MERCHANTS OF JOY
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Celia Aniskovich‘s DOCNYC film, MERCHANTS OF JOY, brings audiences behind the scenes of an annual venture most of us take for granted. For the five families that dominate the Christmas Tree market in NYC, the Holiday Season is a business of mayhem and memories. Dive into the underworld of a tradition where vendors battle it out for prime positions and quality product in hopes of making each year better than the last.
The film is a collection of personalities all jockeying to outdo each other. Greg looks like Santa and is happy to dress as such for the local kids. His son, Little Greg, is poised to take over the family business as his father battles cancer. Brooklynite George (who used to work for Greg) hopes to find love this season and brings bravado to the group. Heather is nine years sober. You will find her supporting those struggling on a similar path. Ciree takes the reins from her parents after 30 years. All of them find themselves under the thumb of the mysterious Kevin Hammer. Think of him as the Christmas Tree Mafia Boss.
The film is a countdown to Christmas, tracking the complicated and expensive logistics of purchasing trees, trucking them sometimes across the country, bidding on street corner permits, setting up shop, all while navigating weather, workforce, and the economy. It’s a risky business that can be rewarding in the end. The job is physically taxing and emotionally exhausting, but its impact on building family traditions is worth its weight in gold.
Aniskovich intersperses sit-down interviews with action on the ground. The pièce de résistance are the scenes mimicking the stop-motion animation in Christmas classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970), and The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974). In fact, Kevin Hammer only appears as an incognito character with phone interview audio. It is a perfect touch, wrapping MERCHANTS OF JOY with a nostalgia bow.
It is a film that will touch your heart. It is a delightful, warm hug, a movie about human connection, and a perfect segway for the holiday spirit.
MERCHANTS OF JOY – Coming to Prime Video Dec 1st!
WORLD PREMIERE- MERCHANTS OF JOY
Directed by Celia Aniskovich (Burn It Down!, Call Me Miss Cleo), the film captures the cast of characters behind the city’s Christmas tree stands– small business owners who bring holiday cheer to the streets each season, along with a healthy dose of friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) competition with each other.
A lifelong Christmas lover, Aniskovich first discovered the story after reading Epic Magazine and NY Mag’s article “Secrets of the Christmas Tree Trade” and immediately knew this was a story she wanted to tell. Drawn to the community, pride, and hidden labor, she started filming within days of meeting “Big Greg,” – one of the film’s central figures – and eventually Amazon MGM Studios and Artists Equity came aboard the project as well. What began as a portrait of holiday hustle evolved into a story about faith, family, and resilience as she continued following the families. Merchants of Joy
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Based in part on her 2017 film BIRTH OF A FAMILY, Tasha Hubbard brings her scripted narrative debut to TIFF 50. MEADOWLARKS stars Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice, and Michelle Thrush as four Cree siblings who were separated by the Sixties Scoop, who are meeting for the first time as adults.
Performances are fantastic. Each character is incredibly nuanced. Four siblings with varying goals for the trip and vastly different personalities. But what links them is far deeper than the ways in which they were raised by white families.
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As he prepares to self-fund his hefty two-act drama with his theatre “besties,” Griffin’s theatrical passion is further fueled by a tumultuous homelife. Colia delivers a truly tangible script. Griffin’s mom seems overwhelmed with her go-getter and rather demanding son, but under the surface, something else is simmering. She hires a neighbor’s son to help with yard cleanup. What begins as an annoyance to Griffin transforms into a sexual awakening, a test of relationships, and a piece of art that mirrors his unresolved trauma.
Owen Teague plays Brad with an initial aloofness that perfectly contrasts Griffin’s overzealous nature. As Teague taps into Brad’s motivation, *no pun intended,* the performance captivates in an entirely unexpected way. Everett Blunck is a star. His portrayal of Griffin feels like a documentary rather than a performance. It is one well beyond his years. He exudes fierce confidence that is infectious. Teague and Blunck have magnetic chemistry. Colia skillfully creates a subtle doppleganger effect between the two. It is an incredibly nuanced balance of characterization and performance.
Colia cleverly speaks to art as catharsis, the plight of a tortured artist, and the meaning of authentic friendship. Existing between childhood and adulthood is wrought with emotional chaos, impossible questions, self-loathing, fear, and awkwardness. GRIFFIN IN SUMMER playfully touches on each of these with unfiltered heart and humor.
