New Release Thursday, April 9, 2026

Six titles worth knowing about that just landed on Relay. A mix of true stories, festival favorites, and one film where Christopher Lloyd plays a Holocaust survivor who picks up a gun at 86 years old.

Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words

Director Michael Pack spent 30 hours interviewing two people: Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni. Nobody else. No opposing voices, no legal scholars, no Anita Hill rebuttal. The Baltimore Sun ran the headline: "If you want a one-sided, right-wing, celebratory version of the life of Clarence Thomas, PBS has just the ticket. Yes, PBS."

The political context around the film is its own story. Pack is a longtime Steve Bannon collaborator. Shortly after finishing this documentary, Trump appointed him to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Pack fired the heads of Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting in a single evening. Biden asked for his resignation two hours after taking office.

But the Pin Point, Georgia material works regardless of where you sit politically. Thomas was born into poverty in 1948. His father left when he was two. His mother sent him to live with his grandfather Myers Anderson, a man with a third-grade education who delivered coal and heating oil. Thomas later titled his memoir My Grandfather's Son. Whatever you think of the justice, the origin story is real.

Documentary

July 7: Who Killed the President of Haiti?

The first Haitian political drama to receive nationwide U.S. theatrical release. AMC theaters. The City of Miami proclaimed May 20, 2025 as "Robenson Lauvince Day" in honor of the director.

The real assassination it depicts is something no screenwriter would pitch because nobody would believe it. In 2021, a hit squad of Colombian mercenaries, hired through a Florida security company, raided President Moise's home before dawn yelling "DEA operation!" At least one suspect was a confirmed DEA informant. After the killing, the suspect called his DEA contacts, who told him to surrender to local authorities. A former DEA informant was later sentenced to life in a U.S. court.

Director Lauvince founded the first Haitian-American production company to bring a Haitian Creole-language film to the U.S. box office. His line about the project: "This is the first time our story is being told from our own perspective, through the lens of a Haitian, with the depth, dignity, and complexity it deserves."

Action/Adventure

Sew Torn

Director Freddy Macdonald was the youngest Directing Fellow ever accepted into the AFI Conservatory. His six-minute short version of this film was acquired by Searchlight Pictures and qualified for the Oscars. His thesis film won a Student Academy Award. The Hollywood Reporter called him a "wunderkind." He's in his twenties.

The feature version uses a branching structure. Barbara, a seamstress, stumbles onto a drug deal gone wrong. Three chapters show three choices: Perfect Crime. Call Police. Drive Away. Each plays out to its own conclusion. Think Run Lola Run applied to a neo-noir moral laboratory.

It premiered at SXSW 2024, screened on the Piazza Grande at Locarno, won the Max Ophuls Prize, landed on Netflix, and holds a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The kid is doing fine.

Thriller

Hazard

Eddie Mensore grew up in West Virginia. His debut feature Mine 9 put real coal miners underground with his actors. For Hazard, he did the same thing with addiction: connected lead actor Alex Roe with people in recovery and took him to actual NA meetings in Appalachia.

The screenplay came from a real visit. Mensore's college roommate had a brother living in Hazard, Kentucky, deep in the opioid crisis. He visited during his undergraduate years at WVU. The experience stayed.

Sosie Bacon came off the massive success of Smile and chose this. Steven Ogg, who voiced Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V, rounds out the cast. Shot on location in Harlan County, Kentucky. Premiered at the 25th Annual Woodstock Film Festival.

Drama

Bang Bang

Tim Blake Nelson trained for six weeks at a boxing gym in Manhattan. He was 58. He's the first to admit he didn't have the natural build of a lightweight. Specific details in the script, like a ketchup sandwich used to save money and make weight, came from the autobiography of Teddy Atlas, the legendary trainer who worked with Mike Tyson. Nelson met Atlas in person to prepare.

Director Vincent Grashaw comes from a boxing family and has boxed himself. His previous work includes co-producing Bellflower at Sundance and directing What Josiah Saw, a horror film that earned strong notices.

The film premiered at Tribeca, then played Locarno's Piazza Grande, Deauville, and Oldenburg before getting picked up for North American distribution. Set in Detroit. A retired boxer named Bernard "Bang Bang" Rozyski trains his estranged grandson while old rivalries resurface around a mayoral race.

Drama

Guns & Moses

Christopher Lloyd was 86 during filming. He plays a Holocaust survivor. The role has him lecturing a young white nationalist about the genocidal reality of his ideology. Doc Brown as moral witness.

The film was inspired by the 2019 Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting, where one person was killed and three injured on the last day of Passover. Director Salvador Litvak visited the site and attended the funeral of Lori Kaye, the woman murdered in the attack. The screenplay takes the emotional core and relocates it into a murder mystery where a small-town rabbi becomes an unlikely detective.

It opened the 2024 Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and splits audiences. Fans call it "insanely good." Critics flag tonal whiplash between the comedy and the violence. Chabad.org called it "a spirited, if inexact, love letter to Chabad." The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at 91%.

Action/Adventure

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All six streaming now on Relay.