BORN OF WOMAN (2022)
One of the best shorts collections at the Fantasia International Film Festival is the annual Born Of Woman program. This year’s selections ran to a sold-out audience. The Born Of Woman selection is special because the films are bold genre stories created exclusively by female filmmakers. 2022’s iteration saw nine films from five countries and every single one blew me away. Each year, this is my personal favorite program. The films are fresh, vibrant, scary, relatable, and wildly intriguing.
Lily’s Mirror
A shocking opening leads to one of the sharpest takedowns of the patriarchy I’ve seen in quite some time. Lily receives a therapeutic mirror allowing her to take back the power so freely stolen by men. The depiction of the erasure of women is a comic and creative chef’s kiss. I didn’t think it was possible to make misogyny funny, but the script is carefully crafted. I found myself nodding, laughing, and exclaiming, “This is sheer perfection.” Highlighting women going to bat for other women and the fragility of the white man, Lily’s Mirror could easily be an entire series or feature film. This type of short drives audiences wild, and Fantasia 2022 knew what they were doing programming this film. A slow, celebratory clap for everyone involved.
Everybody Goes to The Hospital
This haunting stop-motion animation speaks to the often barbaric side of medicine. Fear, misogyny, and the medical staff’s good complex are all in full view. While the story occurred in the 60s, its relevance does not wane. Writer-director Tiffany Kimmel does an excellent job capturing the terror of a child that undoubtedly attached itself to adulthood. The narration from Lucia Hadley Wheeler hits you square in the heart. The short was surprisingly personal for me. When I was 20, doctors at Saint Luke’s Roosevelt subjected me to a battery of invasive tests, unconvinced that I was a virgin. What I knew was appendicitis was treated as an STD. After 12 hrs and an emergency surgery later, my medical gaslighting experience still haunts me. Fantastic 2022 audiences will watch in awe of the artistry and storytelling style. Everybody Goes To The Hospital will make your blood run cold.
Wild Card
Writer-director Tipper Newton gives us a glorious, tongue-in-cheek, neo-noir throwback. Daniel makes a dating tape, and his first date brings nothing but good trouble. I’m not sure if Wild Card was shot on 16mm, but the combination of costumes, sets, and score gives the film’s overall aesthetic an era legit look. Fantasia 2022 viewers got an excellent treatment in Wild Card. When the credits rolled, I was left wanting to know what happened to Daniel. I needed to know what happened to Daniel! Billy Flynn and Newton give great performances. I cannot stress how perfect they are for these roles. The subtle nuance between them walks a fine line between serious and absurd. Overall, I’m beyond thrilled to follow Wild Card‘s journey.
Punch Drunk
A young woman recovering from surgery works the night shift as a bartender and contends with the memories of her surroundings. Horror doesn’t have to be a creature feature in the traditional sense. Punch Drunk is a creative declaration of power. Writers Cason Weiss and Emily Lerer (who also directs) bring a uniquely intimate short to Fantasia 2022. Danielle Argyros is stunning in the lead role. I would love to see this developed into something bigger. It has endless potential. Punch Drunk is a bold, fearless, funny, and relatable look at the trauma that sent a shiver down my spine.
Stained Skin
A mesmerizing juxtaposition of live action and 2D animation, Stained Skin uses fable storytelling to ease the reality of women stuck in an endless work cycle. Attempting to combat their sadness, the story passes from Samy to Alba as a coping mechanism. As screenwriter Mirjam Khera’s narrative grows, so too does their sense of hope. Marisa Wojtkowiak and Safinaz Sattar are captivating in the eight minutes they share alongside beautifully drawn images from Andrei Ebîncā. Directors Adam Graf and Mandy Peterat understand the balance of dark and light. It’s films like these that bring Fantasia audiences to Born of Woman. Stained Skin is a gorgeous addition to 2022.
The Anteroom
Writer-director Elisa Puerto Aubel gives Fantasia 2022 audiences a heart-stopping short. In the near future, a refugee and her infant daughter must negotiate with a customs AI. As the seconds dwindle toward one of two options, tension is palpable. The sparse and ominous set adds to the suffocating feeling, and the desperation in actress Irene Anula’s voice against the callous echoes of the machine will take your breath away.
Daughters of Witches
A young mother brings her baby Iris to participate in a traditional ritual. Generations of women trek into the forest, but Clara is unsettled and guilt-ridden, having missed her grandmother’s recent passing. Written by Karen Acosta, Naria Muñoz, and director Faride Schroeder, Daughters of Witches is another excellent example of the intrigue a short can generate. As night breaks into dawn and Clara finds Iris crying in another location, the final reveal left me emotionally invested in each character of this family lineage. Starring Yalitza Aparicio (ROMA), Daughters of Witches builds an engrossing world in ten minutes.
