Sundance FF 2024 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Sundance Institute’s 2024 Momentum Fellowship Recipients – Jennifer Merin reports

February 22, 2024October 15, 2026 Jennifer Merin A.V. Rockwell, Aitch Alberto, D. Smith, Erica Tremblay, Laura Moss, Momentum Fellowship, Raven Jackson, Savanah Leaf, Sing J. Lee, sundance, Sundance FF 2024, sundance institute

Sundance Institute has announced eight storytellers selected for the 2024 Momentum Fellowship. Now in its sixth year, Momentum continues its mission of fostering professional growth for mid-career artists, emphasizing professional development opportunities during a critical juncture in their creative journey. The fellowship specifically targets mid-career artists hailing from historically marginalized backgrounds, offering them tailored support and resources. It is led by the Institute’s Women at Sundance and Artist Accelerator programs. Momentum supports creators working in fiction or nonfiction who have recently achieved a noteworthy accomplishment, providing participants with a full-year of customized support around current goals they identify for themselves to level up in their craft and career.

Festivals Reviews

LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 23, 2024January 28, 2024 Leslie Combemale Carlos Alomar, dawn porter, Fonzi Thornton, Luther: Never Too Much, Robin Clark, Sundance FF 2024

Even after the popular Brit-crime TV show Luther, starring Idris Elba, aired, the moniker LUTHER meant only one thing. To this day, the name virtuosic singer/producer/songwriter Luther, Luther Vandross that is, belongs to a rare group of stars that the world knows using even just one name. Now documentarian Dawn Porter, who is responsible for award-winning films Bobby Kennedy for President, John Lewis: Good Trouble, and The Lady Bird Diaries, tells the story of Vandross’s formative early years, his career, and his adult life, in Luther: Never Too Much. A colossal talent lost before his time when he died of complications from a stroke and heart trouble at 52, the performer deserves every moment he and his genius is remembered onscreen.

Festivals Reviews

EVERY LITTLE THING (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 23, 2024 Leslie Combemale Ann Johnson Prum, Caitlin Yeo, documentary, Every Little Thing, Fastest Things on Wings, humingbirds, sally aitken, Sundance FF 2024, Tania Nehme, Terry Masear

A celebration of some of our tiniest and most magical creatures, Every Little Thing follows one woman’s mission to save injured hummingbirds in and around LA, and it represents the sort of transformative journey we need right now. Documentary writer/director Sally Aitken’s new release is the same kind of emotional narrative as her 2021 Sundance release Playing With Sharks. Both juxtapose a woman working with enigmatic creatures, and though one is sharks, the other hummingbirds, Every Little Thing is, surprisingly, sometimes just as intense as her last film. In Every Little Thing, for both the lead human subject, hummingbird rehabilitation expert Terry Masear, and the birds that come into her care, trauma and resilience are central to the story. It is a story sometimes as suspenseful as any action flick, but is also, in equal parts, tender, beautiful, heartbreaking, and joyful.

Festivals Reviews

DIDI (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Julia Swift

January 23, 2024January 28, 2024 Julia Swift asian american, Chinese American, DIDI, fremont california, Sean Wang, Sundance FF 2024, Sundance Labs

Writer/director Sean Wang and I were both raised in California. He grew up in Freemont, a suburb of San Francisco. He gets California. But he also gets people. He knows how to externalize what is going on in everyday interactions that makes me feel seen. If you look at us both, we don’t seem at all similar – different gender identity, ethnicity, age. That is the power of film, the power of art. Didi is for anyone who made it through the summer before high school. We were all on the edge of making decisions that we were told would last a lifetime. Wang brings us right back there, but this time we have a friend, so we don’t feel so alone.

Festivals Reviews

FRIDA (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 Leslie Combemale animation, biodoc, Carla Gutièrrez, Diego Rivera, documentary, Fernanda Echaverria del Rivero, Frida, Frida Kahlo, Sundance FF 2024

There’s something powerful about seeing a bio-doc based on the words and images of their subject. Even if the subject is believed to be well-known, their own words either supersede or create new context for all former knowledge. These are their thoughts. These are their images. In director Carla Gutièrrez’s new film Frida, she brings famed artist Frida Kahlo into sharper focus through her letters, essays, interviews, and her illustrated diary. Though many might know the broad strokes of her life, the constant pain from an early accident, her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, and her exquisite, emotional self portraits, there’s more to the know about this exceptional woman and historical figure. In Frida, the audience learns so much more, and nearly all from her own words.

Festivals Reviews

NEVER LOOK AWAY (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 20, 2024January 28, 2024 Leslie Combemale civilian impact of conflicts, documentary, lucy lawless, Margaret Moth, never look away, new zealand films, photojournalism, Sundance FF 2024, war photography

New Zealand actor/producer Lucy Lawless has recently become as known for her activism as she is for her onscreen roles, and she engages that part of herself in the documentary Never Look Away, her feature directorial debut. Ever a champion of equal rights and celebrating women’s history, Lawless tackles the story of iconoclastic photojournalist Margaret Moth, who was credited with being the first news camerawoman in New Zealand.

Festivals Reviews

BLACK BOX DIARIES (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 20, 2024January 21, 2024 Leslie Combemale Black Box Diaries, japanese films, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, rape, sexual abuse, Shiori Ito, Sundance FF 2024

In her documentary directorial debut, Japanese journalist Shiori Ito chronicles the aftermath of her own sexual assault, using her notes, secret recordings, first person videos and footage from the time. Her film is an indictment of the continued societal misogyny and antiquated judicial system in Japan, and led to a landmark case that might, at last, shift perception away from victim shaming and tacit acceptance of violence towards women by men in power.

Festivals Reviews

THELMA (Sundance FF 2024) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 20, 2024January 20, 2024 Leslie Combemale Clark Gregg, Fred Hechinger, Josh Margolin, june squibb, parker posey, Richard Roundtree, Sundance FF 2024, Thelma

There’s something truly badass and subversive about making a movie inspired by the Mission Impossible franchise starring a 93 year old woman. That’s the premise for Thelma, writer/director Josh Margolin’s Sundance release starring June Squibb in her first leading role in a 70-year career. It’s as fun as it sounds, but without sugar-coating the challenges that face us all as we enter our twilight years.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Kristen Stewart honored at Sundance Gala – Brandy McDonnell reports

January 17, 2024January 22, 2024 Brandy McDonnell Kristen Stewart, Sundance FF 2024, Sundance Film Festval, the week in women, twiw, visionary award

Academy Award-nominated performer Kristen Stewart is honored with the Visionary Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival’s fundraiser Opening Night Gala on Jan. 18, 2024, at the DeJoria Center in Utah. The annual gala enables the nonprofit Sundance Institute to raise critical funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants and public programming that nurture artists globally. Stewart will receive the Visionary Award in recognition of her work as an uncompromising artist and contributions to the field of independent film.