Slamdance 2022 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Women-directed Short Films @ Slamdance 2022 – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 31, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Alaa Zabara, Alessandra Lichtefeld, Broken Hearts, Cashmere Jasmine, female-directed, Hannah Saidiner, I’m Here, Jacqueline Pelczar, Julia Orlik, My Parent Neal, Oreo: The Trilogy, Selahy, shorts, Slamdance 2022, Sparkles

Running in an Omicron-induced virtual edition from 27 January to 6 February, the independent heart that lies at the core of the Slamdance Film Festival is perhaps nowhere more brazen in its passion for cinema that otherwise falls off the mainstream radar than their lovingly curated shorts program. While there are too many women-directed shorts to mention here, across fiction, animation and documentary shorts some of the festival’s stand-outs warrant particular mention in this far-too-brief overview.

Festivals Reviews

POPPY (Slamdance 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Linda Niccol, new zealand films, poppy, Slamdance 2022

Poppy has Down Syndrome. Which, in Linda Niccol’s New Zealand set romcom Poppy, seems to be an issue for everyone else in the film except for its eponymous character herself. The Poppy that she knows – and who we delight in getting to know – is just a young woman who likes to dance in front of her bedroom mirror, watch dating reality TV and dreams of getting behind the wheel of the car by herself.

Festivals Reviews

BE RIGHT BACK (Slamdance 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Be Right Back, Frauke Havemann, Slamdance 2022

Be Right Back, Frauke Havemann’s second feature, opens as a woman wanders for reasons unknown through a forest, eventually stumbling across what appear to be a small group of seemingly stranded one-time holiday makers at a cluster of otherwise abandoned cabins. This is one of those strange, captivating little films that holds its cards close to its chest; we know far less about the characters and their circumstances than what another filmmaker might offer us. And it works. There’s an enormous sense of playfulness here, and Havemann knows precisely what crumbs to give us and when, making this curious film quite a charming experience.

Festivals Reviews

THERAPY DOGS (Slamdance 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Ethan Eng, Justin Morrice, Slamdance 2022, Therapy Dogs

Sometimes a film comes along which genuinely leaves you not knowing what to say. For a critic, that is clearly less than ideal, but for someone who loves cinema in all its shapes and sizes, the experience almost verges on transcendent. Raw as fuck and hot as hell, Ethan Eng’s powerhouse feature debut Therapy Dogs is, at once, a war cry, a manifesto, and an absolute jewel for those of us who love the energy and intensity of true indie filmmaking. Therapy Dogs veritably pulsates with life in every frame, the wild uncontained power of kids themselves transferred to the screen itself.

Festivals Reviews

HONEYCOMB (Slamdance 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Avalon Fast, Destini Stewart, Emmett Roiko, Honeycomb, Jillian Frank, Mari Geraghty, Rowan Wales, Slamdance 2022, Sophie Bawks-Smith

Stories about small isolated groups of individuals cut off from the broader world and left to construct their own new society on their own terms is a far from original premise. With its shared focus on young woman cut adrift, Avalon Fast’s Honeycomb fits the trope. But there is nothing derivative or nostalgic about Honeycomb. It is a wild, wandering, wonderous film, a dreamy, abstracted portrait of that liminal space between adolescence and adulthood.

Festivals Reviews

ACTUAL PEOPLE (Slamdance 2022) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Actual People, Kit Zauhar, Slamdance 2022

Kit Zauhar’s Actual People is the perfect blend of great old school indie film energy while very much being of the now. A romantic drama, an intimate close up of college life in NYC, and a snapshot of a young woman of color trying to find her place in the world, Actual People’s charm is that it is never pompous or smug enough to brandish its themes gratuitously. Rather, it confidently meanders through a series of encounters that are engaging in and of themselves. But when put together in the savvy way Zauhar configures it, unite to make a much bigger picture.

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Alliance of Women Film Journalists @awfj ·

"#TheLostKing is far from perfect but it is witty, vaguely edifying, and very British." @LizBraunSun reviews director Stephen Frears' latest, starring the always luminous Sally Hawkins: https://awfj.org/blog/2023/03/18/the-lost-king-review-by-liz-braun/

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Alliance of Women Film Journalists @awfj ·

ICYMI: @MarBarFu brings us #AWFJ's weekly look at movies made by and about women. For March 20-26, here's a run down of what's hitting theatres or streaming: https://awfj.org/blog/2023/03/18/opening-march-20-to-26-2023-margaret-barton-fumo-reports/

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Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska‘s #Fugue is finally getting a long-overdue limited US cinema release. Our own @suspirialex takes a look at this portrait of a woman in crisis: https://awfj.org/blog/2023/03/20/fugue-review-by-alexandra-heller-nicholas/

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We had to wait decades for Nicolas Cage's very first western (Butcher's Crossing) but then only 1 year for his second - #TheOldWays. @susangranger reviews the latest from @PrimeVideo: https://awfj.org/blog/2023/03/20/the-old-ways-review-by-susan-granger/

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Alliance of Women Film Journalists @awfj ·

"Documentary-like in its candor, [#TheWorstOnes] is also touchingly tender as it captures a memorable summer in its characters’ lives." Our Movie of the Week (#MOTW) team reviews the #Cannes2022 #UnCertainRegard winner from Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret: https://awfj.org/blog/2023/03/18/movie-of-the-week-march-24-2023-the-worst-ones/

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