Female Director 2022 Archives - Page 4 of 4

Sissy

Cecilia (Aisha Dee from the series “The Bold Type”) is a successful social media influencer, living the dream of a modern, independent young woman from the TikTok generation. One day she accidentally runs into Emma (Hannah Barlow, the film’s writer and director), who used to be her best friend in their early teens. They used to believe their friendship would last forever and didn’t let anything stand in their way, until bully Alex invaded their lives. Emma is so pleased to meet her old childhood friend that she decides to invite Cecilia to her bachelorette party. Cecilia is convinced there’s nothing better than a weekend of music and drinks in a faraway cabin in the mountains to renew her connection to Emma, but there is one small detail Emma had forgotten to mention to Cecilia – Alex, the bane of their existence, is the owner of the cabin.
Get ready for a rollercoaster ride of laughter and horror in this surprising Australian gem.

In association with the Embassy of Australia

Blessed Boys

In the sunny Sanita quarter of Naples, Italy, a working-class neighbourhood, where everyone knows each other, two inseparable friends live in a protected bubble until their friendship is put to the test.
Mario (Vincenzo Antonucci) and Lino (Francesco Pellegrino) are two young men, born and raised in Sanita. They still never left the city to explore the world. When Lino’s younger sister convinces the locals she’s a saint, who can perform miracles, and gains their admiration, Lino’s destiny changes abruptly. Free from the financial responsibility for his mother and sister, he is able to imagine a life outside the slums for the first time. Meanwhile, Mario is experiencing an increasing attraction towards his best friend which he didn’t notice before now.
Director Silvia Brunelli’s debut film is Italian cinema as we love it: funny, bold and housing a plethora of colourful and humane characters. This is a film that confronts us with the differences between sacred and secular, old world and new world.

Breaking the Ice

29.10 and 30.10 screenings include Q&A with the director

Director Clara Stern’s debut film “Breaking the Ice” premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. In this film Stern brings to the screen a story of what happens when someone with a very rigid and uncompromising view on life meets the exact opposite – the side she yearns to live and experience.
Alina Schaller is Mira, who sometimes seems to be carrying the weight of the entire world on her shoulders. She’s the captain of a women’s ice hockey team and the heiress to the barely financially surviving vineyard. She is taking care of her grandfather, whose Alzheimer is progressing rapidly, and her younger, irresponsible brother, Paul, returns home after being gone for a long while.
When a new, spontaneous, free-spirited young woman joins the team, Mira finds herself being swept into a surprising and freeing affair, maybe even more freeing than she can actually afford to have.
“Breaking the Ice” is a romantic sport drama about the freedom to be who you are with no limitations.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 2.11, 20:30
Jerusalem Cinematheque, 2.11 – 19:00

In association with the Austrian Cultural Forum

Wet Sand

“Wet Sand” is the second feature film by Georgian director Elene Naveriani. It deals in a very delicate and moving way not only with the homophobia engrained in the Georgian society, but also with the generation gap between the older closeted queers and the younger generation who refuses to hide.
In a quaint fishermen’s village, on the shores of the Georgian Black Sea, live friendly people who are sure that they know each other well. One day, Eliko, one of the village elders, is found hanged. His androgenous looking granddaughter Moe, a city girl, arrives at the village in order to organise her grandfather’s funeral. She clearly doesn’t fit in the conservative community that sees her as an outsider, but the locals fake a warm reception. Moe befriends the old tavern owner who used to be very close with her grandfather and the village spinster bartender working for him. The more Moe delves into the mystery that is her grandfather’s life, the more she uncovers the web of lies and the tragic consequences of Eliko’s secret love life.
Pay attention to the perfect and addictive soundtrack, which will surely send you straight to Spotify to look for the songs afterwards.

Additional screening: 3.11, 20:30 Cinematheque Herzliya

Maybe Someday

The screenwriter-director-actress Michelle Ehlen comes back to TLVFest after screening here two of her other films: “Butch Jaime” and “S&M Sally”. Her previous films were lighthearted fun-filled comedies that enjoyed crushing gender stereotypes. This time Ehlen proves that she is not only a gifted comic filmmaker but a quality drama master as well. “Maybe Someday” brings us the serious side of her cinematic work and this time she deals with relationships, heartbreak and memory, but despite the dramatic levels, the film is still full of humour.
After her partner leaves her, Jay embarks on a road trip across the USA with a backpack full of basics and an old phone. She arrives at the home of a childhood friend in California and gets swept by a torrent of bitter-sweet memories of their childhood. The real crisis comes when she finds out her old partner is seeing someone else. Meanwhile she meets Tommy, an amateur stand-up comedian who is funnier off the stage. With her teenage sweetheart in the next room and her ex that still messages her, Jay must decide if she really means to leave the limbo she’s stuck in.

Circus of Books

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop “Circus of Books” gave the members of the Los Angeles LGBT community a safe space to celebrate themselves without judgment. Not many people knew that the owners of the shop were Karen and Barry Mason – she was an ex-journalist and he was a special effects master for big Hollywood films such as “2001: A space odyssey” and “Star Wars”. A straight, religious, Jewish couple with three children that attended a religious Jewish school and went to Synagogue on the weekends and were never aware of their parents occupation (and neither did friends and close family members). The Masons witnessed the HIV plague first hand and lost a generation of treasured employees. They became social activists, and yet throughout the whole period never identified as such – only as entrepreneurs serving clients the world ignored, until the internet had ruined their business.
“Circus of books”, which was produced by Ryan Murphy, is Rachel Mason, the couple’s daughter, first documentary film. For the first time she puts a camera in front of her parents, the least radical people she ever knew. She asks how they became the biggest distributors of gay porn in the the USA and why did Karen react so negatively when her own son came out of the closet.

The screening is courtesy of Netflix.

Alis

28.10 screening – Opening speeches

In a youth shelter in Colombia, ten young women sit down in front of the camera and close
their eyes. They are instructed to picture Alis, an imaginary friend that came to the shelter, and to tell her life story. Like the other girls, Alis used to live in the streets of Bogota. This imaginary companion is the beginning of a very unique and extraordinary documentary project. Alis is used as a gentle and reflective entry point to the personal stories of the participants. Alis becomes a chilling mirror of the life stories of ten young women who talk to the camera about past traumas, surprising love stories and their ambitions for the future. “Alis” might be an imaginary friend, but she will take you on a moving journey into the world of young women who have been through so much at a too young age and now deserve to enjoy some of the freedom the shelter provides before embarking on a new journey as adults.
Directors Claire Weisskopff and Nicholas Van Hemlrick’s work is sensitive, gentle and compassionate, and gives a unique and direct glimpse into the stories of young women whom society doesn’t notice. For the first time they look straight into the camera and tell their story, as they try to break the vicious cycle they were born into.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 29.10, 20:30

In association with the the Romanian Cultural Institute