Two Ends of Reality: Martha P. Nochimson on “Quantum Screens: Nonlinear Universes in Film and Television”
As I spent twelve hours in the hospital last week, waiting for my dad to recover from his long-belated knee replacement surgery, I found a liberating mode of escapism in devouring author and professor Martha P. Nochimson’s latest marvelous book, Quantum Screens: Nonlinear Universes in Film and Television. On the basis of its delicious theories […]
Transitioning Together: Amy Jenkins and Adam Sieswerda on “Adam’s Apple”
As someone who was born four decades ago, any fragments of home movie footage that exist from my childhood—most of which was recorded on a cumbersome camcorder borrowed from my aunt—are priceless. Thanks to the new millennium’s technological advancements, people born within the past quarter century can have the entirety of their evolution from child […]
Pushing the Boundaries: Emily Robinson on “Ugly Cry” and “Consumed”
If she could, Amber would be a wall painted nondescript grey. Paint isn’t like wallpaper. It can’t be removed completely. No matter how much sanding down, they would still be forced to cover her with white to clear the slate before the next shade splayed atop her. She would haunt the walls and infuse the […]
The Women Behind “Hekla”: Crafting Chaos, Color, and the Courage to Be Seen
In conversation with Elizabeth Stam, Wendy Robie, Brookelyn Hebert, Mary Tilden, and Heather Kuhlmann. Some films move like a straight line. “Hekla doesn’t. It rushes, swerves, collides—then bursts into color at the exact moments when performance becomes oxygen. Built around one chaotic day in the life of an actor, the film captures a familiar contradiction: […]
Slamdance 2026: Jessica Barr and Ryan Simpkins on Their Stunning Single-Take Film, “The Plan”
The sun is just beginning to set as the twenty-something characters in Jessica’s Barr’s mesmerizing new film, “The Plan,” start to congregate in an East LA apartment. The calmness of the setting gradually proves to be deceptive, as the mounting tension within these friends—particularly Evan (Ryan Simpkins)—threatens to erupt. With the helicopter blades of an […]
Sundance 2026: Xiye Bastida and Franco Campos-Lopez Benyunes on Hope, Whales, and Resistance
“The Way of the Whale” tells the untold story of an extraordinary interspecies bond — a connection so profound it feels like love — between humans and gray whales in a remote lagoon along the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. Each year, after completing a 5,000-mile migration — the longest of any marine […]
Sundance 2026: Walking Through the In-Between — Malin Barr on “Sauna Sickness” and the Quiet Violence of Emotional Manipulation
My discussion with Swedish-native Malin Barr at Sundance quickly evolved beyond a standard interview. By the time we secured coffee amidst the festival’s intensity, the conversation felt like a continuation of an already established, deeply considered thought. Rather than a conventional, seated Q&A, this piece is a dynamic, walking dialogue. We moved through Park City’s […]
Sundance 2026: Gabriela Ortega Explores Motherhood and Becoming in “Marga en el DF”
Cinema Femme is thrilled to reconnect with director, writer, and actress Gabriela Ortega on the occasion of her latest short film, “Marga en el DF”, which makes its World Premiere in Sundance’s International Fiction Short Films program. Ortega returns to the festival following the acclaimed run of her 2022 short “HUELLA.” The film has also […]
Sundance 2026: Holding the Line — Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić on “To Hold a Mountain”
Gara, the guiding force at the center of “To Hold a Mountain,” is living proof that not all heroes wear capes. Her days begin before sunrise — herding sheep across vast alpine pastures, making cheese by hand, and protecting the land she calls home. Alongside this relentless labor, she is raising young Nada to be […]
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 […]
Sundance 2026: “Take Me Home” — Liz Sargent on Caregiving, Disability, and Imagining a More Supportive World
When “Take Me Home” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it arrived not only as an intimate debut feature but as the expansion of a story Liz Sargent has been living with — and refining — for years. Adapted from her acclaimed short film of the same name, which also screened at Sundance in 2023, […]
Finding Humor and Hope in “4th Dementia”
The short film “4th Dementia” manages to do something incredible: make a film about Alzheimer’s Disease that is funny. It may seem like an unlikely premise, but this 16-minute short film manages to bring humor and dignity to a topic that is often portrayed as tragic and depressing. The film starts with a more typical […]