Cinemafile

In this moving and deeply personal feature documentary, BIRITA, a family of theater-makers on the tiny archipelago of The Faroe Islands attempts to stage Shakespeare’s King Lear, casting the mother - celebrated theater actress Birita Mohr - who is living with Alzheimer’s in the lead role. Birita’s son Búi Dam, a theater director, leads the project—a controversial endeavor driven by his belief that, even though his mother can no longer speak, she longs to return to the stage. Directing the play, Búi must grapple with justifying the project’s premise, while his father, a retired theater director, tries to balance caregiving with his own well-being. As this remarkable drama unfolds, Birita’s joyful presence brings a surprising lightness to the process, leaving a profound impact on everyone involved. Director Búi Dam joins us to talk about the many challenges raised in the making of this powerful and uplifting film.

About the filmmaker - BÚI DAM is a director, actor, and musician born who grew up in The Faroe Islands in a family of artists. He studied theater directing at the Danish National School of Performing Arts, acting at the London School of Dramatic Art, and music at FÍH in Iceland. He was mentored by Indian poet and playwright H. S. Shivaprakash and American jazz saxophonist John Purcell. He began his career as a jazz guitarist and composer, performing with renowned singer Eivør as well as other local musicians. A hand injury forced him to give up the guitar and step onto the stage as a singer and performer. Under the name BUDAM, he released two studio albums and toured extensively throughout Europe. He also composed music for several theater productions. He later transitioned fully into theater and film, acting, writing and directing. Dam’s work has earned him several awards, including Best Short Film at The Geytin Film Awards (2020), Best Actor at the Winter Film Awards in New York (2021), and the prestigious M. A. Jacobsen Award for his play Castle of Joy (2022). BIRITA is his first feature film.

About the subject - BIRITA MOHR (born 1950) is a retired Faroese actress. She was a leading figure in Faroese theater for more than three decades, performing memorable roles in productions such as Antigone,The Crucible, The Prostitutes Will Precede You into the Kingdom of Heaven, The Lost Musicians, The Vagina Monologues, The Cherry Orchard, and many others. Her film credits include ATLANTIC RHAPSODY and BYE BYE BLUEBIRD, both directed by Katrin Ottarsdóttir. In 2023, Birita was awarded the prestigious Cultural Honorary Award by the Faroese government for her lifelong contribution to Faroese theater.

Between Mount Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples, the ground shakes periodically and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields taint the air. From the traces of history, memories of the subterranean world, and the concerns of the present, in black and white, a lesser-known Naples emerges and fills with voices, with lives. Below the clouds lies a territory crisscrossed by locals, worshippers, tourists, and archaeologists excavating a past that in museums will give new life and meaning to statues, fragments, and ruins. The train that rings Vesuvius makes its rounds as racehorses train along the shore. A teacher runs a makeshift afterschool for children and adolescents. Firemen in their command center calm the fears of the locals who call in, law enforcement tracks down tomb robbers, while in the port of Torre Annunziata, Syrian tankers unload Ukrainian grain. The land that skirts the gulf is a vast time machine.

About the filmmaker – Gianfranco Rosi, born in Asmara, Eritrea, graduated from the New York University Film School. In India, he makes Boatman, about a boatman on the Ganges, presented at Sundance, Locarno and Toronto. In California he shoots Below Sea Level, about a community of homeless people, and wins the Orizzonti award at the Venice Film Festival. The next film is El Sicario ‐ Room 164, about a killer for Mexican cartels, which wins the Fipresci Prize at the Venice Film Festival. With Sacro Gra for the first time a documentary wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. With Fuocoammare he wins the Golden Bear in Berlin, the European Film Academy award and other international prizes, and is nominated for an Oscar. Notturno, shot in the Middle East, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Oscars.

Ten-year-old Cassius Daniels (Cassie Devyn McDowell) knows exactly who she is—a mermaid princess. But trapped in a body her father refuses to understand, bullied at school, and battling gender dysphoria, life feels like one long chokehold. Desperate and unraveling, Cass fills a backpack with rocks and walks into the lake. Enter Pepper (Pepper Arturo Luíz Soria) —a sharp-tongued, emotionally wrecked drag queen just having left a late-night show. Hungover and haunted by her own demons, Pepper spots Cass at the lake before it’s too late. Their first encounter is awkward, fiery, and unforgettable. Cass is resistant. Pepper’s a mess. But when Cass sneaks into Club Bizou, drawn by a poster of Pepper in full regalia, a spark is lit!

