Weekly Update for February 10: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Speed Sisters (Documentary) — Directed by Amber Fares (Opens in NY) (Also Available on VOD)

The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, “Speed Sisters” takes you on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought you could. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Amber Fares.

Find screening info here.

Sex Doll — Written and Directed by Sylvie Verheyde (Opens in NY and LA) (Also Available on VOD)

A high-priced call girl navigates the shadowy world of London’s sex trade underground in this provocative, erotic thriller. Virginie (César Award winner Hafsia Herzi) goes about her work as a prostitute with a cool detachment, trading sex with wealthy businessmen for money, but never getting emotionally involved. That all changes when she meets Rupert (Ash Stymest), an enigmatic stranger with unclear intentions. Risking everything, Virginie plunges into a dangerous affair that tears her between a ruthless madame who forbids romantic attachments and a dark, sexy man who could be her savior or her downfall. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

I Am Jane Doe (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Mary Mazzio

“I Am Jane Doe” chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice. Narrated by Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain and directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, the documentary follows the journey of these young girls and their mothers in real time as they run headlong into a collision course not only with Backpage but with judges, powerful corporations, special interest groups, and an outdated internet freedom law that has been interpreted by federal judges to protect websites from any responsibility for hosting ads which sell underage girls. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Mary Mazzio .

Find screening info here.

Running Wild — Co-Written by Christina Moore (Also Available on VOD)

“Running Wild” tells the story of a young widow (Dorian Brown Pham) trying to save her ranch following her husband’s fatal car crash. She creates a convict rehabilitation program, working with a herd of wild horses that have wandered onto her property. She did not anticipate the greed, bureaucracy, and vanity that she must overcome to heal the convicts, the horses, and ultimately herself. (Press materials)

Havenhurst

Jackie (Julie Benz), a troubled young woman with an unyielding alcohol addiction, is released from rehab and given a second chance with a new job and a furnished apartment at Havenhurst. Guilt-ridden over the tragic loss of her 8-year-old daughter, Jackie is quickly drawn into the mysteries of Havenhurst, in particular the unsolved disappearance of the apartment’s previous occupant, a young woman (Danielle Harris) she befriended in rehab who disappeared recently without a trace. (Press materials)

Prevenge — Written and Directed by Alice Lowe (Opens in the UK)

Widow Ruth (Alice Lowe) is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching anyone who stands in her way. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Alice Lowe.

Films About Women Currently Playing

This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (Documentary) — Directed by Barbara Kopple (Also Available on YouTube Red)
Rings
Don’t Knock Twice (Also Available on VOD)
The Lure — Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Sophie and the Rising Sun — Written and Directed by Maggie Greenwald
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Starless Dreams (Documentary)
20th Century Women
Underworld: Blood Wars — Directed by Anna Foerster
Hidden Figures — Co-Written by Allison Schroeder
Toni Erdmann — Written and Directed by Maren Ade
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Julieta
Jackie
Things to Come — Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Moana — Co-Written by Pamela Ribon
Arrival
The Love Witch — Written and Directed by Anna Biller
Elle
The Eagle Huntress
The Handmaiden

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

A United Kingdom — Directed by Amma Asante

“A United Kingdom” is based on extraordinary true events. In 1947, Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the King of Botswana, met Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), a London office worker. They were a perfect match, yet their proposed marriage was challenged not only by their families but by the British and South African governments. The latter had recently introduced the policy of apartheid and found the notion of a biracial couple ruling a neighboring country intolerable. South Africa threatened the British: either thwart the couple or be denied access to South African uranium and gold and face the risk of South Africa invading Botswana. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Amma Asante.

Kedi (Documentary) — Directed by Ceyda Torun (Opens in NY; Opens in LA February 17)

“Kedi” is not a documentary about house cats or the strays you occasionally see in your backyard. “Kedi” is a film about the hundreds of thousands of cats who have roamed the metropolis of Istanbul freely for thousands of years, wandering in and out of people’s lives, impacting them in ways only an animal who lives between the worlds of the wild and the tamed can. Cats and their kittens bring joy and purpose to those they choose, giving people an opportunity to reflect on life and their place in it. In Istanbul, cats are the mirrors to ourselves. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

1 Night — Written and Directed by Minhal Baig (Also Available on VOD)

Thirty-something Elizabeth (Anna Camp) must decide whether to salvage her relationship with Drew (Justin Chatwin) after much personal disappointment. Meanwhile, Bea (Isabelle Fuhrman), a worrisome teenager, reconnects with her introverted childhood friend, Andy (Kyle Allen) to overcome their difference in high school status following their prom. Past and present collide as two couples explore love over the course of one night at a hotel. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

The Bye Bye Man — Directed by Stacy Title

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

A Dog’s Purpose — Written by Cathryn Michon
The Red Turtle — Co-written by Pascale Ferran
The Resurrection of Gavin Stone — Written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell
The Sunshine Makers (Documentary) — Co-written by Connie Littlefield
Alone in Berlin — Co-Written by Bettine von Borries (Also Available on VOD)
Sleepless — Co-Written by Andrea Berloff
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Written by J.K. Rowling
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — Written by Jane Goldman

TV Premieres This Week

Katherine Ryan: In Trouble (Comedy Special) (Premieres February 14 on Netflix)

In this stand-up set shot at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, comedian Katherine Ryan gives a heartfelt, gossipy, and sharp-tongued routine. (Press materials)

Doubt — Co-Created by Joan Rater (Premieres February 15 on CBS)

“Doubt” stars Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as Sadie Ellis, a brilliant attorney at a boutique firm who starts to fall for her charismatic client, Billy Brennan (Steven Pasquale, “Rescue Me”), an altruistic pediatric surgeon recently accused of murdering his girlfriend 24 years ago. Sadie’s decision to become involved with her client could put her career, as well as her happiness, at risk if Billy is found guilty, which means she needs to work all the harder to prove reasonable doubt, even if she has some herself. “Doubt” also stars Dulé Hill (“Psych”), Laverne Cox (“Orange Is the New Black”), Dreama Walker (“The Good Wife”), Kobi Libii (“Jessica Jones”), and Elliott Gould (“Ray Donovan”). (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Little Sister (DVD/VOD, Available Now)
The Edge of Seventeen — Written and Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (DVD/VOD, February 14)
Arrival (DVD/VOD, February 14)
Christine (DVD, February 14)
The Witness (DVD, February 14)

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