Don’t Go Where I Can’t Find You
This intoxicating short film from writer-director Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair teases every one of your senses. Margaret has lost her lover Freya to something she believed was haunting them inside the walls of their expansive Victorian mansion. Capturing Freya’s presence becomes an obsession, compromising her relationships with the living and the dead. Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly’s score becomes a plot point. Truthfully, the sound design from Garret Farrell is one of the most impactful aspects of the story. The film’s audio consumes the viewer, placing them in the stranglehold of grief. Fantasia 2022 audiences will undoubtedly fall in love with this film, from its costumes to Allyn Quigley’s editing. It’s nothing short of sumptuous.
Kin
Striking cinematography by Marc Patterson and a dissonant score from Jonathan Keith set the scene for director Sarah Gross’ Fantasia 2022 short film Kin. Three siblings must survive the western plains on their own. Eldest sister Ida takes the familial reigns to protect everyone. Madison Tebbutt’s screenplay subverts expectations bringing us an unusual creature feature that twists and turns from beginning to end. The final shot made me shudder.
Filmmaker Patrick Dickinson brings audiences a nuanced tale of loss and love in COTTONTAIL. Following the death of his wife, Kenzaburo travels with his son and his young family to fulfill his late wife’s last wish, to scatter her ashes at Lake Windemere in England. The film flashes back in time, giving us intimate details of the love story between Kenzaburo and Akiko. 
Tae Kimura gives an award-worthy performance as Akiko. The depth is mesmerizing. You will remember it. Lily Franky delivers a stunning complexity in Kenzaburo. Dickinson skillfully draws out the rift between him and his son Toshi (a fantastic Ryo Nishikido). The built-up guilt and regret flow off the screen as Franky moves from scene to scene. So, too, does the fierce adoration for his wife. 
Dickinson places the audience in a precarious emotional state once we witness the hardships of Akiko’s progressing condition and Kenzaburo’s increasing frustrations with losing the wife he vowed to love through thick and thin. The discussion of the impact of acting as a primary caregiver hangs above the film like a dark cloud, allowing the redemption narrative to hold your heart. COTTONTAIL is about the individuality of grief, keeping secrets, and human connection. It is an undeniably beautiful and affecting film.
Starring Academy Award® Nominee 
The heightened sound editing by Andrew Siedenburg and Nikolay Antonov is a character in the film. There is no better way to articulate its effect. The camera work from Lidia Nikonova swings from following closeups to static long takes, and it is nothing short of magnificent.
There is a theatrical delivery of much of the dialogue. Deragh Campbell is marvelous playing Katy. She delivers a compelling performance, reminding us how much we rely on the family matriarch to set our boundaries. Campbell’s pervasive anxiety flows on the screen.
The film brilliantly captures the poetic chaos of family gatherings. A myriad of intimate vignettes are all swirling together in an authentic picture where time loses all meaning. FAMILY PORTRAIT is haunting in so many ways. It will leave you breathless and wanting more.
SWEATY LARRY
Our introduction to Sweaty Larry is as ridiculous as it should be, and the original song saying over the credits (written and performed by ATL’s 
DEATH PERCEPTION
Kevin Bohleber gives Cody a know-it-all environmentalist vibe. He hides a much more nuanced undertone. Kelley Mack is Wilda. She mixes a breezy girl-next-door quality with authentic emotional baggage. 
The titular location is a real place in Utah. It is striking and entirely isolated, making for an immediately tense premise. The score is haunting and ethereal, comprised of disembodied voices. Scenes in which Grant trips on mushrooms utilize a combination of ever-evolving animation and VHS-style imagery to illustrate his POV. It is trippy. 
The hilarious and terrifying overall premise might seem unrealistic to some, but I can tell you it is entirely plausible. When my husband was a first-year associate coming out of grad school at Yale, he passed out on the way to work three days in a row from lack of sleep. After being revived by police officers and refusing medical attention, he arrived five minutes late only to be told, “That’s a YP, a You Problem.” Empathy be damned when there is a dollar or deal to be made.
The film looks spectacular. Sharp cinematography from Ali Armino ups the production ante. Lead performances are fantastic. Everett Osborne and Tommie Earl Jenkins command your attention with dazzling charm and ferocity, making us beg for an expanded world. Without needing to, BURN OUT takes a hard left turn into total WTF near the end of its 12-minute runtime, but the metaphor completely stands. It was unhinged before that choice. Executive Producer Jamie Lee Curtis knows talent when she sees it. Goldman’s voice is fresh, intense, and welcomed.
