Weekly Update for February 3: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (Documentary) — Directed by Barbara Kopple (Opens in NY and LA; Available on YouTube Red on February 8)

“This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous” portrays the intimate journey of Gigi Lazzarato, a fearless young woman who began life as Gregory Lazzarato, posting beauty and fashion videos to YouTube from his bedroom, only to later come out as a transgender female to an audience of millions. Directed by two-time Oscar award winner Barbara Kopple, the film provides a raw and revealing look into a life that never compromises happiness and spotlights a family’s unwavering and unconditional love for a child. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Barbara Kopple.

Rings

A new chapter in the beloved “Ring” horror franchise. A young woman (Matilda Lutz) becomes worried about her boyfriend (Alex Roe) when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after he has viewed it. She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a “movie within the movie” that no one has ever seen before. (Press materials)

Don’t Knock Twice (Also Available on VOD)

“Knock once to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead…” So goes a disturbing urban legend involving an abandoned house supposedly inhabited by a vengeful, child-stealing witch. When troubled teen Chloe (Lucy Boynton) raps at the door one night, she has no idea the horror she’s about to unleash. Fleeing to the country home of her estranged mother (Katee Sackhoff) — a recovering addict who’s turned her life around to become a famous artist — Chloe must learn to trust the woman who gave her up years ago in order to stop the bloodthirsty, shape-shifting demon stalking them. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

The Woman in the Septic Tank 2
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 (Opens in NY and LA)
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

None

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

The Bye Bye Man — Directed by Stacy Title
Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Amber Edwards

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

I Am Michael — Co-Written by Stacey Miller (Also Available on VOD)
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
Office Christmas Party — Co-Written by Laura Solon
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Written by J.K. Rowling
Bad Santa 2 — Co-Written by Shauna Cross
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — Written by Jane Goldman

TV Premieres This Week

Santa Clarita Diet (Premieres February 3 on Netflix)

Sheila and Joel (Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant), a married couple, are real estate agents in Santa Clarita, California. When Sheila dies, their lives take a dark turn. (Press materials)

Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric (Documentary) (Premieres February 6 on National Geographic)

It used to appear so simple for many of us: you were a boy or you were a girl. Girls wore pink, and boys wore blue; girls played with dolls, and boys played with trucks. Yet around the globe, these traditional notions of gender are changing rapidly, and labels are no longer so clear cut. National Geographic sets out to explore this evolving concept of gender through the lens of science, society, and culture in the groundbreaking new two-hour documentary “Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric.” (Press Materials)

Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison (Documentary) — Directed by Kristi Jacobson (Premieres February 6 on HBO)

Located on an Appalachian mountaintop in Wise County, Virginia, Red Onion State Prison is a “supermax” facility built to house individual inmates in 8’x10’ solitary-confinement cells, 23 hours a day, for months, years and sometimes decades. Directed by Kristi Jacobson, Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison explores life on both sides of the bars, raising provocative questions about punishment in America today. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Kristi Jacobson.

Imposters (Premieres February 7 on Bravo)

“Imposters” follows Maddie (Inbar Lavi, “Gang Related”), a persona shifting con-artist who is as beautiful as she is dangerous, leaving her unwitting victims tormented when they realize they have been used and robbed of everything — including their hearts. But things get complicated when her former targets — Ezra (Rob Heaps, “Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night”), Richard (Parker Young, “Suburgatory”), and Jules (newcomer Marianne Rendón) — team up to track her down. While pursuing her newest mark, Maddie meets a potential love interest, Patrick (Stephen Bishop, “Being Mary Jane”), which threatens to derail her assignment, much to the chagrin of her mysterious boss, The Doctor. Meanwhile, her dejected past lovers manage to take control of their new realities, not realizing that in their quest to confront her, they’ll have to face their own truths and find new versions of themselves along the way. (Press materials)

Black Women in Medicine (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Crystal R. Emery (Premieres February 8 on World Channel)

“Black Women in Medicine” is the first documentary project to explore the history, contemporary issues, and future possibilities of African American women physicians by featuring the diverse voices of young medical students, practicing physicians, and elder trailblazers all of whom share intimate stories of what it means to be a Black Woman Doctor in America. “Black Women in Medicine” includes rarely seen documentation of Black women practicing medicine during critical operations, emergency room urgent care, and community wellness sessions as well as in depth original interviews and compelling archival images. In telling the stories of women who have persevered in medical fields in part by overcoming barriers linked to race and gender, “Black Women in Medicine” provides audiences with a vivid and stunning experience of the triumph of the human spirit. (Press materials)

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