Isabel Sandoval beautifully elevates the marginalized in “Lingua Franca”
“Every image or sound is a vessel for emotion: rapture, despair, sensuousness, fury, a combination of these. That makes cinema a kind of legerdemain: the art of sculpting such seemingly artificial elements to create a singular, genuine emotional experience.” –excerpt from Isabel Sandoval’s director’s statement Isabel Sandoval is not just about making great films, she […]
“We were both big voices in the room for each other”: Megan Griffiths on Lynn Shelton and the “Of a Certain Age” Grant
Recipient of 2020 “Of a Certain Age” grant announced. It started on the set of “We Go Way Back” in 2006. Lynn Shelton was directing her first feature at the age of 39, and Megan Griffiths was her first AD. They both did not know of each other prior to the making of the film, […]
Ainslee Robson tells her story through her VR graphic memoir “Ferenj”
I don’t know a lot about VR. I did it once before, and I was in this Van Gogh painting, and it made me feel really dizzy. When someone I met through The Girls Club, Tigist Schmidt (filmmaker, producer) introduced me to Ainslee Robson, VR filmmaker, as a potential interview subject, I was excited to […]
“I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” celebrates the persistence of Michelle McNamara
My journey into becoming a film journalist started with my love and obsession with films, and the making of these films. That followed with me becoming more aware of the filmmakers behind the films I loved. I noticed that there was a shortage of female filmmakers that were on my radar, and I became driven […]
Maya Hawke, Rachel Hilson, Charlotte Hornsby, Rhianon Jones, Nicolaia Rips and Haroula Rose on Their Sublime Short Film, “As They Slept”
On the eve of Cinema Femme’s inaugural short film festival, it seemed fitting to post my feature with a team of talented and amazing women. I felt so honored to get the opportunity to interview the artists behind the excellent short film “As They Slept”, including director Haroula Rose, producer Rhianon Jones (of Neon Heart […]
Elyse Steinberg, co-director of “The Fight,” focuses her lens on ACLU’s heroic humanity
Following the Women’s March in January 2017, I was witnessing a power in the collective, a power I hadn’t seen before in my lifetime. Though I didn’t have a name for this power, I knew that it represented some “fight”, some unrest with our country’s political shift. It was 2017, shortly after the presidential election, […]
Christina Raia subverts genre through her horror and comic shorts
During quarantine, a series of amazing cat videos have been produced once a month on Instagram by CongestedCat Productions. I encourage you all to check them out. That kind of ingenuity in a pandemic is brained by filmmaker Christina Raia, founder of CongestedCat. Christina Raia is what I like to call a female filmmaker super […]
Natalie Erika James infuses horror and a beautiful darkness in her female-led debut “Relic”
I love meeting and speaking with female filmmakers who bring a unique style to the screen, especially if it’s in a way that I’ve never seen before. Aussie based Natalie Erika James checks all of those boxes by bringing to the screen an infusion of horror, dark beauty, and female-centric stories. Before meeting her, I’ve […]
“Little Woods” sets the stage for Nia DaCosta’s anticipated follow up “Candyman”
Who’s excited for “Candyman”? It’s an understatement how thrilled I am about Nia DaCosta’s remake coming out this fall. I’m a fan of the original, but I see how DaCosta’s take on the film may bring it to more of a relevant place, in light of her perspective as a Black female filmmaker and the […]
Australian filmmaker Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth” washes over you with exuberant music, love and beauty
At the end of “Babyteeth”, and this does not spoil the film at all, you are on a beach staring at the ocean waves. You’re on the beach rather than watching a beach scene from afar because you’ve gone through this incredible two-hour journey through the eyes of Milla [Eliza Scanlen]. Milla is a teenager […]
Tamar-kali bewitches us with her magical score for “Shirley”
There was no doubt that this wasn’t tokenization. I thought that was so important because- I mean nothing is perfect, a lot of stuff is flawed, that’s humanity. But you get so sensitive as a marginalized person being a person of color, by being a womxn, you’re hoping that the person that is on the […]
Sabrina Doyle shows the beauty of embracing change through ‘Lorelei’
Before we got into speaking about her film “Lorelei”, director Sabrina Doyle and I couldn’t help talking about the trying times we are in, and how difficult it is for everyone, regardless of their situation. After viewing “Lorelei”, I realized that this film is exactly what we need right now. The movie centers on a […]