About the filmmaker Fia Perera is an award-winning writer and director whose work examines identity, belonging, and transformation through emotionally resonant storytelling. With over 15 Off-Broadway productions and multiple television credits including The Invitation for Discovery and the award-winning pilots Do the Voice, Baby Steps, and BAD ALICE, Perera has established herself as a distinctive voice in contemporary cinema and theater. Her feature documentary Paul & Trisha: The Art of Fluidity, now streaming on Apple and Amazon, garnered critical acclaim for its intimate portrait of two 77-year-old British artists living in one gender-fluid body and was recognized for its nuanced exploration of identity across generations. Her latest film MERMAID provides both representation and emotional resonance for diverse audiences, while her next feature SWIMMING NAKED—which dives into the hilarious and complex 30-year mother-daughter relationship—is currently in development. Perera’s path to the director’s chair was anything but conventional. After training as an actor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Circle in the Square program—where she met Mary Birdsong, who plays Clarita in MERMAID—she faced the industry’s narrow definitions of what a character actress should be

In her latest documentary film, Emmy Award–winning director Geeta Gandbhir confronts viewers with the stark realities of “stand your ground” laws. Now streaming on Netflix, The Perfect Neighbor explores a tight-knit community experiencing relentless harassment by a neighbor whose hostility escalates into a fatal crime. Using police bodycam footage to reveal in-the-moment conversations between law enforcement and neighbors, the film illustrates the impact of these controversial yet widely common laws. The Perfect Neighbor made its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. It is a finalist for the 2026 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Director and Producer Geeta Gandbhir joins us for an enlightening conversation on the personal journey this film has taken her on.

About the filmmaker – Director / Producer / Editor Geeta Gandbhir started her career in narrative film under Spike Lee and Sam Pollard. After working for 11 years in the edit room in scripted film, with filmmakers including Merchant Ivory, the Coen Brothers, Robert Altman, she branched into documentary film. She recently directed and show-ran a four-part series for HBO titled Black and Missing, which is currently airing on HBO and won a 2022 NAACP Award for Best Directing, a 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series and a 2022 ATAS Honors Award. She also recently directed Apart, with Rudy Valdez for HBOMax which was nominated for an NAACP Award. Her 2020 short film with Topic Studios, Call Center Blues, was shortlisted for a 2021 Academy Award®, and she directed an episode of the five-part series of the Asian Americans for PBS, which won the 2021 Peabody Award. Other projects include directing the six-part series Why We Hate for Jigsaw Productions and Amblin Entertainment for Discovery, the feature documentary I Am Evidence for HBO which won a 2019 Emmy, DuPont and ATAS Award, and the film Armed with Faith for PBS which won a 2019 News and Documentary Emmy. In 2017 she directed an episode of the Netflix series The Rapture featuring rap artist Rapsody. Her film A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers premiered at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival and later aired on PBS as part of the series Women, War and Peace. She also co-directed and co-produced the series A Conversation on Race series with The New York Times Op-Docs, which won an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary, an AFI Documentary Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short and garnered a MacArthur Grant. She was also a co-producer on the HBO film The Sentence, directed by Rudy Valdez which won a 2019 Emmy. As an editor, her films have won one Academy Award®, two Emmy Awards and five Peabody awards.

When a group of suburban moms discovers their public schools are under attack by a powerful network of religious extremists, they form a secret resistance to protect LGBTQ+ kids and defend free public education. Armed with Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) research, infiltration tactics, and a nationwide alliance of badass moms, they wage a high-stakes battle to expose the conspiracy and reclaim their communities. Co-directors Miranda Winters and Rocky Romano join us for a conversation on why every American should care about the health and well-being of our public school system.

