Opening November 1-5, 2021- Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of November 1 to 7 that are of particular interest:  

Monday, November 1  

• America – Field of Vision (online at fieldofvision.org) – USA – Documentary short directed by Garrett Bradley (Time). Inspired by the earliest surviving feature-length film with an all-Black cast, Bert Williams’ Lime Kiln Club Field Day, America reveals and reinterprets a lost history of Black cinema through a series of stunning black-and-white vignettes of joy, domesticity, and triumph.

Tuesday, November 2 

• The Flood – 4Digital Media (VOD) – Australia – Western written and directed by Victoria Wharfe McIntyre. When a woman’s husband, daughter, land and innocence are ripped from her, she embarks on a brutal journey of retribution and revenge.

Wednesday, November 3 

• Simple As Water – HBO (NY Premiere at IFC Center; HBO+HBO MAX release on Nov. 16) – USA – Documentary directed by Megan Mylan. A meditation on the elemental bonds of family told through portraits of four Syrian families in the aftermath of war.

Friday, November 5 

• Beans – Filmrise (Cinemas, VOD) – Canada – Drama directed by Tracey Deer, co-written by Deer and Meredith Vuchnich. Based on true events, Tracey Deer’s debut feature chronicles the 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Quebec.

 

• Eternals – Disney (Cinemas) – UK / USA – Marvel superhero movie directed by Chloe Zhao: The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations.

 

• Hell Hath No Fury – Well Go USA (Cinemas) – USA / France / Kazakhstan / Belarus – International action film co-written by Katharine Lee McEwan and Romain Serir, starring Nina Bergman. Branded a traitor by her countrymen, French national Marie DuJardin is rescued by American soldiers on one condition: to survive, she must lead them to a cache of gold hunted by the Nazis, the French resistance, and the Americans alike.

 

• Hive – Kino Lorber / Zeitgeist (NY Premiere at Film Forum) – Kosovo / Switzerland / Albania / Republic of Macedonia – Drama written and directed by Blerta Basholli. Based on the true story of Fahrije (Yllka Gashi), who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her husband went missing during the war in Kosovo. Kosovo’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film.

 

• Ida Red – Saban Films (Cinemas) – USA – Action film co-starring Melissa Leo. Ida “Red” Walker may not survive her terminal illness while incarcerated for armed robbery. She turns to her son, Wyatt, for one last job and a chance to regain her freedom.

 

• Love It Was Not – Greenwich Entertainment (NY + LA Premiere) – Israel / Austria – Documentary written and directed by Maya Sarfaty. Flamboyant and full of life, Helena Citron is taken to Auschwitz as a young woman, and soon finds unlikely solace under the tutelage of Franz Wunsch, a high-ranking SS officer who falls in love with her and her magnetic singing voice.

 

• Mark, Mary & Some Other People – Vertical Entertainment (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Comedy written and directed by Hannah Marks. Newlyweds reluctantly decide to give ethical non-monogamy a try as their lives get increasingly complicated.

 

• Spencer – Neon (Cinemas) – Germany / Chili / UK / USA – Drama directed by Pablo Larraín, starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. During her Christmas holidays with the royal family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, Diana decides to leave her marriage to Prince Charles.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.