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

Films About Women Opening This Week

Diary of a Chambermaid — Co-Written by Hélène Zimmer

“Diary of a Chambermaid” is set during the beginning of the 20th century in provincial France. Highly sought after because of her beauty, Célestine (Léa Seydoux) is a young chambermaid who has just arrived from Paris into the service of the Lanlaire family. Rejecting Monsieur’s (Hervé Pierre) overtures, Célestine must also cope with Madame Lanlaire (Clotilde Mollet), a strict and severe woman who rules the household with an iron fist. She makes the acquaintance of Joseph (Vincent Lindon), the Lanlaire’s mysterious gardener, and becomes fascinated by him. (Press materials)

Call Her Applebroog (Documentary) — Directed by Beth B (Opens in NY)

This deeply personal portrait of acclaimed New York-based artist Ida Applebroog was shot with mischievous reverence by her filmmaker daughter, Beth B. Born in the Bronx to Orthodox Jewish émigrés from Poland, Applebroog, now in her 80s, looks back at how she expressed herself through decades of drawings and paintings, as well as her private journals. With her daughter’s encouragement, she investigates the stranger that is her former self, a woman who found psychological and sexual liberation through art. As Beth B finds a deeper understanding of her mother as a human being, Applebroog shares a newfound appreciation for her own provocative work. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

The Witness (Documentary)
Honeyglue
Creedmoria — Written and Directed by Alicia Slimmer
The Fits — Written and Directed by Anna Rose Holmer
Me Before You — Directed by Thea Sharrock; Written by Jojo Moyes
Alice Through the Looking Glass — Written by Linda Woolverton
Princess — Written and Directed by Tali Shalom Ezer (Also available on VOD)
Presenting Princess Shaw (Documentary) (Also available on VOD)
To Life (À La Vie) (Also available on VOD)
Ma ma
Maggie’s Plan — Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller
Sunset Song
Love & Friendship
Black Girl (Restored Print)
Dark Horse (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Louise Osmond
Mother’s Day — Co-Written by Anya Kochoff and Lily Hollander
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Sworn Virgin — Directed by Laura Bispuri; Written by Laura Bispuri and Francesca Manieri
Eva Hesse (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Marcie Begleiter
The Meddler — Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria
The Boss — Co-Written by Melissa McCarthy
God’s Not Dead 2
April and the Extraordinary World
Krisha
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Hello, My Name is Doris — Co-Written by Laura Terruso
10 Cloverfield Lane
Eye in the Sky
Miracles From Heaven — Directed by Patricia Riggen
Zootopia

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Careful What You Wish For — Directed by Elizabeth Allen (Also available on VOD)

A guy (Nick Jonas) gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife (Isabel Lucas) of an investment banker (Dermot Mulroney). Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal. (IMDb)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Elizabeth Allen.

“Germans & Jews” (Documentary) — Directed by Janina Quint (Opens in NY)

Today, Europe’s fastest growing Jewish population is in Berlin. Germany is considered one of the most democratic societies in the world, assuming the position of moral leader in Europe as it embraces hundreds of thousands of refugees. None of these developments could have been imagined in 1945. Through personal stories “Germans & Jews” explores the country’s transformation from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on. Unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges. What began as a private conversation between the two filmmakers and friends, Tal Recanati (Jewish) and Janina Quint (non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many. We realize that the two people are inextricably linked through the memory of the Holocaust. “Germans and Jews” is provocative, unexpected, and enlightening. (Press materials)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Gurukulam (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Jillian Elizabeth
Chevalier — Co-Written and Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
Weiner (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Elyse Steinberg
Unlocking the Cage (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Chris Hegedus
Song of Lahore (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Also available on DVD, VOD, and Digital HD)
Money Monster — Directed by Jodie Foster
Ratchet & Clank — Co-Directed by Jericca Cleland
A Beautiful Planet (Documentary) — Directed by Toni Myers
Rio, I Love You — Co-Directed by Nadine Labaki; Co-Written by Nadine Labaki and Elena Soarez
The Invitation — Directed by Karyn Kusama (Also available on VOD)
Kung Fu Panda 3 — Co-Directed by Jennifer Yuh

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

The President — Co-Written by Marziyeh Meshkiny
High-Rise — Written by Amy Jump
Barbershop: The Next Cut — Co-Written by Tracy Oliver
Meet the Blacks — Co-Written by Nicole DeMasi
London Has Fallen — Co-Written by Katrin Benedikt

TV Premieres This Week

Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story — Directed by Christine Swanson; Written by Christine Swanson and Rhonda F. Baraka (Premieres June 12 on TV One)

Teyonah Parris stars in TV One’s, “Love Under New Management,” the amazing story of R&B singer Miki Howard. Before becoming a Grammy Award-nominated singer, Howard (Parris) was a homeless teenager who was forced to fend for herself to a struggling singer desperate for love, attention, and success to a beloved chart-topping, award-winning R&B princess whose voice was undeniably one of the best in the business. But Miki’s story is not just the story of a girl’s rise to stardom. It’s the story of perseverance in the face of adversity and the will to overcome poor choices, poor relationships, and poor self-esteem. It’s a story that teaches us that self-love is indeed the greatest love of all. (Press materials)

The Night Stalker — Written and Directed by Megan Griffiths (Premieres June 12 on Lifetime)

Known to many as the “Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez (Lou Diamond Phillips) was an unusually cruel and prolific serial killer who murdered 14 people and terrorized Los Angeles in the summer of 1985. Though Ramirez was convicted of these atrocities and remained on death row for nearly thirty years, he was always suspected of committing additional crimes. This thriller tells the story of Kit (Bellamy Young), an attorney who travels to San Quentin on an impossible mission to clear the name of a death row inmate in Texas — someone she believes has been wrongly accused of murders actually perpetrated by Ramirez. Kit herself lived in Los Angeles during the fear-tinged summer where Ramirez terrified its citizens, and confronting him again dredges up old and frightening memories of her own past. As the days count down to the innocent Texas man’s execution, Kit confronts Ramirez about his unspeakable crimes in search of an elusive confession, plunging into intense psychological depths in her quest for the truth. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

45 Years (VOD, June 14)
Hello, My Name is Doris — Co-Written by Laura Terruso (VOD, June 14)
Young Messiah — Co-Written by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh (DVD, June 14)