About the filmmakers - Miranda Winters and Rocky Romano are the creative force and co-owners behind Winters Rock, an award-winning Los Angeles-based film and television production company celebrated for their striking and thought-provoking non-fiction content. Focused on the vast capabilities and inherent limits of the human spirit, their work delivers awe-inspiring narratives that are both locally grounded and globally significant. They are committed to telling authentic stories and creating socially conscious projects that highlight the transformative power of storytelling for the advancement of humanity. To date, the talented duo has created and directed ten television series and four feature-length films. Their work has been featured on HBO, ABC, NBC, ESPN, RTL, SKY, FOX, FUEL TV, Outside TV, Insight TV, DirecTV, and 20th Century Fox.

A real psychoanalyst and eight actors… GROUP: THE SCHOPENHAUER EFFECT drop us into the center of a weekly group run by Dr. Elliot Zeisel, a real New York psychoanalyst with more than 50 years of experience. Dr. Zeisel intervened and reacted in real time as he would in his actual daily practice. His presence intentionally blurs the line between performance and reality, creating live tension where fiction feeds reality and reality feeds fiction. When newcomer Alexis (Thomas Sadoski) joins a Manhattan therapy group and reveals he wants to write a TV series based on their sessions, it threatens the group’s balance and exposes everyone’s vulnerabilities. Director and writer Alexis Lloyd brings to life a great ensemble of actors that includes; Lucy Walters, Bernardo Cubría, Teresa Avia Lim, Ezra Barnes, Cara Ronzetti, Elisha Lawson, Gabriela Kohen and Dr. Elliot Zeisel as Dr. Ezra Hertzfeld.

About the filmmaker - Alexis Lloyd, Writer-Director-Editor-Producer was born in Paris, he is a writer, director, and producer. During his years as CEO of Pathé UK, Lloyd supervised the production and distribution of over 90 features, including several award-winning films. His producing credits include An Ideal Husband by Oliver Parker, Topsy-Turvy by Mike Leigh, Ratcatcher by Lynne Ramsay, Love’s Labours Lost by Kenneth Branagh, and The Claim by Michael Winterbottom. Lloyd wrote and directed 3 films, including the feature film 30 Beats (Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate). He wrote and directed the web series GROUP (2021), available on YouTube and AllArts (PBS), which has reached over 700,000 views. Lloyd is a member of BAFTA, of the Académie des César and of the Actors Studio in New York.

GUNFIGHTER PARADISE is a dark comedy centered around Christian Fundamentalism and the rising tide of Christo-Fascism in the United States. Set in the very unfortunate here and now of the southern United States, where neighbors have become the “other,” this satire blends comedy and horror to explore the cultural Frankenstein of irreconcilable American ideologies. A hunter returns home to North Carolina with a mysterious green case. Following the death of his mother, he settles back into the family home where his mind begins to disintegrate. Stalked by divine voices and unholy visions, guided by disquiet, his mother’s hand written riddles, and strange visitors further complicate an already splintering mind. A cable man, a mummified cat, zealous neighbors, and a killer swirl through this darkly comic southern gumbo.

About the filmmaker - Director / Writer / Producer / Editor / Cinematographer Jethro Waters, is an Emmy Award Winning filmmaker whose documentary feature F11 AND BE THERE was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and his music video work with John Cale, Angel Olsen, and many others has reached many millions of viewers. Executive Producer Nancy Buirski is a Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, and Peabody Winning director, producer, and photographer. Waters was the primary colorist and an advisor for Nancy Buirski’s Academy Award Shortlisted featured documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. Waters directed a series of short documentaries on architecture, design, and sustainability, working with architects and luminaries like Tadao Ando, Estudio Ramos, Nacho Figueras, and others. His short experimental film YENE FIKIR opened at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, with a live score performed by acclaimed musician Natalie Prass. His short film REMAINS, a collaboration with legendary Magnum and Life photographer Burk Uzzle, was selected for the Civil Rights museum exhibition “I Am a Man” curated by William R. Ferris, which exhibited in art museums internationally. Legendary Renato Casaro hand painted the Gunfighter Paradise poster.

WINNER of Best Documentary, 2025 Tribeca Festival, Suzannah Herbert's jaw-dropping NATCHEZ captures an unsettling clash between history and memory in a small Mississippi town; a layered mosaic of people contending with the weight of the past in a place where it is always present. Equal parts amusing and disturbing, we journey through an antebellum tourist destination at a crossroads as it grapples with a deeply troubled history that is so thoroughly ingrained in its present, we’re left to wonder if it’s actually past at all.

