We love to highlight and showcase the work of women filmmakers here at Bitch Flicks. If you will be in the Los Angeles area, here are three films written and directed by women — The View from Tall, Namour, and Play the Devil — you should check out at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs from June 1 through June 9 at ArcLight Cinemas.
The View from Tall
Directed by Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss; Written by Caitlin Parrish
(U.S. Dramatic Competition) | June 6, 8:40pm
“Justine is like many 17-year-olds who struggle in high school: She is smart but unpopular, her parents don’t understand her and even her sister pretends not to know her in public. What sets Justine apart is that the entire school is aware of her recent sexual relationship with a teacher. Feeling both visible and ignored to uncomfortable degrees, she is mandated to see a therapist, Douglas, a disabled man with demons of his own. Justine finds a sympathetic ear in Douglas, and ultimately recognizes an equally lonely kindred spirit. As the lines of propriety between them are stretched, Justine must navigate the thorny issues of age, lust and leaving adolescent life behind.
“First-time directors Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss bring their years of theatrical experience and collaboration to this unique and rare take on female empowerment on the cusp of adulthood.” — Drea Clark
Namour
Directed/written by Heidi Saman
(LA Muse Competition) | June 5, 1:40pm
“Steven Bassem spends his evenings at an upscale restaurant among the nouveau riche elite. But he’s not there to dine; he’s there to park cars. An all-but-invisible valet, Steven is acutely aware of his dead-end situation and begins to act out erratically. As the bonds of his once tightly knit Arab-American family erode, Steven acts out in increasingly erratic ways, and struggles to figure out who he is and what he ought to be doing.
“Set in the economic recession of the late 2000’s, writer/director Heidi Saman’s debut feature film sports a bold, sleek and nuanced visual style that pays homage to Los Angeles, while capturing the city’s unique capacity for alienation as a distinctly realist backdrop to Steven’s internal turmoil.” — Cristhian Barron and Cooper Hopkins
Play the Devil
Directed/written by Maria Govan
(World Dramatic Competition) | June 4, 3:15pm
“Gregory, a gifted student from a working class family, is favorably positioned to win a coveted medical scholarship, and yet is secretly cultivating a desire to become a photographer. James, an established businessman, uses his wealth and access to pique the young man’s latent artistic inclinations. When James cannot accept Gregory’s boundaries, the relationship spirals into a fateful, carnal dance during the “Jab” (devil) play, on Carnival’s Monday night.
“Bursting with confidence, style and vision against the lush landscape of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival, Bahamian writer/director Maria Govan’s sophomore feature complicates notions of masculinity, privilege and sexuality in this nuanced, yet brutal, coming-of-age portrait that deftly thwarts any easy moral judgments of her characters’ actions and desires.” — Roya Rastegar and Medalit Tay
All film descriptions and photos courtesy of Indie PR, used with permission.
