Authors: Kathy Rong Zhou
Slamdance Film Review: Driftwood
Writer/director Paul Taylor’s first feature, Driftwood, is a small, intimate and refreshing chamber piece that still manages to speak in droves—an impressive feat, considering that the entire film is dialogue-free. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Peanut Gallery
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker and Gasland producer Molly Gandour has taken her work to the intensely personal and unblinking Peanut Gallery. Sixteen years after the loss of her older sister, Aimee, Molly decided to return home to Indiana to finally cope with her sister’s death. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Last Summer
Last Summer is a supremely elegant and stylish feature film debut from director Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, who electrifies audiences with a tense and sophisticated exploration of a mother-son relationship that begins as soon as it ends. Set to see its US premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, the taste-making film is a nonpareil must-see. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Hunky Dory
Sure to be one of this year’s must-see Slamdance gems, Hunky Dory is an opulent, gender-bending and audacious feat that can be described exactly as music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described David Bowie’s 1971 album of the same name: “a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class.” … read more
Slamdance Film Review: MAD
After finalizing her late-in-life divorce, Mel finds herself crying uncontrollably and past the point of a nervous breakdown. Connie and Casey, her two adult daughters, convince her to spend a week in the psych ward. As the three women try to work through their own uncertainties, what ensues is MAD—mutually assured destruction—a farcical dramedy that manages to be both biting and poignant. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: 1ha 43a
When visual artist Monika Pirch inherits of plot of farmland, she embarks on a poetic and multifaceted exploration of the field in an effort to reconnect with her ancestry and the soil. Her deeply personal quest simultaneously sheds valuable light onto some of the most impactful, consequential, and very real questions of our world. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites
Alvin Ng is the agoraphobic and endearing protagonist of Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites, a perplexing yet tender film that delves into the confines of Alvin’s world—that is, the one-bedroom apartment that Alvin hasn’t left in over 18 months. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Chemical Cut
Chemical Cut follows 23-year-old Irene, a creative and dewy-eyed LA misfit. After bleaching and dying her hair platinum blonde, Irene gets scouted by a modeling agency and soon finds herself entrenched in an alluring, toxic and surreal world. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Fursonas
The furry fandom is as closely knit and enthusiastic as it is diverse and complicated. Fursonas takes us behind-the-scenes to get to know a few of the faces and fuzzy tails that make up the furry community. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Honey Buddies
When a jilted former child actor is dumped by his fiancée, his irrepressibly gung-ho best man convinces him to continue on the planned honeymoon anyway, together—as honey buddies. A seven-day backpacking trek through the Oregon mountains ensues. … read more
Review: The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait
The Splendid Things We Planned is a deeply felt, one-punch chronicling of familial love—its contradictions and limits—and the spectacular things we do to, and for, the people we love. … read more
Impossible to Ignore: Slamdance 2016 Artist Rosie Lea
Each year, the Slamdance Film Festival, which emphasizes the creative force of emerging and independent filmmaking, enlists a featured artist to contribute their work to the showcase. For 2016, Slamdance chose to present the graphic art of Bristol, UK–based screenprinter and illustrator Rosie Lea. … read more
