‘AZI’ (Sundance 2025 short) Palpable tension and one hell of a tease.

Sundance 2025 banner logo

AZI

Azi_poster2024

Montana Mann‘s Sundance 2025 short film AZI is an intriguing cat-and-mouse game of power. A weekend trip away takes an odd but intriguing turn when a challenge presents itself. Seemingly harmless fun turns into something (perhaps) more sinister in a matter of hours.

Azi still 1The dynamic between 17-year-old Azi and her best friend’s father’s new girlfriend moves from passive-aggressive to outright challenge. You can cut the tension with a knife. Mann delivers enough longing looks between Wool and Goodjohn to wager guesses about each woman’s motivation. You’re dying to know what happens next once the screen goes black.

Breeda Wool has a talent for choosing juicy roles in indie films. Any cinephile of the genre knows her work, and her turn as Elizabeth is no exception. Wool brings an aura that is generally unexplainable other than to say you feel compelled to watch her. Dior Goodjohn is utterly captivating in the titular role. Where has she been all my life? Her ability to match Wool’s energy and presence should make heads turn. They make a dazzling pair.

Azi-Still_2Thankfully, a feature-length version of AZI is already in the works. Sundance 2025 audiences are in for one hell of a tease. These are guaranteed seats in butts whenever production is complete. Count me very much in.


Remaining Screening of AZI:

Jan 31, 1:10 PM  MST
Screening

Megaplex Redstone – 2

Park City

Jan 30, 10:00 AM  EST –
Feb 3, 6:55 AM  EST
Online Screening

Inspired by director and writer Montana Mann’s own coming-of-age experience, AZI tells the intimate and timely story of a Persian-American teenager contending with her identity and sexuality. The short follows seventeen-year-old Azi (Dior Negeen Goodjohn) on a weekend away with her best friend’s family, where she unexpectedly forms a mysterious and electric connection with another woman on the trip, Elizabeth (Breeda Wool), resulting in a psychological game that raises complex questions about their motives, power dynamics and the ability to take control of one’s own agency.


Montana Mann is a Persian-American award-winning writer/director from Virginia. Her most recent narrative short film, AZI, world premiered at Palm Springs International Shortfest, and won the SAGindie Award at HollyShorts. The feature adaptation of the same short participated in the 2024 Film Independent Fast Track program. As part of the MENA/SWANA diaspora, her work explores the journey of finding one’s identity as a female living between two cultures.

Producer Steven Snyder is an independent producer who most recently worked with Jim Burke at his company, Innisfree Pictures. There, he worked on the production of Green Book, which won three Academy Awards including the Oscar for Best Picture. He is an executive producer on Dreamin’ Wild, which world premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and was released through Roadside Attractions. He is a 2024 Film Independent Fellow and was selected to participate in Inside Out’s International Finance Forum promoting queer creatives.

 

Sundance 2025 banner logoFor more Sundance coverage, click here!

 

‘LIFE AFTER’ (Sundance 2025) Autonomy, disability, and so much more.

Sundance 2025 banner logoLIFE AFTER

life after Sundance

Filmmaker Reid Davenport‘s timely Sundance documentary LIFE AFTER is here to ask the big questions. Much like his film 2022 film, I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE, Davenport’s personal lens overlaps with his subject as a person with cerebral palsy. Upon discovering an essay about a young woman named Elizabeth Bouvia, Davenport embarks on a journey to find this disability rights pioneer.

Archival footage of Elizabeth through the years is spliced between stories of people with similar feelings and fears, though each story is drastically different. Reid makes it clear at the beginning of the film. These are not black-and-white issues, and his intention is truth and connection. The confrontation of ableism is mind-blowing and vital. Reid Davenport’s charm and raw honesty are captivating, and those who choose to share their stories open our eyes.

life after Sundance 2Canadian Bill C-7 allowed for the Right To Die. The expansion of MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) remains controversial. Davenport offers every angle of the process. This alone is an emotional roller-coaster, from perceived propaganda to Disability Rights Advocates, both for and against the legislation.

Cambridge, Ontario resident Michael Kaliszan was born with CP. After the death of his mother and primary caretaker, his quality of life plummeted as funds dried up and loneliness took hold. His attempts to access MAiD were fruitless. Through his months of trying, Davenport has revisited Michael, and a seed of hope for a sustainable and happy existence might be growing.

Michael Hickson‘s story of his post-coma brain and spinal cord complications comes from his wife, Melissa. Her struggle to attain better care for her husband led to a guardianship battle and, ultimately, his death. Melissa’s secret recordings of doctors back up her claims that staff encouraged Michael’s passing.

