FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING
Firebrand – Written and Directed by Aruna Raje (Available on Netflix)
“Firebrand” follows the life of a successful lawyer who herself is a sexual assault victim (Usha Jadhav) as she deals with post-traumatic stress disorder. She tackles difficult family cases while also coping with intimacy issues in her own marriage.
The Changeover – Directed by Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie (Also Available on VOD)
“The Changeover”: Dean MacKenzie
Sixteen-year-old Laura Chant (Erana James) lives with her mother and four-year-old brother, Jacko (Benji Purchase), in a poor new suburb on the edge of a partially demolished Christchurch, New Zealand. Laura is drawn into a supernatural battle with an ancient spirit who attacks Jacko and slowly drains the life out of him as the spirit becomes ever younger. Laura discovers her true identity and the supernatural ability within her, and must harness it to save her brother’s life.
Find screening info here.
Styx – Written by Ika Künzel and Wolfgang Fischer (Opens February 27 in NY)
ER doctor Rike (Susanne Wolff) embarks on a one-woman solo sailing trip to Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. When Rike comes across a sinking ship of refugees, she is quickly torn out of her contented and idealized world and must make a momentous decision. Aptly named after the mythological river that separates the living from the dead, “Styx” is an astute modern day parable of Western indifference in the face of marginalized suffering.
Find screening info here.
Paris Is Us – Directed by Elisabeth Vogler; Written by Elisabeth Vogler, Rémi Bassaler, Paul Saïsset, and Souliman Schelfout (Available on Netflix)
“Paris Is Us”
Dreams and reality collide as a young woman (Noémie Schmidt) navigates a tumultuous relationship amid rising social tensions, protests, and tragedies in Paris.
FILMS MADE BY WOMEN OPENING
“Between the Lines”
Between the Lines (Theatrical Re-Release) – Directed by Joan Micklin Silver (Opens in NY and LA)
In a time when independent media and journalism are constantly under attack, the sophomore film by the trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”), while over 40 years old, could not be more timely today. Following the lives and loves of a group of staffers at Boston alt-weekly The Back Bay Mainline as they face a possible corporate takeover and unemployment, this rueful multi-character comedy drama is a true lost treasure of the New Hollywood.
Find NY screening info here and LA info here.
The Competition (Documentary) – Directed by Claire Simon (Opens in NY)
“The Competition”
“The Competition” begins, significantly, with the image of a locked gate — that of the Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son, or, as it’s more popularly known, La Fémis. One of the most prestigious film schools in the world, every year La Fémis attracts hundreds upon hundreds of applicants hoping to fill only 40 annual slots. The film offers a unique look into the process whereby those lucky 40 are selected — a process involving examiners from the French film industry which is highly personal and idiosyncratic and subject to the vagaries of taste and personal prejudice.
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Claire Simon.
Find screening info here.
Wrestle (Documentary) – Directed by Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer; Written by Suzannah Herbert, Lauren Belfer, and Pablo Proenza (Opens in NY; Opens March 1 in LA)
“Hoop Dreams” goes to the mat in “Wrestle,” an intimate coming-of-age documentary about four members of a wrestling team at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School, a longstanding entry on Alabama’s list of failing schools. Coached by teacher Chris Scribner, teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face challenges far beyond a shot at the State Championship: splintered family lives, drug use, teenage pregnancy, mental health struggles, and run-ins with the law threaten to derail their success on the mat and lock any doors that could otherwise open. Tough-love coach Scribner isn’t off the hook, either: he must come to terms with his own past conflicts while unwittingly wading into the complexities of race, class, and privilege in the South.
The Photographer of Mauthausen – Directed by Mar Targarona (Available on Netflix)
A Catalán prisoner (Mario Casas) at a Nazi concentration camp uses his office job to steal photo negatives of the atrocities committed there.
TV PREMIERES
“Workin’ Moms”
Workin’ Moms – Created by Catherine Reitman and Philip Sternberg (Premieres February 22 on Netflix)
Four very different 30-something working mothers and friends try to balance their jobs, family life, and love life in modern day Toronto, Canada.
