FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING
Charlie’s Angels – Written and Directed by Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks takes the helm as the next generation of fearless Charlie’s Angels takes flight. In Banks’ bold vision, the Angels (played by Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska) are working for the mysterious Charles Townsend, whose security and investigative agency has expanded internationally. With the world’s smartest, bravest, and most highly trained women all over the globe, there are now teams of Angels guided by multiple Bosleys taking on the toughest jobs everywhere.
Find screening info here.
Atlantics – Directed by Mati Diop; Written by Mati Diop and Olivier Demangel (Available on Netflix November 29)
“Atlantics”: Netflix
Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), 17, is in love with Souleiman (Traore), a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hopes of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned.
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi – Directed by Swati Bhise; Written by Swati Bhise, Devika Bhise, and Olivia Emden
“The Warrior Queen of Jhansi”: Nick Wall
“The Warrior Queen of Jhansi” tells the true story of the legendary Rani (translation: Queen) of Jhansi (Devika Bhise), a feminist icon in India and a fearless freedom fighter. In 1857 India, this 24-year-old General led her people into battle against the British Empire, earning the reputation as the Joan of Arc of the East. This real-life Wonder Woman’s insurrection shifted the balance of power in the region and set in motion the demise of the notorious British East India Company and the beginning of the British Raj under Queen Victoria.
To Kid or Not to Kid (Documentary) – Directed by Maxine Trump (Opens in NY and LA)
“To Kid Or Not To Kid”
Filmmaker Maxine Trump turns the camera on herself and her close circle of family and friends as she confronts the idea of not having kids. While exploring the cultural pressures and harsh criticism childfree women regularly experience, as well as the personal impact this decision may have on her own relationship, Maxine meets other women reckoning with their choice: Megan, who struggles to get medical permission to undergo elective sterilization, and Victoria, who lives with the backlash of publicly acknowledging that she made a mistake when she had a child. “To Kid or Not to Kid” bravely plunges into an aspect of reproductive choice often misunderstood, mischaracterized, or considered too taboo to discuss. With rising public awareness about climate change, resource scarcity, and global population, this timely film asks the question, “Why can’t we talk about not having children?”
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Maxine Trump.
Find screening info here.
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (Documentary) (Opens in NY)
Marion Stokes was secretly recording television 24 hours a day for 30 years. It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the 24-hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012, while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we were, and show how television shaped the world of today. Before “fake news,” Marion was fighting to protect the truth by archiving everything that was said and shown on television. The public didn’t know it, but the networks were disposing their archives for decades into the trashcan of history. Remarkably, Marion saved it, and now the Internet Archive will digitize her tapes and we’ll be able to search them online for free. This is a mystery in the form of a time capsule. It’s about a radical Communist activist, who became a fabulously wealthy recluse archivist. Her work was crazy but it was also genius, and she would pay a profound price for dedicating her life to this visionary and maddening project.
Find screening info here.
Girls Always Happy – Written and Directed by Yang Mingming (One Week Only in Chicago)
Wu (Yang Mingming) and her mother (Nai An) live in a Beijing hutong — an old community of cramped alleyways where everyone knows your business and houses are so close together you can smell when neighbors start using a new cooking oil. It’s not just the neighborhood that’s claustrophobic: At the heart of “Girls Always Happy” is the relationship between Wu, an aspiring screenwriter in her 20s, and her bitter, superstitious mother, who has recently turned to writing as well. The tension between the pair is raw, honest, mean, and sometimes funny – with no blow too low and no memory too painful to poke at. As Wu and her mother bicker, they also worry about money and carry on their own misadventures in love. Wu dates and then dumps an older film professor, while her mother cynically cares for Wu’s grandfather, hoping the women will be written into his will.
Find screening info here.
Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power (Documentary) – Directed by Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont (Available on Hulu November 19)
“Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power”: White Pine Pictures
For a year, a film crew had exclusive access to Margaret Atwood and her late partner, Graeme Gibson, as they traveled to speaking engagements around the world, as well as to the set of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The film also delves into Margaret Atwood’s backstory, growing up in the Canadian wilderness, her early days as a poet at Harvard where she met and married a classmate, later meeting her life-partner Graeme Gibson and writing “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Atwood’s major works are explored and threaded through the film, revealing the personal and societal factors that inform her stories. Stories are shared by closest friends and family and, of course, directly by Atwood herself. It also shows her as she completed the final chapters of her much-anticipated sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” — a rare glimpse into the writer’s practice, as she wrote on planes, boats, and on the road.
