Authors — Natalia Keogan
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Cinéma Du Cashiers Begins at BAM This Week—Watch an Exclusive Promo by David Cardoza
As we reported last week, the NYC-based, cinema worker-centric zine Cashiers Du Cinéma has curated a 10-film program at Brooklyn’s BAM Cinema that spotlights the oft-unappreciated labor of front of house theater staff. Today, filmmaker David Cardoza shares an exclusive promo for our readers that stars Bill Heidbreder, a NY writer/critic and subject of the 2002 documentary Cinemania. The promo features Heidbreder playing a character named Terry. He dons a movie usher’s red vest, black sunglasses and a microphone headset as he implores commuters in the 6th Ave subway tunnel to check out the BAM series, which is entitled Cinéma […]
by Natalia Keogan on Feb 9, 2026 -
Caroline Golum’s Revelations of Divine Love Finds a North American Distributor in Several Futures—Take a First Look at Exclusive Photos
Several Futures announces today that it has acquired North American distribution for Revelations of Divine Love, New York-based filmmaker Caroline Golum’s sophomore film. Following her 2017 debut A Feast of Man, Golum’s 14th century-set feature had its world premiere at FIDMarseille last summer. Several Futures, which specializes in “auteurist and anti-imperialist work,” picks up Revelations of Divine Love a few weeks after its North American premiere at the Montreal Critics’ Week film festival. “Caroline Golum’s film is totally unique in the current landscape of American independent film—not only in its ambition, but in its sincerity and artistry,” said Several Futures […]
by Natalia Keogan on Feb 9, 2026 -
Watch the Trailer for Cashiers Du Cinéma’s 10-Film BAM Series—and Enjoy an Exclusive Comic by Co-Editors Dan Welch and David Cardoza
Dan Welch and David Cardoza, self-described “editors-for-life” of the NYC-based Cashiers Du Cinéma zine, are taking over Brooklyn’s BAM Cinema for a 10-film series “contemplating cinema work in works of cinema,” running from February 13-19. For those unfamiliar with the pair’s publication, each edition features a variety of comics, essays, and short fiction “about the ragged glory of working at movie theaters,” all penned by current or former movie theater employees. The first issue was published in 2023, and the most recent fourth issue was released back in December to substantial buzz, complete with a shout-out in The Strategist’s “Best […]
by Natalia Keogan on Feb 2, 2026 -
“The Psychological Horror of Being a 13-Year-Old”: Charlie Polinger on The Plague
The awkwardness of puberty is exacerbated by a cruel social game in The Plague, the feature debut from writer-director Charlie Polinger. Set in 2003, Ben (Everett Blunck), a shy yet precocious kid, finds himself shipped off to a water polo camp very far from his childhood home in Boston. His young teammates can practically smell Ben’s desperation for belonging; luckily for him, there’s already someone cemented at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Eli’s (Kenny Rasmussen) reputation as a maladroit athlete and for inept conversationalist make him an easy enough target for bullies, but the kids have added an additional […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 30, 2026 -
“Fake Stuff Makes Me Feel Sick”: John Wilson on The History of Concrete
The History of Concrete, John Wilson’s first feature-length film, is far stranger and more compelling than the title suggests—and a perfect continuation of his oft-meandering, always philosophical practice. Yes, there are novel factoids about Ancient Rome, the removal of gum from city sidewalks and the oldest concrete road in America, but the plot often shifts and transmogrifies, in true Wilsonian fashion, before circling back to the topic at hand. For some, this constant zooming—out, in, away entirely—can be frustratingly disorienting. For those who enjoy the visual approximation of falling down a (preferably weed-induced) Wikipedia rabbit hole, this is non-fiction at […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 24, 2026 -
Concrete, Bikini Kill and Bad Grandpas: 11 Films to Catch at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival
This year’s Sundance Film Festival promises a somewhat elegiac atmosphere. For starters, this is the last time the festival will take place in snowy Park City, Utah, its home since 1981. (Next year, Sundance will take up residence in similarly snowy Boulder, Colorado.) Adding to the mournful vibe is the still fresh loss of Robert Redford, the festival’s founder and presiding spirit, who died in September. Another devastating loss came with the passing of Tammie Rosen, Sundance’s dedicated Chief Communications Officer, who died in December after a lengthy battle with cancer. Amid these many lamentations, it’s heartening to see that […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 22, 2026 -
Chicken & Egg Films Announces 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantees and Relocation of Filmmaker Retreats to Canada
Chicken & Egg Films, the Brooklyn-based organization that champions women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers with funding, mentorship, and access, announces today the grantees of its 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab. Nine feature documentary film projects, all helmed or co-helmed by first- or second-time directors, will receive one year of professional mentorship and a $40,000 production grant. Coinciding with the 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab announcement is news that C&E will, for the first time in the organization’s history, host its signature retreats in Canada. Per a press release, this decision was “in response to the fact that travel to the United States has grown […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 21, 2026 -
The Purity of Song: Mona Fastvold on “The Testament of Ann Lee”
What if Jesus already made his way back to us in the 18th century, and we just missed it? The titular British-born spiritual leader played by Amanda Seyfried in Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee believed herself to be the female embodiment of Jesus Christ and brought her scripture to Colonial America, enticed by its supposed promise of spiritual freedom. Co-written by Fastvold, who directed, and her partner Brady Corbet, and arriving only a year after their architectural epic The Brutalist, Ann Lee continues the pair’s interest in eccentric individuals who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of what […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 22, 2025 -
“A Lot of Women Just Think It’s Fucking Hot”: Sarah Meyohas and Courtney Podraza on Their Taboo Erotic Short “Medusa”
After taking a spontaneous dip in the South of France, visiting Swedish perfumer Mia (Elektra Kilbey) is badly stung by a jellyfish. She rushes out of the water—topless, shivering, limping—and Franck (Franck Sémonin), a local out for a stroll, leaps into chivalric action, giving the bare-chested woman the shirt off his back. Tending to her injury, he runs a credit card over her thigh in order to remove the venom lingering on her skin. In France on a residency to further her craft, Mia grabs the card from Franck’s hand and wafts it under her nose—traces of lavender from her […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 18, 2025 -
U.S. in Progress 2025: Poland to Park City
The 15th edition of U.S. in Progress—an industry market cum post-production prize competition held during the Polish-based Tauron American Film Festival—began on a particularly unorthodox foot this year. Though the festival’s based in the Southwestern, thousand-year-old metropolis of Wrocław, the program’s international cohort landed at Warsaw Chopin Airport, nearly 200 miles away from AFF’s home base, in the days preceding the event itself. Inconveniently, the Wrocław airport underwent extensive renovations from October 26 through December 4 of this year. As the AFF and its U.S. in Progress showcase unfold between November 6-11, the timing couldn’t be more headache-inducing. Yet for […]
by Natalia Keogan on Dec 17, 2025
