Sundance 2026: Unapologetically Imperfect: Siri Hjorton Wagner on Female Desire and Motherhood in “Without Kelly”
“Without Kelly” screened at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Shorts Program, following its Orizzonti International Short Film Award win at the Venice Film Festival. Made by Swedish filmmaking duo Lovisa Sirén (director) and Siri Hjorton Wagner (producer), the short offers a raw, intimate portrait of young single motherhood and the layered […]
Sundance 2025: Loren Waters on “Tiger”
Loren Waters’ beautiful documentary “Tiger” won the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film acts as a capsule of the Tiger family’s personal and artistic history. A family of painters and T-shirt print makers, the Tigers suffered illness and violent loss, forever fracturing them. The film stars […]
Sundance 2025: Meera Menon on “Didn’t Die”
Meera Menon initially set out with a goal of making a film where she could include her family. The film is co-written with her life partner, Paul Gleason, and a pivotal role is played by their baby daughter, Lakshmi. Menon wanted to create a set where hours were reasonable, and where her being a mother […]
Sundance 2025: Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni on “Cutting Through Rocks”
“Cutting Through Rocks” follows Sara Shahverdi’s brave story as she runs as the first Council Woman in her village’s history in Iran. She’s a midwife who’s delivered more than 400 babies, the only woman in town riding a motorcycle, and a force to be reckoned with who wants to fight for the equal rights of […]
Sundance 40: Mel Eslyn’s coming-of-age debut series “Penelope” will have you yearning for simpler times
Have you ever stood on a bridge and been tempted to throw your phone down into the water? Or chuck it right out the car window, letting it smash into little pieces behind you? When’s the last time you hugged a tree, or felt grass beneath your fingers? Living in a constant state of technology […]
Sundance 40: Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie capture the generational impacts of Native boarding schools in their award-winning doc “Sugarcane”
Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie won the jury prize for directing in the U.S. documentary category for their debut feature as collaborators. A well-deserved award, NoiseCat and Kassie delicately weave together a multigenerational story about the long-lasting effects of Indian boarding schools on Native peoples. “Sugarcane” takes place largely on a reserve in […]
Sierra Urich explores the spaces that children of immigrants occupy in her documentary feature debut “Joonam”
We bring back our Sundance 2023 interview with Sierra Urich in anticipation of the 12/1 theatrical release, kicking off in NYC. “Joonam” is a beautiful debut documentary from Iranian-American filmmaker Sierra Urich. In the film, Urich connects with her Persian mother and grandmother while learning Farsi and trying to build her own foundation with her […]
Sundance 2023: Erica Tremblay on her debut feature “Fancy Dance”
Making her first feature film at 42, Indigenous filmmaker Erica Tremblay is pissed off she hadn’t got the opportunity sooner. Despite being told ‘no’ many times, she kept going and continued on making her own short films, and eventually landed in the writer’s room of “Reservation Dogs.” Her feature film “Fancy Dance” centers around a […]
Sundance 2023: Razelle Benally on representation behind the camera and her new docuseries “Murder in Big Horn”
Co-Director Razelle Benally was inspired by her roots in her Oglala Lakota and Diné culture to connect with other Indigenous communities and share a larger story of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that is happening across all of Native America. Her new Showtime series focuses on the stories of three missing and murdered young Indigenous […]
“Sisters Rising” Co-Directors Willow O’Feral and Brad Heck on the power of documentary storytelling for the audience and themselves
“Sisters Rising” is an intimate portrait of 6 Native women who have survived sexual violence and/or domestic violence in their lives, and how that has transformed them. Through their trauma, they have become inspiring women who are fighting to help other women in their communities by providing support, sharing their stories, and working to change […]
Abigail Fuller’s latest doc “Shepherd’s Song” embraces visual cinematic approaches to non-narrative storytelling
Filmmaker Abigail Fuller (“Chef’s Table”, “Do You Dream in Color?”) was the recipient of the 2019 The North Face’s Move Mountains Film Makers Grant that empowered her to hire female department heads in her newest documentary, “Shepherd’s Song”. This female-backed film focuses on Jenya, a young shepherd who practices natural regenerative grazing with her herd […]
Look back: Rita Baghdadi’s Sundance premiere “Sirens” celebrates women who dare to revolt against their family and country’s expectations of them
We take a look back at our Sundance coverage of the documentary “Sirens” directed by Rita Baghdadi (@ritaamal). The film will be kicking off their theatrical release this Friday (9/30/22) in NYC . “There needs to be more nuanced portrayals of women in general. And not just nuanced, but raw, authentic women that may not be […]