Films About Women Opening November 21
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night — Written and Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour
Strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps, and other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity and hopelessness where a lonely vampire (Sheila Vand) stalks its most unsavory inhabitants. Cinema’s first Iranian vampire western, Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut feature basks in the sheer pleasure of pulp. A joyful mash-up of genre, archetype, and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films, and the Iranian New Wave. Amped by a mix of Iranian rock, techno, and Morricone-inspired riffs, its airy, anamorphic, black-and-white aesthetic and artfully drawn-out scenes combine the simmering tension of Sergio Leone with the weird surrealism of David Lynch. (Press materials)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 arrived in theatres last night, and according to estimates, it will be the biggest opening weekend of the year. Predictions have it arriving at between $130 and $150 million. The previous two films in the franchise, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, both opened at over $150 million, and there is no reason to believe this film won’t do the same. Read more. (Melissa Silverstein)
Films About Women Opening November 28
The Babadook — Written and Directed by Jennifer Kent
Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her “out of control” six-year-old Samuel (Noah Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called “The Babadook” turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, and he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son’s behavior, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real. (Press materials)
Touch the Wall (doc)
Touch the Wall is the story of two Olympic swimmers — gold-medalist Missy Franklin and silver-medalist Kara Lynn Joyce — and their journey to the 2012 London Olympics. When the veteran Joyce joins teenager Franklin and her age-group swim club, everything changes. The veteran Kara finds a new start and a world-class training partner; Missy finds a veteran and older sister to learn from. Together they train, compete, and support each other until the pool becomes too big for the two of them. Thrown apart by coach and circumstance, they reunite at Olympic Trials to redefine what it means to win. (Press materials)
Films About Women Currently Playing
Beyond the Lights — Written and Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Butter on the Latch — Directed by Josephine Decker
Delusions of Guinevere — Directed and Co-Written by Joanna Bowzer
Miss Meadows — Written and Directed by Karen Leigh Hopkins
Actress (docudrama)
Jessabelle
Before I Go To Sleep
Laggies — Directed by Lynn Shelton; Written by Andrea Seigel
White Bird in a Blizzard
Dear White People
The Golden Era — Directed by Ann Hui
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Addicted — Co-Written by Christina Welsh
Annabelle
Tracks
Wetlands
Maleficent — Written by Linda Woolverton
Films Directed by Women Opening November 21
Stones in the Sun — Written and Directed by Patricia Benoit
A woman struggling to forget the atrocities she has suffered reunites with her husband. A single mother striving for assimilation in the suburbs takes in her activist sister. And the host of a popular anti-government radio show finds his estranged father on his doorstep. Set in New York’s Haitian community, Stones in the Sun weaves together stories of love and family irridiated by the fallout of political terror. (Press materials)
The Sleepwalker — Directed and Co-Written by Mona Fastvold
A young couple, Kaia and Andrew (Gitte Witt and Christopher Abbott), are renovating Kaia’s secluded family estate. Their lives are violently disrupted by the unexpected arrival of Kaia’s sister, Christine (Stephanie Ellis), and her fiancé, Ira (Brady Corbet). (Press materials)
Films Directed by Women Opening November 28
Remote Area Medical (doc) — Co-Directed by Farihah Zaman
During the US debate about healthcare reform, the media — reporters and news crews and filmmakers — failed to put a human face on what it means to not have access to healthcare. Remote Area Medical fills that gap: It is a film about people, not policy. Focusing on a single three-day clinic held in the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, Remote Area Medical affords us an insider’s perspective on the ebb and flow of the event — from the tense 3:30 AM ticket distribution that determines who gets seen to the routine check-ups that take dramatic turns for the worse, to the risky means to which some patients resort for pain relief. We meet a doctor who also drives an 18-wheeler, a denture maker who moonlights as a jeweler, and the organization’s founder, Stan Brock, who first imagined Remote Area Medical while living as a cowboy in the Amazon rainforest, hundreds of miles from the nearest doctor. But it is the extraordinary stories of the patients, desperate for medical attention, that create a lasting impression about the state of modern health care in America. (Press materials)
Films Directed by Women Currently Playing
Bad Hair — Directed and Written by Mariana Rondon (doc)
The Playback Singer — Directed and Written by Suju Vijayan
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely — Directed by Josephine Decker
There’s Always Woodstock
ABCs of Death 2 — Directed by Kristina Buozyte, Jen and Sylvia Soska
Citizenfour (doc) — Directed by Laura Poitras
Awake: The Life of Yogananda (doc) — Directed by Paola di Florio and Lisa Leeman
I Am Eleven (doc) — Directed by Genevieve Bailey
Films Written by Women Currently Playing
