Cinemafile

Georgia O’Keeffe is widely revered as the “Mother of American Modernism” and the greatest woman artist of the 20th century. In the 1920s, O’Keeffe became famous for her paintings of flowers, bones, and the beauty of nature. She posed nude for shocking photographs by her lover, Alfred Stieglitz, but denied that her paintings depicted sexual imagery. In the 1970s, living in her beloved New Mexico, s...

Shakti is the narrative film debut of Nani Sahra Walker. A single mother, Durga, enrolls her young daughter, Lila, in a private painting class, in order to keep her out of trouble. However, when Lila’s behavior drastically changes and falls ill, she and Durga begin to confront their shared trauma. All this unfolds in the midst of social and political change – particularly surrounding women’s right...

In her provocative and gripping debut film, FORASTERA Director Lucia Aleñar Iglesias hones in on young woman, Cata, (Zoe Stein) has to deal with the trauma of the sudden death of her grandmother, which only she witnesses. Her grief shifts when she casually turns to play pretend, transforming into the deceased. What begins with a game of dress-up will blur the lines of reality and family roles. Tim...

Astronaut Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot and command an American spacecraft. SPACEWOMAN beautifully captures Eileen’s journey, from her working-class beginnings in Elmira, NY, to breaking glass ceilings at NASA, commanding four space shuttle missions, and navigating the pressures on her family is awe inspiring. The doc includes archival materials and interviews that highlight both the...

The Midway Point is a heartfelt coming-of-age drama that explores identity, belonging, and emotional growth through the lens of a young man navigating life on the autism spectrum. Set in modern-day California. The film captures the struggles and beauty of adolescence, friendship, and first love – reminding us that sometimes, one connection can change everything. The film offers an authentic and se...

Ask E. Jean is the riveting story of E. Jean Carroll’s life, from her early days as Miss Cheerleader USA to her rise as a trailblazing journalist, author, and beloved advice columnist. Carroll broke barriers as the first female editor at Esquire , Playboy , and Outside , helping to redefine women’s roles in media with her sharp wit and fearless voice. In recent years, she reignited public discours...

On a remote island in the Chesapeake Bay, a deeply rooted Christian fishing community grapples with the quiet erosion of their land and their traditions. Their centuries-old way of life, sustained by faith and the rhythms of the bay, is now at a poignant crossroads—one that may force them from the only home they’ve ever known. BEEN HERE STAY HERE offers rare, unfiltered access to a place where cli...

AMERICAN SOLITAIRE explores the United States’ deep cultural connection to guns through the intimate story of a wounded veteran navigating the emotional aftermath of war. As he struggles to reintegrate into a society where firearms are revered and gun violence is pervasive, he embarks on a journey to heal himself and, by extension, challenge his country to allow for a broader vision of a soldier’s...

Director Don Hardy’s (Citizen Penn) intimate documentary portrait Linda Perry: Let It Die Here chronicles the life and career of the Grammy and Golden Globe nominated songwriter, producer, and 4 Non Blondes frontwoman. Iconic in the nineties for the era-defining hit “What’s Up”, Linda Perry has spent the past three decades reinventing herself as one of pop music’s most prolific behind the scenes h...

An Autumn Summer is a coming of age love story that tells the tale of Kevin (Mark McKenna) and Cody (Lukita Maxwell), a young couple spending the final month before college in a magical Michigan lake town, chasing an endless summer. Per Jared Isaac: “The story is real, the place is real, and it’s a feeling I’ve wanted to bottle up and take with me wherever I am. It’s pure and uncynical, unapologet...

Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere is both an intimate final conversation with a man who was the quintessential “fly on the wall” and a dazzling reminder of the power of photography to bear witness, inspire change, and preserve legacy. Over the course of his career, Schapiro’s images appeared on the covers of Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, People, and Par...

Filmed over eight years, this five-part documentary series from director Debra Granik combines a remarkable, against-the-odds story of grit, survival, and redemption with an incisive look at the harms of America’s prison industrial complex. After years in and out of prison, former drug dealer turned entrepreneur Coss Marte is determined to take control of his future by building Conbody, a New York...

Director Valerie Veatch navigates the torrential rapids of artificial intelligence with this mind-expanding investigative essay documentary that excavates the philosophical, cultural and political forces driving the global AI boom. Ghost in the Machine approaches ubiquitous questions like “What is AI?”, “Who is building it?”, and “What will humans become?” by exploring how emerging technologies ha...

Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. Steal This Story, Please! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news s...

UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company, moving millions of packages across 200 countries and territories every day. With their 2023 contract set to expire, the Teamsters mount increasing pressure on UPS to improve working conditions or face 340,000 workers walking off the job and grinding the global supply chains to a halt. WHO MOVES AMERICA joins UPS workers across the United States—...

In his award-winning feature film debut director Cole Webley drops us into the lives of a struggling family, a young girl and her brother are awoken by their father (John Magaro, Past Lives ) as they load themselves into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey. A poignant, coming-of-age drama...

In her award-winning feature film debut Sophy Romvari takes us back to the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child. About the Director: Sophy Romvari is a Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker based in Toronto. Her critically acc...

A romantic vacation goes awry when a volcanic eruption strands Bethany (Charli XCX) and her soon-to-be fiancé, Rob (Will Madden) in Warsaw, Poland. Bethany takes the explosive event as a sign to ditch her baggage, reunite with childhood friend Nel (Lena Góra) and traipse across lofts, clubs and back alleys, all the while becoming entangled in an emotional web that challenges her sense of self. Fro...

Ben Wolf’s utterly fascinating new documentary, CHANGING LANES, chronicles the tragic death of a beloved teacher killed in a hit-and-run crash in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That death becomes the catalyst for a grassroots movement emerges to transform a notoriously dangerous four-lane boulevard into a safer, two-lane street with protected bike lanes. While many applaud the proposed change, it also spar...

EVERY CONTACT LEAVES A TRACE is a thought provoking overview of our digital era. We mostly live in a time and place where real life connections become rarer, yet any personal encounter can leave a lingering trace. Over a lifetime, filmmaker Lynne Sachs has collected business cards, mementos of these initial meetings with strangers. Sachs selects seven cards from hundreds and throws herself into fi...

Founded in 2007, the inaugural Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (SDFF) launched with a bold vision and 44 carefully curated films, shining a spotlight on talented filmmakers from Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area. What began as an intimate local gathering has grown into a globally recognized celebration of nonfiction storytelling. Today, SDFF receives nearly 700 submissions annually from...

In La Scala: The Force of Destiny, Director Anissa Bonnefont, accompanied by cinematographer Martina Cocco, invites the audience into the creative hive that is La Scala during the final months of preparation, capturing the tensions, the stress, and the passion that span from the first meeting of the opera team all the way to the pull of the curtain as it raises above the stage. Every 7th of Decemb...

DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST is a story of entanglements: between humans and mushrooms; the visible and the invisible; generational knowledge and modern science. This immersive sci-fi documentary takes viewers on an unexpected, sometimes speculative exploration of the realities of two Indigenous communities and the fungi in the forests of Mexico, inviting them to reconsider the perceptions and experien...

SHUFFLE unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. In the wake of the opioid epidemic, insurance companies were now required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized the 40 million Americans strug...

Twentysomething Anna (Alexandra McVicker) leaves her small, transphobic hometown to start a new life in the city with her sister when she quickly finds herself face-to-face with Gen (Avalon Fast), a confident young woman she’d first seen in visions. Gen, Anna learns, has supernatural powers—powers that the two of them share. Their bond of magic and romance is threatened when Gen inadvertently unle...