7 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 31, 2026
We often hear that you view a film through the lens of your own experience. For me, film has always worked the other way around too: it expands my experience
10 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 26, 2026
When I covered the New Orleans Film Festival in 2023, I discovered that creative non-fiction is a documentary genre of its own: films made in unconventional ways, rather than the
12 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 24, 2026
When I was in middle school, a girl from our friend group named Lisa died in a car accident. She and her sister were turning into a movie theater when
17 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 21, 2026
It often feels as though queer films fly under the radar, going relatively unnoticed in the grand scheme of yearly mainstream cinema. With major blockbusters still featuring predominately heterosexual and
7 min read
by Rebecca Martin
July 10, 2026
Revisiting our interview with Carolina Cavalli ahead of the film’s Chicago release. The film opens at the Siskel Film Center on July 30, buy tickets here. It also landed a
5 min read
by Rebecca Martin
December 13, 2025
Annette Elliot is a Chicago-based writer and director whose work sits at the intersection of cinema, art history, and architecture. Drawing consciously from painting, sculpture, and the built environment, her
13 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
November 17, 2025
As I sat in my favorite movie palace, the Music Box Theatre, waiting for my wife—Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin—to arrive for that evening’s eagerly awaited Chicago International Film Festival
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
October 25, 2025
With the 61st Chicago International Film Festival nearly in the rearview mirror, there are so many memories from the past several days that I know I will be cherishing for
7 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 24, 2025
Set against the vivid backdrop of 1931 French-colonized Martinique, “Sugar Cane Alley” (“Rue Cases-Nègres”) stands as one of cinema’s most tender and politically charged coming-of-age stories. The film follows eleven-year-old
7 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
October 21, 2025
The Girl in the Snow One of the great discoveries I made at CIFF ten years ago was the talent of young Galatéa Bellugi. As a pregnant teen in the
10 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 20, 2025
Mary Bronstein is a writer/director based in New York City, known for her raw style, auteurist approach, and unflinching focus on stories about complicated women. Her best-known work, the cult-classic
9 min read
by Emily Jacobson
October 31, 2024
This past year has seen a wave of female directed movies – whether it be horror, drama, or comedy – fixed upon the female body. Unsurprisingly, with the political climate