Radioflash (Also Available on VOD)
When a nuclear device causes an electromagnetic pulse that kills power to more than 200 million people, a teenage girl (Brighton Sharbino) must help lead her family to survival in a dark new world.
FILMS MADE BY WOMEN OPENING
The Hottest August (Documentary) – Directed by Brett Story (Opens in NY and LA)
“The Hottest August”
“The Hottest August” gives us a window into the collective consciousness of the present. The film’s point of departure is one city over one month: New York City, including its outer boroughs, during August 2017. It’s a month heavy with the tension of a new President, growing anxiety over everything from rising rents to marching white nationalists, and unrelenting news of either wildfires or hurricanes on every coast. The film pivots on the question of futurity: what does the future look like from where we are standing? And what if we are not all standing in the same place?
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Brett Story.
Find screening info here.
Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops (Documentary) – Directed by Jenifer McShane (Opens in NY and LA) (Premieres on HBO November 19)
Director Jenifer McShane follows two members – Ernie and Joe – of the San Antonio Police Department’s 10-person Mental Health Unit, who are helping to change the way police respond to mental health calls. Their jail diversion work is humane and desperately needed to improve not only the health of the mentally ill, but also of their families. Ernie and Joe head a special team that looks to treat mental health calls as opposed to the traditional policing tactics. The two officers and their colleagues in this unique department provide hope and inspiration at a time when we need it most, and show that great ideas and inspiration can come from any corner of the country.
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Jenifer McShane.
Find screening info here.
Sequestrada – Written and Directed by Sabrina McCormick and Soopum Sohn (Opens in NY)
“Sequestrada” follows Kamodjara (Kamodjara Xipaia) and her father, members of the Arara, an Amazonian indigenous tribe. When they leave their reservation to protest a dam that will displace their people, Kamodjara is separated from her family and kidnapped by traffickers. Roberto (Marcelo Olinto), an indigenous agency bureaucrat overseeing a report that could change everything, is under pressure to support the dam’s construction. Thomas (Tim Blake Nelson), an American investor in the dam, makes his way to Brazil to sway Roberto’s opinion. The film tells the story of how these three lives intertwine against a backdrop of geopolitics and environmental disaster.
Find screening info here.
Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (Documentary) – Directed by Eva Orner (Available on Netflix November 20)
“Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator” examines the dramatic rise and fall of the controversial founder of hot yoga, Bikram Choudhury. Arriving in Beverly Hills from Calcutta, India, in the early 1970s, Choudhury quickly cultivated a celebrity following and built a global fitness empire that furnished him with extreme wealth. But by the 2010s, as numerous sexual abuse allegations emerged and stories of his aggressive, cult-like training environment surfaced, the lawsuits started to mount and Choudhury’s unorthodox teaching style became front-page news. “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator” shines a light on the stories of the women who took him down and explores the contradiction of how this healing discipline could simultaneously help and hurt so many.
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Eva Orner.
The Knight Before Christmas – Directed by Monika Mitchell; Written by Cara J. Russell (Available on Netflix November 21)
“The Knight Before Christmas”: Netflix
After a magical sorceress transports medieval knight Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse) to present-day Ohio during the holiday season, he befriends Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens), a clever and kind science teacher who’s been disillusioned by love. Brooke helps Sir Cole navigate the modern world and helps him discover how to fulfill his mysterious one true quest – the only act that will return him home. But as he and Brooke grow closer, Sir Cole begins to wonder just how much he wants to return to his old life.
TV PREMIERES
Dollface – Created by Jordan Weiss (Premieres November 15 on Hulu)
“Dollface”
Kat Dennings stars as a young woman who, after being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, must deal with her own imagination when she literally and metaphorically re-enters the world of women, in order to rekindle the female friendships she left behind.
The Club – Written and Directed by Camila Ibarra (Premieres November 15 on Netflix)
Dealing with the pressure of his father and his need to be someone, Pablo decides to start a new shady, tricky business that will lead him to some happy but tragic experiences.
