Jessica Liu’s film “Prom Time!” brings a Chinese immigrant mother to the forefront of a raunchy comedy

“I had that idea through the mechanism of one of the themes of cross generational desire and trauma, and questioning what gets passed down, even beyond what we can see, on a metaphysical level. I had read an article during that time that basically showed how, especially for females, the eggs of your grandmother would be passed down through your mother. And the mother’s eggs passed down through her daughters. It made me think of what my mother went through. You can kind of feel that in your heart, even if you can’t explain it. It was cool to put that in a dreamlike state, a slightly perverse parent trap situation.”

-Jessica Liu

“MÉBÉT” is breaking the trend of child marriages in Gambia and inspiring world-wide with its message

“If you’re making a difference, even in the life of one girl, that’s the difference that counts. That’s the difference that can make a difference, which goes beyond generations, because then that girl could represent a breaking of a cycle in one family or in one community. With “MÉBÉT”, that’s what we want to do.” – Jama Jack

Jacqueline Xerri on her coming-of-age short “Monkey Bars”

“When I was young, I really got ahead of myself a lot of the time. There’s a certain naivety that you have, at an age when everything is so exciting and new, and you want to be older and you want to see what you see in the movies, or in shows like “Degrassi” or even “Jersey Shore.” These are shows that we were watching when we were super-young. They portrayed the ideal world you want to be in, where boys love you, and you’re pretty, and you’re desired. And I think what happens is that Maggie takes all of these influences she’s had and morphs them into this boy that’s not giving her what she thinks she’s getting. Life isn’t like the romantic movies that are being sold to us every day, and it’s dangerous sometimes to take that idea of romance into your own personal life where the circumstances might be a lot different. It can be dangerous. And it can happen right before your eyes.” – Jacqueline Xerri

Sparking joy during a pandemic: filmmakers Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis speak about their Sundance short “Snowy”

“And the responses we’ve been getting from people have been overwhelming to us. Kind of in the same way that you’re saying, that this film is something we need, or something that the world needs. We are very grateful. I do think that we did try to do that with a thought provoking, unpretentious and intimate story, everything from start to finish. We wanted the film to feel like a cookie that your Grandma baked for you.” – Alex Wolf Lewis 

Indigenous Filmmaker Erica Tremblay charts her road to making “Little Chief” and future projects

“If there’s anything that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, it’s the sovereignty of joy. And how for so long our stories have been relegated to a time period and to a certain traumatic response baseline. I think it’s just time for us to realize that we can live in trailer parks and be happy. We can have successful jobs and still be indigenous. Joy is just so important. I’m so excited to see so many indigenous artists out there starting to explore what it means to be a modern happy indigenous person.” -Erica Tremblay

“I’m Thinking Of Ending Things”and the complexities of onscreen female characters written by men

Join us Wednesday, January 13th at 7:30 PM CST as we talk about Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” and the complexities of onscreen female characters written by men.

Synopsis: Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents’ secluded farm. “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is now streaming on Netflix. Starring Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis.

The 50 best films of 2020: Part 1

Because of the pandemic, and the closing of theaters, this was a year for great cinema, especially for those underrepresented onscreen. Blockbuster films took a backseat to indie gems. My kind of movie year. Of course, nothing beats the theatrical communal experience. I loved my experience at Sundance this year, which was such a special gift since we probably won’t have that kind of festival experience for awhile. But virtual festival runs gave the opportunity for independent films to reach a wider audience, which means I was able to see more this year then I have ever before.

“Stand and Deliver”, “Thirteen”, “Down in the Delta” editor Nancy Richardson shares her stories from the cutting room

Feature film editor Nancy Richardson has been a professor and head of post-production at UCLA TFT [Theater, Film, and Television] for 19 years. She began her career with the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver”, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture and received a Best Actor nomination for Edward James Olmos. Her credits include “Thirteen”,”’Lords of Dogtown” and “Twilight”, directed by Catherine Hardwicke; “To Sleep With Anger”, “Selma, Lord, Selma” and “Annihilation of Fish”, directed by Charles Burnett; and “Mi Familia”, “Selena” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”, directed by Gregory Nava. She also edited Maya Angelou’s directorial debut, “Down in the Delta”.