Frederic Da
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Perfectly Imperfect: A Missive From LAFM 2026
It’s impossible not to glamorize Los Angeles. Or at least this is how I feel every time I visit. The towering palms, seaside breeze, and temperate weather make everything easy to romanticize. This is an impulse that New Yorkers don’t regularly succumb to, what with incessant mass transit delays, post-blizzard poop pile-ups (we can only hope that these dumps were produced by dogs), and whatever environmental ill has been causing the wind to manifest as a city-wide vortex. After experiencing one of the harshest winters in recent memory, donning a light jacket and mini skirt to attend LAFM’s opening night […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 29, 2026 -
Los Angeles: The Movie-Watching Capital of the World
Moviegoing in Los Angeles has never been better, at least not in the 13 years I’ve lived in the city. When covering Slamdance’s move from Park City to LA last year, I listed a host of these either new or newly expanded theatrical offerings. In the year since, American Cinematheque, the undisputed king of repertory cinema in the city (at least in terms of scale), has acquired the historic Village theater in Westwood, with plans to re-open it next year. And Kristen Stewart’s recent purchase of the Highland Theatre is particularly exciting, especially considering that it’s located only one mile […]
by Caleb Hammond on Apr 29, 2026 -
“Personal Storytelling, Experimentation, and a DIY Spirit”: A Look Inside LAFM 2026
Returning for its third annual edition, the Los Angeles Festival of Movies boasts a lineup of critical darlings from other festivals, newly-restored global cinema, and even the odd world premiere. Co-founded by Sarah Winshall, producer behind indie gems like I Saw the TV Glow and Good One, and Micah Gottlieb, artistic director of the programming non-profit Mezzanine, LAFM was created in part to respond to a dearth of indie film exhibition in the metropolis. From April 9 through 12, L.A.’s east side will serve as a watering hole for filmgoers in a city that, while integral to the filmmaking ecosystem at large, has been […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 9, 2026 -
“A Lot of Movies Right Now are Just Shrugs”: Frederic Da on iPhone-Shot Found Footage film Isaiah’s Phone
With Isaiah’s Phone, French-American filmmaker Frederic Da caps off an informal trilogy cataloging the contemporary teenage experience by corralling his film students at a private high school in Santa Monica as crew and on-camera as actors. Short “Ava Dates a Senior” was expanded into the ensemble feature Teenage Emotions—both of which are lensed on multiple iPhones and had their premieres at Slamdance. Da’s latest, Isaiah’s Phone, employs a diegetic, found footage framing device, following a young student Isaiah (Isaiah Brody) as he navigates the difficulties of high school. On-screen text up top teases “a horrific act of violence,” explaining that […]
by Caleb Hammond on Jul 3, 2025 -
“There’s Nothing I Can Write That’s as Good as What These Kids are Going to Come Up With”: Frederic Da on Slamdance 2021 Premiere Teenage Emotions
“Being a teenager…is fuckin lit”: The individually colored letters of Teenage Emotions’s title appear one by one against a black screen, filled out by the increasing roar of its young subjects’ voices in mixed-together chorus. But the title, opening aggregation of “emotional time of your life” sentiments and a subsequent left-to-right pan of a crowded high school courtyard soundtracked by Mozart’s Mass in C Minor seem to portend something more histrionic than what follows, a faultlessly realistic, unexpectedly pleasant, funny and relentlessly up-to-date immersion into high school life that (almost) never leaves campus. Frederic Da’s no-budget first feature, Teenage Emotions was shot in collaboration […]
by Vadim Rizov on Feb 12, 2021 -
Trailer Watch: Slamdance 2021 Premiere Teenage Emotions
One of the highlights of this year’s forthcoming Slamdance, Frederic Da’s feature debut Teenage Emotions was shot during lunch breaks at the high school Da works at as a film teacher. Even with production was cut short by COVID, the results are lively, extremely of-the-moment, immersive and funny. We’ll be publishing an interview with Da on Friday, but for now here’s the trailer.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 10, 2021
