Grand Jury Prize – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SEEDS (Sundance FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2025February 2, 2025 Leslie Combemale (Sundance FF 2025), Brittany Shyne, cinema verité, Grand Jury Prize, Seeds, southern Black farmers

Documentarian Brittany Shyne chronicles the experiences of several southern Black farming families, from their work in the fields and harvests, to their family and community gatherings and their entreaties to local and national representatives for financial help equal to that being given to the White farmers next door. All this is done with great patience and care, and without, it certainly seems, any interruptions or much subjectivity on her part. Moments unfold as they will, as audiences watch often older farmers speak in their own time, unhurried, about whatever’s on their minds. That might be worry, or joy about a new child in the family, or what animal or field needs tending they don’t have enough hours in the day or equipment to get to. Funerals, car rides, eye exams, cow feeding time, all get equal attention, and are shown in every permutation of what black and white filming can do in partnership with good Southern exposure.

Festivals Reviews

ATROPIA (Sundance FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 Leslie Combemale (Sundance FF 2025), alia shawkat, Atropia, Callum Turner, chloe sevigny, Grand Jury Prize, Hailey Gates, Jane Levy

Atropia is not without its positive aspects. It starts with a bang, showing a strong point of view with its satirical take of both the military and actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Borrowing elements from M*A*S*H, Stripes, and a few more obscure indie war films, the story is of a fictional military training facility in the deserts of California nicknamed “The Box”. Soldiers sent there spend an immersive 24/7 in a created Iraqi village trying to ferret out dangerous bad actors, before they’re killed by various bombs, insurgents with machine guns, or other potential war drama. Local actors live there, with limited water and other essentials, rotating roles as hostiles and friendlies, depending on the day. Wanna-be “real” actor Fayuz (Alia Shawkat) goes back and forth between helping other townspeople method acting, and things like vying for attention from imbedded Hollywood A-listers who might take her out of this dead-end job.