Authors — Natalia Keogan
-
“I Put 30 Years of My Life Into 80 Minutes”: Myrid Carten on Her True/False Documentary, A Want in Her
Interweaving home movies, intimate phone calls, previous art school projects and deeply moving footage shot over an intense seven-month timeframe, A Want in Her documents increasing tumult within the filmmaker’s immediate family. The documentary may be the feature debut of moving-image artist Myrid Carten, but the inclusion of charming mini-DV footage shot by the director in her youth proves that, in many ways, she’s been a personal storyteller her whole life. (Even if the early ‘00s footage is more interested in parodying America’s Next Top Model than capturing the cracks already materializing in her family’s foundation). The film opens by […]
by Natalia Keogan on Feb 28, 2025 -
100 Scenes in 16 Shooting Days: Joel Alfonso Vargas on Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
A sweltering summer in the Bronx serves as the backdrop for Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), director Joel Alfonso Vargas’s first feature film. Expanding on his 34-minute short film Que te vaya bonito, Rico—which debuted at Locarno last year, receiving the Pardo di Domani best director award—the Sundance-premiering feature picks up where the short left off in the life of 19-year-old Rico (Juan Collado), a naive yet headstrong young man who makes a meager living selling nutcrackers on Orchard Beach. After he impregnates his teenage girlfriend, Destiny (Destiny Checo), he brings her home to […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 26, 2025 -
Order Fulfillment: Director Halina Reijn on Babygirl
It’s appropriate that Halina Reijn, the Dutch actress-turned-filmmaker who previously directed the Gen Z whodunnit Bodies Bodies Bodies, would look to ’90s erotic thrillers as fodder for her next feature. After all, her countryman Paul Verhoeven (she has a supporting role in his Black Book) is considered the de facto master of this genre, bringing his penchant for the perverse to Hollywood with pictures such as Basic Instinct. Babygirl, Reijn’s English-language feature debut as writer-director, is less enamored with this bygone era than it is interested in deploying its framework within a personal, subversively feminist perspective. But make no mistake: […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 16, 2024 -
“This World Is Hell for Women”: Magnus von Horn on The Girl with the Needle
Caroline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker living in abject poverty, serves as our window into the perilous post-war landscape of Copenhagen circa 1919 in The Girl with the Needle. Her dire situation is compounded by her social position as a working class woman, particularly since her husband, Peter (Besir Zeciri), has been out of the picture since he signed up to fight in the Great War (despite the country’s broader policy of neutrality). After she becomes pregnant by her wealthy boss, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), Caroline anticipates a new life of abundance and relative privilege. Of course, this inter-caste […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 4, 2024 -
“If No One Documents It, It Basically Doesn’t Exist”: Emily Mkrtichian on Her DOC NYC-Screening Feature Debut There Was, There Was Not
When she first started filming in the Republic of Artsakh—a small “breakaway” state where most residents were ethnically Armenian, but lived under the control of Azerbaijan—Emily Mkrtichian was planning to portray the pivotal roles local women play 30 years after experiencing a violent war. But her project was thrust in a completely different direction when the small sovereign state became besieged by sudden conflict once again. Taking its title from the opening line of most Armenian fairy tales, Mkrtichian’s feature debut is fascinated with the preservation of a place that no longer exists. For the first half of the film, […]
by Natalia Keogan on Nov 18, 2024 -
“We Need to Keep Working, Otherwise Our Voices Will Be Buried and Unheard.”: Areeb Zuaiter on Her Gaza-Set DOC NYC World Premiere Yalla Parkour
Threads concerning family, identity and resistance are carefully interwoven in Yalla Parkour, Palestinian filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter’s portrait of Gaza’s scrappy yet talented troupe of parkour athletes. After getting in touch with Ahmed Matar—a young man who dreams of securing a rare visa so that he may attend international parkour tournaments—Zuaiter realizes that by documenting his story, she can reconnect with a facet of her own heritage that she had once felt completely closed off to. While her family originally hails from the city of Nablus in the West Bank, conversing with Ahmed brings out the filmmaker’s own misconceptions about life […]
by Natalia Keogan on Nov 16, 2024 -
18 Recommended Titles at 2024’s DOC NYC
Returning for its 15th edition, DOC NYC presents yet another robust lineup of over 200 non-fiction short and feature-length films. Taking place in-person from November 13-21 and online through December 1, the largest documentary film festival in the country features buzzy future Oscar contenders, hidden gems from this year’s global festival circuit and even a handful of world premieres amid its 2024 program. Screenings will be held at several Manhattan theaters (namely IFC Center, SVA Theater and Village East) and via the festival’s own streaming platform. Below, from Filmmaker‘s writers, find a selection of recommended titles to seek out, which […]
by Natalia Keogan on Nov 15, 2024 -
“It’s Punk Rock to Be Hopeful These Days”: Harley Chamandy on His Self-Distributed Feature Debut Allen Sunshine
The somber existence of a reclusive electronic musician is the focus of Allen Sunshine, the feature debut of 25-year-old Harley Chamandy. The eponymous character (played by Vincent Leclerc) resides in a charming lakeside cabin in Quebec, yet the idyllic nature of his surroundings is tempered by inconsolable grief over his wife’s recent death. As a big-name musical talent in her own right, the solitary Allen is pained by the fact that his grief is not just his own; though he deeply adored her and produced most of her music, it’s clear that fans, both rabid and casual alike, feel equally […]
by Natalia Keogan on Nov 12, 2024 -
“I Knew Exactly How to Bring It to the Screen”: Marco Calvani on High Tide
Italian playwright Marco Calvani makes his feature film debut as a writer-director with High Tide, a Provincetown-set indie drama that centers on the need for communal tenderness after a heartbreak. Lourenço (Marco Pigossi, now Calvani’s husband) considers P-town a paradise. Having left his native Brazil years ago in order to live life as an out gay man (a fact he still conceals from his mother), the queer enclave provides ample community and connection for the handsome young man. However, recent events have made the locale feel more oppressive than he expected: his long-term boyfriend up and left without warning, visa […]
by Natalia Keogan on Oct 21, 2024 -
“A Throwback to Nancy Drew and Columbo”: Alice Maio Mackay on Carnage for Christmas
For her fifth feature, 20-year-old Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay gifts us Carnage for Christmas. A renegade force in the no-budget genre realm, her previous work has explored demonic cults, ancient parasites, vigilante vampires and Stephen King filtered through a uniquely queer lens. Maio Mackay’s latest features a supernatural, bloodlusting Santa Claus that small town residents have adopted as part of their folklore. The return of young adults for the holiday season awakens this mythologized entity, though it seems particularly drawn to Lola (newcomer Jeremy Moineau), a true crime podcast host who hates making the annual trek to her hometown. […]
by Natalia Keogan on Oct 18, 2024
