Dawn Porter captures an awe-inspiring legacy in “John Lewis: Good Trouble”
We featured this interview on July 1st, 2020 before John Lewis passed. Dawn Porter won Mind the Gap (California Film Institute and Mill Valley Film Festival) Documentarian of the Year on 11/25/20. Black Lives Matter. There is a man named John Lewis, who has fought for that for over 60 years, and is still fighting […]
Sacha Polak’s beautiful and raw “Dirty God” places us in the skin of a burn victim
“Dirty God” is an incredibly beautiful film. It contains moments that are gut-wrenching, but also heartwarming at the same time. This dichotomy drew me deeper into the character of Jade, who became a burn victim after her ex-boyfriend threw acid in her face. As I learned from my interview with the Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak, […]
Shalini Kantayya shows how sci-fi is becoming reality in her AI doc “Coded Bias”
I have found myself in the midst of discovering another hero of mine. Shalini Kanyayya is my hero because she elevates, through her own work, trailblazing womxn in the AI industry. “Coded Bias” follows Joy Buolamwini through her investigation of implicit bias in face recognition technology. Joy has a PhD from the MIT Media Lab […]
Riveting thriller “Of Fish and Men” brings healing to Swiss filmmaker Stefanie Klemm
“Of Fish and Men” is a transformative film that is part thriller, part drama. In some cases, the film is not easy to watch with its traumatic moments, but there is so much beauty we see in the setting of the Swiss countryside. The basic plot is about a mother, Judith, and daughter, Milla, whose […]
Maya Zinshtein explores the complicated “love” between Evangelical Christians and Israelis in “‘Til Kingdom Come”
It is difficult for me to write an introduction for this piece, not because of the amazing interview I had with Maya Zinshtein about her documentary “‘Til Kingdom Come’, but how I’m having to grapple with some of the sad truths that my religious background paved for me, and how these shared “truths” have given […]
Emmy winning editor Kate Hackett discusses her directorial debut “Oleander”
It was a pleasure speaking with Kate Hackett about her directorial debut “Oleander”, a shorter version of her feature script “Purify My Heart”. We discussed her experience of growing up in the Catholic schools that taught abstinence, her work as an editor (Cheer, Last Chance U) and in reality TV that brought her to this […]
Diane Paragas tells a timely and timeless story in her narrative feature debut “Yellow Rose”
“Yellow Rose” is the timely story of a Filipina teen from a small Texas town who fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family or leaving the only home she has known. I was fortunate to speak with the director of the film, Diane Paragas […]
Nancy Miller on “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”, Michelle McNamara, and the true crime of sexual assault
I had no particular interest in crime aside from reading the occasional Nancy Drew book growing up. Yet two days after the killing, without telling anyone, I walked to the spot near our house where Kathleen had been attacked. On the ground I saw pieces of her Walkman. I picked them up. I felt no […]
Julia Kots and Tawny Cypress on their film “Inez & Doug & Kira”
“Mental illness is very prevalent in our society and it is not spoken about enough. It’s still very very taboo, and it is understandable, because it can be embarrassing and difficult. Talking to these people and hearing a variety of different stories encouraged me to first of all to put this on the screen, and […]
Veronica Miles on the healing power of making “Bess”
This is my first year running a film festival, and I’m honored and blown away by all the amazing womxn from all over the world that showcased their films. All of the filmmakers are passionate people with their own personalities, and their own approach to filmmaking. The Phenomenal Womxn Award was given to the filmmaker […]
Justine Triet takes an intimate look into a mind of a woman in her film “Sibyl”
What a beautiful thing to see a film about a woman full of layers and dimensions in a way that I hadn’t seen onscreen before. In Justine Triet’s film “Sibyl” we start with a psychotherapist, Sibyl (Virginie Efira), who wants to leave her practice to be a writer. After dismissing most of her patients, Sibyl […]
Kristin Peterson subverts the family holiday comedy with “Ringolevio”
It was a pleasure to interview Kristin Peterson about her debut “Ringolevio”, a film that touches on the truths of what it is like to meet your significant others family for the first time, and how you act within that environment. There are hints of the tropes from family holiday comedies like “The Family Stone”, […]