emotional journey filled with tragedy and miracles alike.
May 25
“Unlocking the Cage” (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Chris Hegedus
“Unlocking the Cage” looks at animal rights lawyer Steven Wise and his fight to change the way cognitively complex animals are recognized and protected by law. Wise and his passionate team of advocates and lawyers argue on behalf of a series of unusual plaintiffs, chimpanzees who live in captive squalor or are subjects of experimentation, attempting to change the status of these intelligent beings from “things” with no rights to “persons” with legal protections. A moving and intimate look at an enterprise that could forever transform and enlarge our legal system, “Unlocking the Cage” raises provocative legal and philosophical questions, making the case for closing the gap between humans and our most intelligent animal neighbors.
May 27
“Alice Through the Looking Glass” — Written by Linda Wolverton
In Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” an all-new spectacular adventure featuring the unforgettable characters from Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories, Alice returns to the whimsical world of Underland and travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter. “Alice Through the Looking Glass” reunites the all-star cast from the worldwide blockbuster phenomenon, including: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter along with the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall. We are also introduced to several new characters: Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), the Mad Hatter’s father, and Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), a peculiar creature who is part human, part clock.
“The Ones Below”
Kate (Clémence Poésy) and Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore) are expecting their first baby. They are thirty-something, successful, and affluent. All appears well on the surface but Kate harbors deeply rooted fears about her fitness to be a mother and her ability to love the child within. One day another couple, Jon (David Morrissey) and Teresa (Laura Birn) move into the apartment below. They become “The Ones Below” and are also expecting a baby. In contrast to Kate, Teresa is full of joy at the prospect of imminent motherhood. Pregnancy brings the women together in shared confidences, as Kate becomes entranced by Teresa’s unquestioning celebration of her family-to-be. Until one night a joint dinner begins to reveal all is not as it seems with “The Ones Below” and a single tragic accident throws the couples into a nightmare of psychological terror.
“Princess” — Written and Directed by Tali Shalom Ezer (Opens in NYC and LA; Available on VOD May 24)
While her mother is away from home, 12-year-old Adar’s role-playing games with her stepfather move into dangerous territory. Seeking an escape, Adar finds Alan — an ethereal boy who joins her on a dark journey between reality and fantasy.
“Chevalier” — Co-Written and Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Opens in NYC)
In the middle of the Aegean Sea, on a luxury yacht, six men on a fishing trip decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared, measured and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals, but at the end of the voyage, when the game is over, the winner will wear the victorious signet ring: the “Chevalier.”
“Presenting Princess Shaw” (Documentary) (Opens in NYC; Also available on VOD)
The true story of the incredible Princess Shaw and the enigmatic composer Kutiman, who discovers her from the other side of the world. By day, Samantha Montgomery cares for the elderly in one of New Orleans’s toughest neighborhoods. By night, she writes and sings her own songs as Princess Shaw on her confessional YouTube channel. Raw and vulnerable, her voice is a diamond in the rough. Across the globe, Ophir Kutiel creates video mash ups of amateur YouTube performers. Known as Kutiman, he is a composer, a musician, and a pioneering video artist embraced by the world of fine art. Kutiman “transforms sampling into a multimedia art,” whether at his home on a kibbutz in Israel or at a live performance at the Guggenheim in New York. Two strangers, almost 7,000 miles apart, begin to build a song. The film unfolds as Kutiman pairs Princess Shaw’s emotional performances in a beautiful expression of generosity and compassion, revealing the bonafide star underneath and her fight to never give up on her dreams.
