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CategoryIndie Film

Posted BIPOC

SXSW: The Unknown Country

“Everybody has a different story.”

Written and directed by Morrisa Maltz, The Unknown Country stars Lily Gladstone as Tana, a young native woman who, upon learning of her grandmother’s death, sets out in her car to travel from Minnesota to Texas. She’s been estranged from her Oglala Lakota family and this journey is a way to reconnect with her roots and herself. Set against the backdrop of the 2016 election, Tana navigates vast open space of the midwest and southwest. Along the way she reconnects with her community, interacts with strangers, attends a friends wedding, develops a romantic connection and even has a couple of scares. 

There is a poetic beauty to this film. The cinematography is absolutely stunning with some fantastic shots of the open highway, wintry landscapes and the Gladstone traversing the natural space of her final destination. The Unknown  Country takes a hybrid approach melding elements of a feature film and a documentary. Tana’s story is fictional but the events happening around her are real. Interspersed throughout the film are documentary vignettes that tell the story of real people Tana meets during her travels. 

Made over three years, the project began with a concept of a beginning and ending and everything in the middle came to be organically. In Morrisa Maltz’s director’s statement she writes:

“We feel very proud that the film shows people and aspects of humanity in the American Midwest that are often overlooked. In such a continuously divided America, we did our best to create a film that shows a patchwork of people and places that can bring us together as humans, rather than to further divide us.”

Unknown Country had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.

Posted Female Filmmakers

SXSW: Pretty Problems

“Money doesn’t solve your problems, it just makes them prettier.”

Lindsay (Britt Rentschler) and Jack (Michael Tennant) are in a rut. Lindsay’s dreams of becoming a fashion designer have been put hold while she works a menial boutique job to pay back her student loan debt. Jack’s on probation and disbarred from being a working attorney putting him in a career limbo. As life continues to drag them down, Lindsay and Jack go through the  motions of their everyday lives, losing their romantic spark and any desire for intimacy.

Everything changes when one day Cat (J.J. Nolan) waltzes into Lindsay’s work. Cat is instantly taken with Lindsay and wants to boost her self-esteem and help her manifest her dreams. But Cat and Lindsay are from completely different worlds. Cat has more money than she knows what to do with and Lindsay can’t afford to do anything other than what she’s doing. Cat invites Lindsay and Jack for a weekend away in Sonoma County and the couple are thrust into a world of outrageous privilege. $300 bottles of wine, privately distributed tequila, a 1920s murder mystery game and a drug fueled disco party has the couple torn between their plebeian existence and the lifestyles of the rich and jaded. Fun is there to be had but not everything is as it seems.

Directed by Kestrin Pantera, Pretty Problems is a gratifying comedy with a decidedly poignant message. Its endlessly fascinating to watch how different social classes come together and ultimately clash because of their vastly different lifestyles and personal priorities. The rich people here are bored and emotionally numb. Lindsay and Jack are there for their own amusement and manipulation. Rentschler and Nolan play beautifully off each other and the surrounding cast of characters spotlight just how ridiculous the ultra-privileged lifestyle can be. 

Pretty Problems had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.

Posted Documentaries

Slamdance: Underdog

For three decades Doug Butler, a dairy farmer from Middlebury, VT, has dreamed of one thing: to race sled dogs in Alaska. Directed by  Tommy Hyde, the documentary Underdog chronicles Doug’s journey to the Open North American Championship in Fairbanks, Alaska and his struggles in keeping the nearly 100 year old dairy farm going. Doug Butler is a great subject for a documentary. He’s passionate about what he does, charismatic and deeply cares about his animals and his family business. You can’t help but root for him and also mourn his losses. Underdog is a truly heartfelt documentary offering up heaping doses of melancholy and joy.

Underdog is part of the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival.

Posted BIPOC

Slamdance: The Ritual to Beauty

“What happens to brown girls who never learn who to love themselves brown?”

Dominicans have a long and tortured relationship with their hair. As a Dominican-American woman I know this all too well. My mother and grandmother were both hairstylists who specialized in relaxing Dominican hair to a more culturally appealing state.  Wearing one’s hair “natural” was looked down upon. The pain of not being something acceptable and having to change yourself to fit an aesthetic is passed on from generation and the harm lingers for years.

This is why I’m grateful for the precious gift that is The Ritual of Beauty (2022). Directed by Shenny De Los Angeles and Maria Marrone, is a short documentary that sheds light on the social custom of straightening hair and how it keeps Dominican women from loving themselves. The doc focuses on a young Dominican woman who is on a journey to embrace her natural hair. And in doing so, she examines the stories of her mother and grandmother whose different relationships with their own hair spoke volumes of what they thought about themselves. The doc is haunting and poetic and revealing. A truly amazing film.

The Ritual to Beauty was part of the 2022 Slamdance FIlm Festival line-up.

Posted Film Festivals

Slamdance: Retrograde

When a misunderstanding leads to a traffic violation, Molly (Molly Reisman) is determined to contest the $300 ticket. But soon things start to spiral out of control. Everything she move she makes, albeit well-intentioned, put a strain on her home and work life. And when her new roommate Gabrielle (Sofia Banzhaf) refuses to serve as a witness despite being present during the traffic stop, Molly begins to lash out.

If you’ve ever felt like the odds have been stacked against you, then this film is for you. Directed by Adrian Murray, Retrograde is a study in neurosis and those microaggressions that drive us crazy. Molly is both a sympathetic and annoying character. She’s overly sensitive, anxious but absolutely valid in her feelings. The people around her refuse to be called out on their bullshit making her journey even that more frustrating. Added to the story is the theme of astrology which is a catalyst for debate among the characters.

Retrograde premiered at the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival.

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