Kate Stonehill Talks Citizens’ Surveillance, Violations of Human Rights in Her Unsettling Debut Doc “Phantom Parrot”

Cinema Femme caught up with Kate Stonehill, an award-winning director and DoP whose body of work explores power, identity and citizenship in the digital age. In her first documentary feature, titled “Phantom Parrot,” she unravels a secret British government surveillance program, and follows human rights […]

SXSW 2023: Putting a lens on digital image-based sexual abuse in directors Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn and producer Elizabeth Woodward’s “Another Body”

I had the privilege of speaking with three artists and activists, directors Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn as well as producer Elizabeth Woodward, about their impactful documentary, “Another Body.” Just as deep fake technology conveyed the protagonist’s ever-morphing identity in Dina Amer’s “You Resemble Me”, […]

Sundance 2023: Sierra Urich explores the spaces that children of immigrants occupy in her documentary feature debut “Joonam”

“Joonam” is a beautiful debut documentary from Iranian-American filmmaker Sierra Urich. In the film, Urich connects with her Persian mother and grandmother while learning Farsi and trying to build her own foundation with her Iranian culture. The camera acts as an intermediary between the women […]

Sundance 2023: Razelle Benally on representation behind the camera and her new docuseries “Murder in Big Horn”

Co-Director Razelle Benally was inspired by her roots in her Oglala Lakota and Diné culture to connect with other Indigenous communities and share a larger story of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that is happening across all of Native America. Her new Showtime series focuses […]

Sundance 2023: Anna Hints on the power of Southern Estonia women in their feature debut, “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”

Seasons come and go, and every season symbolizes life at different stages being encapsulated within the elements of those seasons. Winter can be harsh with the ice and the cold air, but it also can be comforting when you are around people in warm spaces. […]

Abigail Fuller’s latest doc “Shepherd’s Song” embraces visual cinematic approaches to non-narrative storytelling

Filmmaker Abigail Fuller (“Chef’s Table”, “Do You Dream in Color?”) was the recipient of the 2019 The North Face’s Move Mountains Film Makers Grant that empowered her to hire female department heads in her newest documentary, “Shepherd’s Song”. This female-backed film focuses on Jenya, a […]

ChiFilmFest 2022: Interview with Mercedes Kane about her doc “Art and Pep” that elevates the Chicago LGBTQIA+ community

Buy your tickets: https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/art-and-pep/ Cinema Femme kicks off its 2022 ChiFilmFest coverage by speaking with filmmaker Mercedes Kane about her doc “Art and Pep”. We talked about why this film is so important, especially now as our government has been stripping away some of our […]

Look back: Rita Baghdadi’s Sundance premiere “Sirens” celebrates women who dare to revolt against their family and country’s expectations of them

We take a look back at our Sundance coverage of the documentary “Sirens” directed by Rita Baghdadi (@ritaamal). The film will be kicking off their theatrical release this Friday (9/30/22) in NYC . “There needs to be more nuanced portrayals of women in general. And not […]

Tribeca 2022: “Battleground” Director-Producer Cynthia Lowen discusses her approach to documentary filmmaking  

Driven by curiosity and a passion for social justice, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Cynthia Lowen uses the power of story to investigate difficult issues that often go overlooked; her debut documentary feature, 2011’s “Bully”, investigated a crisis of suicide motivated by bullying in American schools. It was nominated for two […]