Transcend the Trauma: Giovanna Molina on “Quaker,” “Hickey,” and Her Upcoming Film, “Kismet”
It’s a special kind of thrill when the greatness of an emerging filmmaker’s work hits you like a thunderbolt. That’s precisely what happened to me upon discovering the sublimely nuanced and quietly shattering artistry of writer/director Giovanna Molina, whose indelibly haunting shorts “Deer Girl” and “Hickey” screened as part of the Cinema Femme Short Film […]
Reclaiming Attention: Sara Robin on “Your Attention Please” and the Fight for Digital Autonomy
In “Your Attention Please,” director Sara Robin explores one of today’s most pressing yet hard-to-define crises: the decline of human attention in a digital world built to capture it. What began as a personal exploration of screen habits evolved into a sweeping, solutions-oriented documentary that examines not just individual behavior, but the systems shaping it. […]
Loosening the Knots: Madison Young on “By the Roots”
After seeing Chicago’s BDSM community turn out in huge numbers for a euphoric preview screening of Harry Lighton’s acclaimed movie “Pillion” earlier this year, it’s clear that Madison Young’s equally riveting film, “By the Roots,” is destined to be embraced by audiences in the Windy City. On the heels of her own brilliant debut feature, […]
Doomscrolling the Abyss: Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei on Reimagining Horror in “Faces of Death”
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of violent images wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The mondo-horror film, which featured everything from animal cruelty, a firing squad execution, and death by electric chair (to name a few of its violent delights), […]
One Voice, Amplified: Stephanie Laing on “Tow,” Truth, and Tenacity
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stephanie Laing has built a career on finding humanity in unlikely places—whether through the biting satire of Veep or the emotionally layered storytelling of Physical. Now, with her latest feature “Tow,” Laing delivers her most grounded and galvanizing work yet: a true story about injustice, resilience, and the high cost of being unheard. […]
Grace Glowicki On Her Original Vision of Frankenstein in “Dead Lover”
About a year ago, I sat down for what was probably my sixth movie of the day at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. My eyes were burning, my brain was melting. But then “Dead Lover” lit up the screen before me, and my eyes felt renewed with energy. When you can recognize that you’re seeing […]
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 […]