About the filmmaker - Suzannah Herbert is a documentary director and editor from Memphis whose directing work focuses on the American South. Herbert’s directorial debut WRESTLE was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys and named one of the top five documentaries of 2019 by the National Board of Review. As an editor, Herbert has collaborated on Bob Dylan film projects, most recently editing the permanent experiential film at Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center. She edited Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Grammy-nominated music video, “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and the award-winning vérité film A WOMAN ON THE OUTSIDE (SXSW 2022, PBS AMERICA REFRAMED) Awarded Best Documentary at its premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, NATCHEZ has since been honored with 18 awards on the festival circuit and was named one of the top 5 documentaries of 2025 by the National Board of Review. THE NEW YORKER’S Richard Brody called NATCHEZ “Stunning.” The film is currently in theatrical release in over 40 cities with Oscilloscope Laboratories and will broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in May 2026.

A psychedelic odyssey into the fabric of the universe, guided by a filmmaker and his immersive practical experiments that blur the lines between art and science to reveal nature’s inner workings. Captured entirely by camera with no visual effects or artifice, the unfolding awe-inspiring hyper-real imagery is elevated by music from legendary Nils Frahm and an ethereal electronic original score by Rival Consoles, transforming curious observation into a hypnotic audio-visual adventure spanning from the subatomic to cosmological scales. Tracing the forces and elements shaping the natural world, PHENOMENA is a kinetic sensory experience, exploring the wonders of the universe and our connection to it.

About the filmmaker - Josef Gatti (writer, director, producer, director of photography, editor, narrator) is a filmmaker and artist based in Melbourne specialising in documentary and experimental film. His distinctive visual style is shaped by innovative cinematography and practical experimentation, bringing together art and science to create immersive experiences. PHENOMENA marks his feature-documentary debut, made in collaboration with Academy Award–nominated production studio Sandbox Films. The project builds on the success of a multi-platform iteration of the same name, broadcast by the ABC (Australia) and screened at international film festivals and immersive exhibition spaces. It was named the second-best Australian series of 2021 by The Guardian, and described by DOC NYC as “a film that just has to be experienced”. Beyond long form filmmaking, Josef works as a creative and cinematographer in Australia's music and arts scene, documenting and collaborating with some of Australia’s leading music festivals and acclaimed artists. Notably, in 2024 Josef directed the series Matter for Cercle Records.

MISTAKE is a nuanced, historical drama about an intersex child born in 1941 who is forced to grow up as a man named Larry in the deep South of the 1970’s. As he struggles with self-loathing over his unique and socially forbidden identity, he desperately seeks to find family and friends who will understand and support him. A surprise discovery of love and friendship with Lily, another town outsider, brings him joy and acceptance, while he must also deal with the heartbreaking violence and uncompromising bigotry of his small-town rural life. Lauren’s feature film is, above all, a standout love story, full of empathy, that celebrates difference. It marks the debut of a sensitive filmmaker who seeks to create compassion for outsiders.

About the filmmaker - Honey Lauren is a multi award winning writer, director and actress, with over 100 film and TV credits and dozens of commercials. Emancipated at 16, Honey began studying at A.C.T. in San Francisco. From there she joined The Angels Of Light, an infamous theatre and dance group, which was an offshoot of the Cockettes, a drag group that featured such stars as Sylvester and Divine. Directors Honey has worked with include Luc Besson, Francis Ford Coppola, counter culture maven, Doris Wishman and Paul McCarthy. Honey has written for directors that include Abel Ferrara and Melvin van Peebles. Many of her screenplays won multiple awards. As a director her short film, DOT GOT SHOT won five major festivals including BEST FEMALE FILMMAKER and the acclaimed, WOMAN WITH A VISION AWARD. Honey’s short documentary HAPPY HANDS with Tippi Hedren, won six film awards, and qualified for the Academy Awards in 2014. Honey’s short film WIVES OF THE SKIES garnered over 40 awards. Honey is set to direct her next feature RIFLE DOLL in 2026.