Go! Vive a Tu Manera – Written by Patricia Maldonado (Premieres February 22 on Netflix)
“Go! Vive a Tu Manera”: Fabián Trapanese/Netflix
Fiercely talented Mia (Pilar Pascual) earns a scholarship to an elite performing arts school, where she soon clashes with the owner’s fashionable and popular daughter.
American Masters – Charley Pride: I’m Just Me (Documentary Special) – Directed by Barbara Hall (Premieres February 22 on PBS)
“American Masters – Charley Pride: I’m Just Me” traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a Negro American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar. The new documentary reveals how Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. The singer arrived in Nashville in 1963 while the city roiled with sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance, and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
O.G. (TV Movie) – Directed by Madeleine Sackler (Premieres February 23 on HBO)
Jeffrey Wright portrays a maximum-security prison inmate whose impending release is upended when he takes a new arrival under his wing. Groundbreaking in being filmed at an actual prison, with many of the men incarcerated there cast in acting roles, “O.G.” takes an intimate and unflinching look at the journey of one man at the precipice of freedom.
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Madeleine Sackler.
Green Book: Guide to Freedom (Documentary) – Written and Directed by Yoruba Richen (Premieres February 25 on Smithsonian Channel) (Also Streaming on the Smithsonian Channel App)
In the 1930s, a black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. It was called “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” and it helped African-Americans navigate safe passage across America well into the 1960s. “Green Book: Guide to Freedom” explores some of the segregated nation’s safe havens and notorious “sundown towns” and tells stories of struggle and indignity as well as opportunity and triumph.
It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It (Documentary) – Co-Directed by Madeleine Sackler (Premieres February 25 on HBO)
“It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It”: HBO
The product of a filmmaking workshop held at Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility, “It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It.” was made in collaboration by director Madeleine Sackler and inmates Dennis Brown, Marshaun Buggs, Al’Jonon Coleman, James Collins, Franklin Cox, Brandon Crider, Clifford Elswick, Quentis Hardiman, Joseph Henderson, Charles Lawrence, Herb Robertson, Rushawn Tanksley, and Mark Thacker. In its relatively short running time (one hour and 15 minutes), the film explores who gets to tell certain stories — and how they should be told — the realities of prison life, how humanity and criminality are not mutually exclusive, and the nature of cinema itself. Using the filmmaking tenets Sackler teaches, the directors/film subjects interview one another about their pasts, their crimes, their identities, and their dreams. Wisely, Sackler mostly acts as an observer and gives these men the space and opportunity to share their stories on their terms. (Rachel Montpelier)
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Madeleine Sackler.
VOD/STREAMING RELEASES
“Mary Queen of Scots”: Liam Daniel/Focus Features
Border – Written by Isabella Eklöf, Ali Abbasi, and John Ajvide Lindqvist (VOD, February 22)
Mary Queen of Scots – Directed by Josie Rourke (VOD, February 26)
The Possession of Hannah Grace (VOD, February 26)
Sicilian Ghost Story (VOD, February 26)
WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD IN THE NEWS
Where are the Girl-Wonders? Everywhere — But Who Noticed? (Filmmaker Magazine)
Oscars: A record year for women, but is it progress? (San Francisco Chronicle)
PICKS OF THE WEEK FROM WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD
Paramount Launches New Dev/Green Light Process, Aims to Make Film Slate More Inclusive
2019 Diversity Report: Women & POC Make Progress But Are Still Largely Underrepresented
Actress Mandi Masden on the Timeliness of Her Latest Play “The Light”
Making Space and Finding a Place: Crowdfunding Picks
Lena Waithe & Cathy Kisakye’s “How To Make Love To a Black Woman” Gets Pilot Order from Showtime
Amy Poehler to Direct Riot Grrrl-Inspired “Moxie” for Netflix
Study: 31 Percent of 2018’s Top-Grossing Films Featured a Female Protagonist
Awkwafina Assembles All-Female Writers’ Room for Her Comedy Central Show
Awards Roundup: Angela Shanelec Wins Berlinale Prize, WGA Honors “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
“Fleabag” Director Vicky Jones Talks Bringing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Play Back to the Stage
Follow Women and Hollywood on Twitter @WomenaHollywood and Melissa Silverstein @melsil.
To contact Women and Hollywood, email melissa@womenandhollywood.com.
