Sundance 2026: Writing Herself Into the Frame —Stephanie Ahn on her debut feature “Bedford Park”
At the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Stephanie Ahn’s “Bedford Park” arrived with quiet force — and left with one of the festival’s top honors, the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature. It’s a fitting recognition for a film that feels at once intimate and expansive: a deeply personal exploration of intergenerational trauma, immigrant […]
Big Drums and Big Dreams: Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett on “Finding Her Beat”
What if we lived in a world where the Blue Man Group wasn’t the only mainstream drummer show in town? What if it was a bunch of bad-ass women playing drums in Taiko costume and style? I’m ready for the Blue Man Group renaissance to be over. Bring on the empowering troupe of HERbeat! Before […]
Celine Song’s “Past Lives” is a modern romance that is ageless
Filmmaker Celine Song had a unique moment when her childhood sweetheart and her husband met. This moment was very significant to her, and it became the seed of her film, “Past Lives.” The film has been called “a modern romance,” but to me, it is much more than that. “Past Lives” is ageless to me, […]
Interview with “Scent of the Delta” director Adele Free Pham, star Tiffany Pham, and screenwriter Thuc Doan Nguyen
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon in about three years (April 30, 2025), it is astounding that Vietnamese-American stories have not been told by Vietnamese-American women and men much before. One of the sole exceptions is Heaven and Earth, the story of Le Ly Hayslip, which came out almost thirty […]
A Look Back: Vietnamese-diaspora women in film panel with Le Ly Hayslip, Thuc Nguyen, Marion Hill and Adele Pham
In honor of Women’s History Month we bring back our May 2021 conversation between four amazing Vietnamese-American Women in Film. Their work has made an impact. Today we celebrate. Award winning humanitarian, author and filmmaker Le Ly Hayslip, Writer Thuc Doan Nguyen, Sundance alum and director Marion Hill and Documentarian Adele Pham discuss their work […]
Look back: Lynn Chen flips the gender perspective in her directorial debut “I Will Make You Mine”
For AAPI Heritage month we bring back our interview with Lynn Chen about her film “I Will Make You Mine” from May 2020. Watch feature here. Imagine that you are listening to a record. It’s a good tune, one that you really savored during a particular time in your life. Then you return to the […]
Cinema Femme and Letterboxd present: A Conversation with Isabel Sandoval
A CONVERSATION WITH ISABEL SANDOVAL, Wednesday, April 14th, at 4:00 PM EST, as part of our April Showcase. Join us as we pay tribute to filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (“Lingua Franca”) with a special 30-minute virtual discussion. Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin will speak with the groundbreaking trans filmmaker about her career, and her passion for cinema. We […]
SXSW 2021: “See You Then” tells a universal tale from a trans Asian American filmmaker
With the atrocities that happened this week in Atlanta that resulted in the deaths of Asian American women, and with the hashtag #StopAsianHate streaming through social media, a film like “See You Then” is more important to see then ever. A trans woman meets with an ex-girlfriend she hasn’t seen for a decade. They go […]
Marion Hill puts her own spin on a cinematic romance in the Sundance hit “Ma Belle, My Beauty”
I am in love. I’m in love with Marion Hill’s ‘Ma Belle, My Beauty.’ This film is a romance that involves many people, but at the heart of it is the love between Bertie (Idella Johnson) and Lane (Hannah Pepper). At one time, Bertie and Lane were both in a polyamorous relationship with Fred (Lucien […]
Jessica Liu’s film “Prom Time!” brings a Chinese immigrant mother to the forefront of a raunchy comedy
We are continuing our coverage of the Cinema Femme Showcase by featuring our interview with Jessica Liu about “Prom Time!” Synopsis: Judy overhears her teen daughters recount their dating experiences while getting ready on prom night. Judy accidentally drugs herself with Chinese herbal medicine spiraling her into a gaudy sexual fantasy with the class hunk. […]
#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 […]
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 […]