A.V. Rockwell’s debut feature “A Thousand and One” is an earth-shattering revelation. Taking place in Harlem from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, the film is not only a document of a changing city, but a portrait of love and family persevering against the odds. When Inez […]
“Mental illness is very prevalent in our society and it is not spoken about enough. It’s still very very taboo, and it is understandable, because it can be embarrassing and difficult. Talking to these people and hearing a variety of different stories encouraged me to […]
Therese Shechter brings common female experiences that have been unjustly deemed taboo to the screen through her documentaries. Her latest “My So-Called Selfish Life” has started a movement for women who choose not to have children. The film examines what it means to say no […]
I was first introduced to Deborah Kampmeier’s “Tape” during my interview with the film’s cinematographer Valentina Caniglia. Since our conversation took place a year ago, she couldn’t go into depth about the story, but I was immediately intrigued. I finally got to watch “Tape” a […]
The tweets. The movement. The conversation. Kitty Green’s film “The Assistant” takes the #MeToo movement, and the conversation around it, to a place where it began. Julia Garner plays Jane, an assistant to a producer of a major production company in New York. The environment […]
My conversation with Oluwaseun Babalola—”Seun” for short—was empowering. We are both women who have a passion for what we are doing, and we are both doing all that we can to make our dreams a reality. Each episode of her series, “SOJU,” zeroes in on […]
I met Namakula at the Girl Power Film & Media Summit in Brooklyn this past March. The Girl Power Film & Media Summit is a celebration of Women’s History Month. The summit inspires and empowers women in film and media with insightful conversations, motivating workshops, […]
The work I saw was crafted with time and effort and filled more than just quotas. They were filling us with inspiration for a future in which female-identifying filmmakers are seen as equally important to our male counterparts in the film industry. And that is […]
Illustration by Tavi Veraldi A Poem for the Mother Who lost her son… In a car crash In a dog fight Amid the dust mines of recessed memories A poem for the agony For the fear For the future Remembering to call her before you go to […]
Both willingly and unwillingly, Yance and so many others have done so much emotional labor to tell us their stories and relive their trauma, all to reveal to us the racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia, and overall hatred that still exists and causes unfathomable pain, and it’s our job and responsibility to pay attention.
When the lights in “Strong Island” (2017) begin to dim and the credits start to roll, the viewer is left with an echo of a scream ringing intensely in their ears. Director and filmmaker Yance Ford has just spoken with the District Attorney in charge […]
It’s always the women, the queer, and the blacks. They are the ones who tell stories. They are the ones who dig deep into their families’ histories. They are the ones who try to uncover the truth and make amends with the past so they […]