Life_After-Still_2Dr. Ramona Coelho speaks about the cost savings of moving forward with the passing of C-7. The film tackles the abuse of the law. Davenport interviews advocates who worry that this could be used as a justification tool to end the lives of disabled people, in other words, eugenics.

Elizabeth’s story is the catalyst for Davenport. It opens the door to so much more. Interviews with her family members and home videos reveal untold stories from her life, and the nuance will leave you breathless. LIFE AFTER skillfully tackles body autonomy, health rights, disability awareness, ableism, and capitalism. It is an incredibly important film and one hell of a conversation starter.


Remaining screenings of LIFE AFTER:

  • Jan 30, 12:30 PM MST
     

    Broadway Centre Cinemas – 6

    Salt Lake City

    open caption
     
  • Jan 31, 6:00 PM MST
     

    Holiday Village Cinemas – 1

    Park City

    open caption
     
    • Jan 30, 10:00 AM EST –
      Feb 3, 1:55 AM EST
      Online Screening

In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.

For more Sundance coverage, click here!

‘MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN’ (Sundance 2025) The shocking militarization of Russian schoolchildren and the brave teacher who exposed it all.

Sundance 2025 banner logoMR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN

Mr_Nobody_Against_Putin

David Borenstein’s eye-opening Sundance 2025 documentary follows a democracy-loving school event coordinator and videographer who finds himself in the trenches of warfare. Pavel “Pasha” Talankin is not a soldier. He is a primary school teacher thrust into a shocking new reality– the bastardization of history and the brainwashing of his country. MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN should be mandatory viewing.

Pasha (who shoots and co-directs the film) provides a safe place for free-thinking, creative kids. It only took him a day to realize Putin had forced him and his colleagues to be part of a war machine, not teaching but indoctrinating their young students to support the war in Ukraine passionately. New patriotic lessons read verbatim to children filled with absurd lies.

Instead of resigning, Pasha agrees to become an informant for a European journalist because his unprecedented access to the daily lives of his students and community delivers the truth those outside of Russia are never privy to. Thus begins a mission of recording history.

Pasha records his students in raw confessional moments. As her brother endures the front lines, Masha, a once bubbly student, slowly descends into a sadness that mirrors many of the kids. You can see their gears turning in the understanding that something is not quite right about their instruction. Teachers gather in Pasha’s office. They’ve just been informed that grades are disastrous across all levels. Morale plummets as they fear firing or even jail time under a new “treason” law. It is the same bullshit that imprisons journalists.

State TV is gross. The overblown production of propagandist songs and parades will make you seethe or vomit. The gaslighting from Putin looks eerily similar to what we’ve come to hear from the right in the U.S. In the first few days of this sickening political sequel most of us didn’t ask for, we must take heed of the atrocities in this film.

Karabash’s history teacher gives a nauseating lesson on the art of foreign misinformation. Every word in his classroom induces a gasp. While Putin reactivates a jaw-dropping youth movement under the faux guise of patriotism, giving children literal scripts to read on camera. When the Wagner Mercenaries come to present what we in the U.S. would call an enrichment presentation, kids learn about mines, guns, and how not to die. A schoolwide competition consists of grenade throwing. Karabash Primary School has transformed into a military school, uniforms and all. Russia is training soldiers from Kindergarten, and they’ve convinced some of the population that it is a noble pursuit.

Pasha Talankin might be one of the bravest people in the world. His seemingly small acts of open defiance make your heart race. An hour into the film, we are genuinely worried for his safety. As he sends his 2024 graduating class off to an unknown future, Pasha provides the world with vital truths that will likely cause a global uproar.

MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN is a horrifying blueprint for authoritarianism. The world is moments away from political collapse. This doc is nothing short of a stark warning. It demands your attention. Pay attention and honor his fearlessness.

MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN Trailer:

Directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Pasha Talankin, this uniquely collaborative film is as captivating and joyful as it is eye-opening and sobering. Mr. Nobody Against Putin showcases rare footage that reveals the profound impact of Putin’s regime on the lives of everyday Russians, particularly its children. MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN

Director: David Borenstein

Co-Director: Pavel Talankin

Screenwriter: David Borenstein

Producer: Helle Faber

David borensteinDavid Borenstein has worked in the documentary industry on three different continents. He has produced and directed TV for BBC, PBS, ARTE, Al Jazeera, DR, Vice, and many more international broadcasters. Borenstein directed Can’t Feel Nothing (2024), Love Factory (2021), and Dream Empire (2016).  MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN

 

For more Sundance coverage, click here!