The Crown (Season 3 Premieres November 17 on Netflix)
“The Crown”: Sophie Mutevelian
To say that we are all excited about the return of “The Crown,” particularly here in the States, is an understatement. And the fact that we get to see Olivia Colman – who won an Oscar for playing Queen Anne in “The Favourite” – put on the tiara of another British monarch makes it even more enticing. I’ve taken a look at the first two episodes of the new season and they do not disappoint. “The Crown’s” third season takes place in the 1960s: everyone has gotten a bit older, and the whole cast has switched. Colman’s Queen Elizabeth II is a woman who vacillates between knowing exactly how to perform her duty and being very uncomfortable in that role. She is heavily influenced by her advisors, all men who want to maintain the status quo and let her know that at every turn. (Melissa Silverstein)
Jewel’s Hunt (Documentary Short) – Directed by Alexandra Stergiou (Premieres November 18 on PBS)
Sixteen-year-old Jewel is next in a long line of skilled Alaskan hunters. But can she balance the complications of a modern teenager with her connection to village life? “Jewel’s Hunt” is an insightful exploration of what it means to come of age in complicated times in Unalakleet, Alaska.
Iliza Shlesinger: Unveiled (Comedy Special) (Premieres November 19 on Netflix)
Iliza Shlesinger is back in her fifth Netflix original comedy special, titled “Unveiled.” Armed with the newlywed ring on her finger and stories to tell, Iliza pulls back the veil on wedding planning, garters, honeymooning, and the dangers of a zombie bachelorette army.
Lorena, Light-Footed Woman (Documentary Short) (Premieres November 20 on Netflix)
Lorena Ramírez of Mexico’s Rarámuri community lives a pastoral life – except when she straps on her sandals to compete as an ultramarathon runner.
Cheat (Miniseries) – Created by Gaby Hull; Directed by Louise Hooper (Premieres November 21 on Sundance Now)
University lecturer Dr. Leah Dale (Katherine Kelly) has always prided herself on her academic integrity, so when final year student Rose (Molly Windsor) submits a suspiciously top-grade essay, Leah is quick to call her out. But there’s more going on than meets the eye as Rose takes the challenge as a personal affront. What begins as a seemingly open-and-shut case of academic deception soon spirals out of control.
VOD/STREAMING RELEASES
“Too Late To Die Young”
Earthquake Bird (Netflix, November 15)
Blinded by the Light – Directed by Gurinder Chadha; Written by Gurinder Chadha, Sarfraz Manzoor, and Paul Mayeda Berges (VOD, November 19)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (VOD, November 19)
The Fare – Written by Brinna Kelly (VOD, November 19)
Fiddlin’ (Documentary) – Directed by Julie Simone; Written by Janice Hampton, Julie Simone, and Vicki Vlasic (VOD, November 19)
Funan – Written by Magali Pouzol and Denis Do (VOD, November 19)
Ms. Purple (VOD, November 19)
Pele’s Last Show (Documentary) – Written and Directed by Emanuela Audisio and Matteo Patrono (VOD, November 19)
Pretty Little Stalker (VOD, November 19)
Queen of Hearts – Directed by May el-Toukhy; Written by May el-Toukhy and Maren Louise Käehne (VOD, November 19)
Too Late to Die Young – Written and Directed by Dominga Sotomayor (VOD, November 19)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? – Written by Holly Gent, Richard Linklater, and Vincent Palmo (VOD, November 19)
JOIN WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD FOR A MEET-UP IN LONDON
Melissa Silverstein will be hosting a meet-up at the Curzon Soho theater on December 4. Please join her and the W&H community for some drinks and conversation!
Details are below. No RSVP needed.
Hope to see you there!
Women and Hollywood London Meet-Up
December 4, 2019
Curzon Soho, Downstairs Alcove
99 Shaftesbury Ave
Soho, London W1D 5DY
6:30-8 p.m.
Cash Bar
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BLOG
Kasi Lemmons, Gloria Estefan, & More to Be Honored at NY Women in Film & TV Muse Awards
Quote of the Day: “Queen & Slim’s” Melina Matsoukas on “Bonnie and Clyde” Comparisons & Inclusivity
Ready for Their Close-Up: VOD and Web Series Picks
Jennifer Lopez, Renée Zellweger, and More Talk Inclusion and Imposter Syndrome in THR Roundtable
Quotes of the Day: Julie Delpy and Marjane Satrapi on the Constraints Women Filmmakers Face
Exclusive: Julianne Moore & Michelle Williams Discuss Gender Swap in “After the Wedding” Featurette
Kristin Scott Thomas to Be Honored at BIFA Awards
Octavia Spencer Will Receive the PGA’s 2020 Visionary Award
2020 Cinema Eye Honor Nominees: “American Factory,” “One Child Nation,” & More
Note: All descriptions are from press materials, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Women and Hollywood on Twitter @WomenaHollywood and Melissa Silverstein @melsil.
To contact Women and Hollywood, email melissa@womenandhollywood.com.