After a bus ride on her way out of town gets cut short by a sighting of her local crush, Cleo’s infatuation becomes a way of life that maybe isn’t what she intended. Her mother, Lady Andre, comes looking for her and mistakes a passing moment for the end of her legacy.
Jessica Paré delivers a vivacious performance as Lady Andre. She is eccentric and demanding, but is undoubtedly battling unresolved wounds. Skylar Radzion is Josephine, the hairless sibling in the bearded family. She is a spitfire and a slick foil for Cleo.
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DROWNING DRY
The organic meandering of unplanned vacation time reads entirely authentic. The montage of the kids’ initial shenanigans and their mothers’ choreographed childhood dance are stand-out moments. At this point in the runtime (35 minutes), the audience could easily tap out. But the request for a swim and an innocent act of horseplay trigger a tonal shift.
The film’s deliberate observational pace builds discomfort, only exacerbated by non-linear storytelling. The moment you realize what’s happening, it is like a punch to the gut. This decision will either tantalize audiences or turn them off. Performances are outstanding from our cast of only six. Bareiša’s camerawork is perfect for his stylistic choices. DROWNING DRY is a meditation on loss, examining the varying emotional reactions between the sexes. It is a film that will have you talking about it long after the screen goes dark.
Adam Finberg‘s narrative feature debut, STAR PEOPLE, arrives to engross Dances With Films LA 2025 audiences. The film follows a photographer who receives a tip about the same strange lights she witnessed in childhood. But, a heatwave and tensions between unexpected guests threaten everything.
The archival news footage sets a brilliant tone for STAR PEOPLE. Combining alien hunting with an immigration story is incredibly clever and entirely seamless. Finberg brilliantly tackles racism and the sick practices of border coyotes and anti-immigration militants. Everything is high stakes as temperatures rise to deadly levels, and the chance to solve Claire and Taylor’s biggest childhood mystery seems less and less likely.
McCabe Slye is Claire’s junkie brother Taylor. Slye is outstanding, tapping into Taylor’s manic PTSD like a pro. He steals every frame he’s in. Kat Cunning‘s Claire is desperately chasing answers from childhood. Her comfort in front of the camera is unmatched. She and Slye’s chemistry is movie magic.
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FIRE AT WILL looks fantastic. Jared Levy‘s camerawork is most immersed and intimate. Kyle Moriarty‘s quick-take editing is perfect. The fast-paced dialogue filled with self-absorbed personalities is every kitchen table conversation featuring adult children and their parents. As the firstborn of four loud children in an Irish Italian household, I can attest to the authenticity in the chaos of Gruer’s script, right down to the mother storming out in emotionally exhausted dramatics and the unspoken connection between father and artistic daughter. The cast nails each ping-pong match beat. FIRE AT WILL is a spectacular treatment for a feature. I need to know what happens next.
José Condessa creates a vibrant and charming character. He is sensitive and caring, everything a woman desires in a man. Condessa is dazzling. Ayden Mayeri gives June a true egocentric millennial with an unresolved emotional trauma vibe, which is precisely what Lilian T. Mehrel intended. Mayeri effortlessly glides into June’s arc. Amira Casar takes on Lela with a lived-in authenticity and passion. She holds each frame with her powerful presence. These two women share gorgeous chemistry. 
Filmmakers Kasper Bisgaard and Mikael Lypinski bring Tribeca 2025 audiences documentary, THE END OF QUIET, a thought-provoking exploration of human connectivity. In an isolated town in West Virginia, the world’s largest radio telescope can pick up the murmurings of signals across the universe. To achieve this, the telescope resides in the Quiet Zone, the only place in the U.S. where Wi-Fi and cell phone signals are not permitted.
How do they fight the boredom? Brionna and her gun enthusiast grandfather, David, spend time together shooting his 37 guns and rifles and blowing things up. Choosing to reside in The Quiet Zone due to electromagnetic hypersensitivity, Clover and her dog, Beautiful, live for landline phone calls from her husband, who lives abroad. Her original poetry also serves as beautiful transition audio. A lonely but contented elderly vet named Willard spends his days drinking a lot of coffee and attending local funerals. Kirsten, 17, and Frankie, 23, are a young, engaged couple who dream of having a child. 
