nightstream festival 2021 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

COSMIC DAWN (Nightstream Fest 2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

October 12, 2021October 17, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Cosmic Dawn, cults, Jefferson Moneo, nightstream festival 2021, ufos

Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn is far from the typical terrain of UFO conspiracy films as can be imagined – this is no X-Files fanfic and is all the stronger for it. This is largely informed by Moneo’s own experience with an alien encounter as a child, which – for sceptics and believers alike – undeniably manifests in the film in a sincerity and a sense of intimacy that films and television shows dealing with this subject so often miss.

Festivals Reviews

TO THE MOON (Nightstream Fest 2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

October 12, 2021October 17, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Madeleine Morgenweck, nightstream festival 2021, Scott Friend, To the Moon, will brill

Running just over 80 minutes in length, To the Moon is a lithe, powerful little film written, directed and co-starring Friend and currently playing at the Nightstream virtual film festival. Set in one location with a key cast of only three characters, it uses its slender production context to great effect, granting each of the three central players enormous scope to flesh out their characters.

Festivals Reviews

SHAPELESS (Nightstream Fest 2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

October 6, 2021October 10, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas bulemia drama, Kelly Murtagh, nightstream festival 2021, Samantha Aldana, Shapeless

Samantha Aldana’s Shapeless (2021), co-written and starring Kelly Murtagh who brought her own experience of bulimia to the film, is undeniably brave and compelling. Murtagh stars as Ivy, an aspiring singer in New Orleans who fronts her struggling band at night and works in a laundry by day. Her bulimia remains wholly invisible from those around her and defaulting to finding socially acceptable ways to work it around her peers without arousing suspicion or concern is second nature to her. But like so much in life, Ivy’s bulimia seems manageable until, suddenly, it is not.