Performances from the entire cast are magnificent. Yoav Levi is Captain Hayim Amzalag, the prisonguard tasked with orchestrating the clandestine plans for the most valuable prisoner of war. Hayim’s anxiety manifests in a toothache, a burst blood vessel, and digestive issues as he dodges the press. Levi brings a dazzling physicality to the role. You will not soon forget him.
Noam Ovadia is David, a precocious, tenacious, Lybyan-Israeli who identifies as an Arab and Sephardic Jew learning perspective on the Nazis. Procuring an after-school job, David uses his quick-witted brain to solve problems. Ovadia is a star. It is an award-worthy turn. He outshines every other cast member.
Tom Shoval and Paltrow wrote the screenplay. In the third storyline, we explore Micah (Tom Hagi
Stimson Snead takes us on a comedy of trial and error in DWF: LA sci-fi feature TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX. This film is a story of a mad genius’s guide to what if, get ready to have your mind blown.
Samuel Dunning is Tim Travers. He is funny, charming, and owns this role. Travers is stubborn as hell and honest to a fault. The character has authentic mad scientist vibes. The number of alternative death scenes and distinctly unique versions of the same character is Multiplicity on crack. Dunning eats it up.
One of the most harrowing stories I’ve seen featured in a short film comes from BriGuel‘s HOW I ROLL. This 13-minute emotional rollercoaster is an eye-opening tale of resilience. Robin Cohen lives with MS, navigating Miami, Manhattan, and a family history of shocking violence, loss, and great love. 
BriGuel beautifully edits Cohen’s innermost thoughts, one on top of the other in the most organic way, mimicking the chaos of our mind’s intrusive thoughts. With an abundance of home videos and footage of Robin’s daily life and love story, HOW I ROLL introduces the world to a woman who inspires us to love, laugh, and live life to its fullest despite what might feel like insurmountable odds. Eternal positivity and perseverance are the beauty of life.
It is easy to see why Kat Rohrer‘s Frameline 48 feature WHAT A FEELING played to a sold-out crowd last night. This authentic love story is everything you want it to be. Workplace shenanigans and complicated family dynamics genuinely ground the film. This naturally progressing script has it all.
Fa is a wildly unpredictable woman who enjoys creating things with her hands and bouncing from woman to woman. Marie is a doctor whose husband demands a divorce on their 20th wedding anniversary. When the two run into each other, almost quite literally, they discover an unexpected spark between them.
Caroline Peters delivers laughs and heart in the role of Marie Theres. Proschat Madani gives Fa a firecracker spirit. Both offer depth to roles that could easily remain surface-level clichés. Their chemistry is magic, and Rohrer thoughtfully crafts their characters’ journeys.
The film leans into conversations of identity, both sexual and national, with Fa being Iranian. It tackles inherent bias and standing up for what’s right, no matter the issue. WHAT A FEELING dives into the nuance of relationships and the mistakes we make that either force us to grow or flee. It’s a lovely film.
FAMILY THERAPY
Sonja Prosenc‘s Tribeca 2024 film FAMILY THERAPY features a nouveau riche household that operates in rigid formality, slowly cracking upon the arrival of a new member.
Mila Bezjak gives Agata a suspicious sass. Her personality gets a boost from her severe hairstyle. Blunt bangs and thick coiffure make her resemble an overgrown doll. Her attention-seeking behavior has everything to do with her parents’ infantilism.
Aleksander never shuts up. He flaunts his eccentricity most ignorantly, fancying himself a writer despite only writing a single piece twenty years prior. Marko Mandic is loathsome in the best way.
Someone seems to be leaving Miriam cryptic notes and clues connected to her life. A kind-hearted and observant Toronto librarian at a quiet branch filled with an eclectic group of patrons, 
Britt Lower
Victoria Jorge gives Elena a tangibility that keeps us engaged. Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge write a fun and authentic character, putting us at ease. Chiara Hourcade delivers a self-aware performance that allows the audience to ride this emotional rollercoaster alongside Adela. Hourcade and Jorge capture our hearts with genuine familiarity in their chemistry.
In the Tribeca 2024 feature film THE EVERYTHING POT, two couples in vastly different places collide, and it all starts with a wedding gift.
Give me all the cheeses. It’s a phrase I should embroider on a pillow in my home. We have an entire drawer dedicated to cheese in our refrigerator. Spending two years in New Haven, my husband and I had the privilege of eating at a restaurant called Caseus (RIP). Their famous five-cheese grilled sandwich was a taste bud revelation. Tribeca 2024 documentary SHELF LIFE is tailor-made for cheese freaks such as myself.
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