Movies & Documentaries Releasing This Week!--Some Other Woman, Total Trust, s-yéwyáw/AWAKEN, Imperfect, Monolith, Land Of Bad

We all see the bigger studios with their push for the next big film at the box office, but then there are those smaller films released on a smaller budget that don't always get some press.

I have done this in the past but I have been thinking about bringing it back to the site, let me know in the comments what you think and if you would like to see more of this.

I will have reviews coming for each of these films in the next couple of days.

Some Other Woman--Available Tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb 13, 2024 on VOD/Digital, 

Directed by: Joel David Moore

Written by: Yuri Baranovsky, Angela Gulner, Josh Long

Starring: Ashley Greene, Tom Felton, Amanda Crew, Brooke Lyons

A woman whisked away to a tropical island for her husband's work encounters a strange woman who takes her life. Soon, reality begins to unravel.

                   

Total Trust(Documentary)--Available Feb 13, 2024, on VOD/Digital, 

 Total Trust tells the personal stories of people living at the sharp end of surveillance and intimidation by the Chinese state.

                   

Director: Liz Marshall

Releasing on TELUS Optik and online and Hollywood Suite across Canada on Feb 13, 2024

About: The TELUS original film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Liz Marshall (Meat The Future, The Ghosts in Our Machine), features stories of hope and homecoming as Indigenous multimedia changemakers learn and document the teachings of their Elders. The character-driven documentary connects the transformative stories of artist, musician and medicine woman Ecko Aleck of the Nlaka'pamux Nation (Lytton, BC), filmmaker and Traditional Wellness Coordinator Alfonso Salinas of the shíshálh Nation (Sunshine Coast, BC) and storyteller and impact producer Charlene SanJenko of Splatsin of the Secwépemc Nation (Shuswap, BC) as they learn and document the traditional cultural teachings and legacies of their Elders, including the impacts of Canada’s Residential School system. Infused with Indigenous ceremony, s-yéwyáw / Awaken walks alongside the process of intergenerational healing and calls the audience’s attention to the filmmaking process of narrative collaboration between an Indigenous and settler team.

                      

A professional company of actors with disabilities defies expectations by taking center stage in the musical Chicago.

Imperfect will  be available on digital on Feb 16th

Director's Statement

While the past few years have seen an increased presence of disability in entertainment and media, there is still a long way to go to achieve authentic and comprehensive representation of artists with disabilities on stage and screen…without condescension, pity, or stigmatization.

 In 2017, the Ruderman Family Foundation produced a white paper showing that while 20-25% of the U.S. population has a disability,fewer than 2% of all television characters had a disability, and 95% of top TV show characters with disabilities were played by non-disabled performers (Ruderman 2017).

 In 2021, a report from Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity (TTIE), Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Women in Film showed that 93.0% of writers said their most recent writers room had no disabled or Deaf writers.

 In theatre, there is no significant data available on representation of disability.

 In addition to representation, the disability community still fights against shame-based narratives. Disabled characters that do show up are frequently one-dimensional, with disability overwhelming their stories at the exclusion of other life experiences and complexities.

 imperfect fights against these historical trends. The film puts strong, talented artists with disabilities front and center, telling their own stories. Working under the direction of a disabled leader, they produce unique, groundbreaking, award-winning productions.

 As the entertainment industries begin to turn the tide around inclusion of disabled artists, imperfect presents those who are already doing the work, blowing the socks off of audiences and critics as they transform our understanding of what is possible.

                      

Well Go USA will release the sci-fi thriller film MONOLITH in theaters and on digital on February 16, 2024. The film had its international premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival in the Midnighters section to rave reviews.

The film stars Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise), directed by Matt Vesely in his feature film directorial debut and written by Lucy Campbell ("The Big Nothing").

SYNOPSIS: While trying to salvage her career, a disgraced journalist begins investigating a strange conspiracy theory. But as the trail leads uncomfortably close to home, she is left to grapple with the lies at the heart of her own story.

                   

The Avenue will release LAND OF BAD Exclusively In Theaters on February 16, 2024.

LAND OF BAD is an edge-of-your-seat action film starring Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games franchise), Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Luke Hemsworth ("Westworld"), Ricky Whittle ("American Gods") and Milo Ventimiglia ("This Is Us"). The film was directed by William Eubank (Underwater) and co-written by David Frigerio (The Signal) and Eubank.

SYNOPSIS: When a Delta Force team is ambushed in enemy territory, a rookie officer (Liam Hemsworth) refuses to abandon them. Their only hope lies with an Air Force drone pilot (Russell Crowe) as the eyes in the sky during a brutal 48-hour battle for survival.