THE FILM IS SUPPORTED BY
Filmmaker Nayra Ilic Garcia brings Tribeca 2025 audiences CUERPO CELESTE, a film about the inevitability of change, for better or worse.
Defying all the odds and the lawyers’ advice, Fernando gathers a local Quechua cast, including little Dylan as young Simba, creating a dazzling version of the beloved tale in his studio. The result is a triumph.
Directed by: Steven Feinartz
Director: Oscar Boyson
Directed by: Cindy Meehl
While waiting at the airport for her husband, Aya (Sarah Adler) is mistaken for someone else. Intrigued, she decides to pick up a complete stranger (Ulrich Thomsen) on a whim. Their encounter sparks an unexpected intimacy that unsettles Aya’s sense of certainty and awakens a yearning she neither fully understands nor knows how to fulfill. Her quiet search for meaning unfolds in a hotel room, a customer service chat and in subtle disruptions to her daily routine, as we are taken through a woman’s delicate and honest search for something meaningful.
Directed by: Jim Sheridan & David Merriman
Directed by: Rick Gomez
Director: Karam Gill 
Director: Amy Scott
EGGHEAD & TWINKIE
Asahi Hirano plays Jess with a comfortability that is chef’s kiss. Acting like an LGBTQ+ sensai for Twinkie, Hirano makes the conversation flow easily. She is a delight, someone who could carry a spinoff film. Louis Tomeo as Egghead is fantastic. He is laugh-out-loud funny in his natural delivery. The sass is perfection. Holland allows him to show his comedy chops through the script and hilarious editing from Anna DeFinis and Kristina League. Sabrina Jie-a-fa plays Twinkie with a perfect balance of audaciousness and hesitancy. We see authentic coming-of-age and coming-out stories in her journey. Together, Tomeo and Jie-a-fa are a spectacular duo. You will fall in love with them. 
The teenage shenanigans ring true. That feeling of invincibility and daring reminds me of my crazy ideas and dumb decisions in the late 90s. Egghead and Twinkie take risks, make mistakes, hurt each other, get their hearts broken, and confess their fears. The film is a helpful guide for parents struggling to understand their kids’ feelings. Regardless of their core beliefs, 
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UnBroken
Lane pieces together the Weber children’s story using archival footage, family photos, letters of eldest brother Alfons, and the foggy memories of the five remaining sisters. She travels to Berlin, stopping at each location where the siblings were hidden and nurtured. Lane discovers her grandfather’s original fascist concentration camp papers and the entry log of all seven children in a nunnery, finding that her mother Bela’s instinct about her middle name was correct.
Misfit delivers enchanting line-drawn animation to fill in the visual gaps. Aaron Soffin and Dina Guttmann’s editing is award-worthy. Jonathan Snipes’ score is haunting. The film plays out like historical fiction from one moment to the next.
One particularly intriguing moment happens as Beth runs into a small group of young people listening to music outside the siblings’ old apartment. After she tells them what the film is about, she asks if they would hide her if history repeats itself. Their honesty will burn into your memory. The echoes of trauma and triumph rear their ugly heads in many ways, but the knowledge that in saving seven siblings, there are now 72 thriving Weber family members is something to celebrate.
The similarities to the systematic dismantling of the United States’ democracy should serve as a stark warning, but UnBroken also shines a light on the goodness of the human heart. One phrase from the film perfectly captures the message. “When you’re faced with adversity, who do you become?”
Sophie Mara Baaden plays six-year-old Sadie with authentic innocence and sass. She has wonderful chemistry with Campbell. Lesley Ann Warren plays Nora’s waspy mother and provides the stereotypical artist’s parent doubtful “I told you so” tone. Nick Fink is fantastic as Sadie’s first-grade teacher Adam. He and Campbell are a striking duo. It doesn’t hurt that his singing voice Is delicious.
The script nails the loss of personal identity when a woman becomes a mother. The invisible labor and patriarchal structure often lead to isolation and lingering resentment. It delves into self-loathing and body changes. It tackles suburban social pressure, which can be a lot. On the flip side, she also perfectly captures the love-filled hyping up we do for our kids every single day. 
Campbell is ceaselessly charming. She is funny, self-effacing, anxiety-ridden, and pottymouthed, just the way I like my fellow Moms. As a woman who gave up a career performing to be a supportive partner and mother, NORA fills my soul with a knowing. 
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