“MÉBÉT” is breaking the trend of child marriages in Gambia and inspiring world-wide with its message
Watch “MÉBÉT” until 2/28 on our festival platform, REBECCA MARTIN: How did you come to this story/film? JAMA JACK: I wrote the story in 2012. At the time, I was a student studying for my undergrad degree in Morocco. One of my outlets for navigating racism while being an international Black student in an Arab […]
Jacqueline Xerri on her coming-of-age short “Monkey Bars”
REBECCA MARTIN: How did you come to this project? JACQUELINE XERRI: Three years ago, I made my first short, called “Teen Night”, which is a coming-of-age story. This was my first try at tackling a subject like this. Because for me, it’s super personal, and I wasn’t sure yet how I wanted to share it […]
Sparking joy during a pandemic: filmmakers Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis speak about their Sundance short “Snowy”
Most people grow up with animals in their lives, whether it’s a pet, a neighborhood squirrel, or a trip to the zoo. Filmmakers Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis did a beautiful thing by creating a short film about a pet turtle named Snowy. Snowy is a 25 year-old turtle and for most of those […]
Indigenous Filmmaker Erica Tremblay charts her road to making “Little Chief” and future projects
Erica Tremblay is the recipient of 2021 “Of A Certain Age” Grant, a grant created in Lynn Shelton’s honor. Northwest Film Forum is behind the grant, along with Duplass Brothers Productions. If there’s anything that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, it’s the sovereignty of joy. And how for so long our stories have […]
#StartWith8Hollywood, an initiative making waves in the film industry for Women of Color
Interview took place 9/18/20, bringing it back for awareness of #StartWith8Hollywood mission and program. These days, in a time where we are mostly isolated and at home, hashtags are uniting us through the movements that are emerging. A few months ago, there’s a hashtag that lit a fire underneath the Hollywood industry: #StartWith8Hollywood, an initiative […]
Pouring myself a cup of ambition: ‘9 to 5’ meets #MeToo
Feature posted November 2019, bringing our feature back for Dolly Parton’s birthday! Before #MeToo there was “9 to 5.” It wasn’t a hashtag, but it was a movement nonetheless. Dolly Parton wrote the song “9 to 5”, which shared the same title of the film, and it opened the movie. The song has become an […]
A conversation with YELLOW BIRD author Sierra Crane Murdoch about real-life hero and anti-hero Lissa Yellow Bird
This year, two people from True Crime novels came to our Cinema Femme pages because of the way their story struck me. Earlier this year, I spoke with Nancy Miller about Michelle McNamara, author of the book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which followed her investigation on finding The Golden State Killer. I was […]
The 50 best films of 2020: Part 2
Because of the pandemic, and the closing of theaters, this was a year for great cinema, especially for those underrepresented onscreen. Blockbuster films took a backseat to indie gems. My kind of movie year. Of course, nothing beats the theatrical communal experience. I loved my experience at Sundance this year, which was such a special […]
The 50 best films of 2020: Part 1
Because of the pandemic, and the closing of theaters, this was a year for great cinema, especially for those underrepresented onscreen. Blockbuster films took a backseat to indie gems. My kind of movie year. Of course, nothing beats the theatrical communal experience. I loved my experience at Sundance this year, which was such a special […]
Julia Hart reinvents 1970s thriller genre with a female lead in “I’m Your Woman”
I burned it all up, I burned it up until nothing was left, but the fire. And then in Eddie came with the baby. Jean, “I’m Your Woman” Attending Sundance 2016 was a trip on my bucket list that I never thought I’d take, and suddenly it seemed like it was my destiny. I was […]
Zeina Durra delves into her dreamy Sundance film ‘Luxor’
NOW STREAMING Sundance Interview from February 4, 2020. What I love the most about dreams is that they can take you into worlds that you’ve never visited, introduce you to people you’d normally never meet, and make you feel at home in an unfamiliar world. In a dream, there are pieces of a world that […]
Kyra Jones’ directorial debut sheds new light on sexual assault in “Go to the Body”
Kyra Jones is a force bubbling up in the industry. Her directorial debut “Go to the Body” (which is aiming for a 2023 release), has been winning pitch after pitch contest (Chicago International Film Festival, Screencraft), along with raising over $20K on its GoFundMe page. Kyra’s trio of producers, Angellic Ross, Aimy Tien, and Taylor […]