Trailer Watch: Nicole Riegel’s Holler
The first trailer just dropped for Nicole Riegel’s Holler, a flinty, tremendously assured debut drama with a powerful lead performance by Jessica Barden. When I interviewed Riegel last fall when her film played in Toronto’s market, she spoke of its development and financing process, during which some financiers asked her if she could make the lead male. “I wanted to tell my story, and I only knew to tell that if it was about a young woman in a very harsh, muscular environment,” Riegel told me. “And then I wanted to tell about how hard it is for young women to pursue an education in America. I grew up as a poor woman in Southern Ohio, and no one else in my family above me had attended college. I didn’t have people telling me about grants or FASFA or scholarships. And I thought, if I felt that way, then lots of other young women are feeling that way. I wanted to tell that story.”
Holler opens in select theaters and on digital platforms June 11 from IFC Films.