Cinemafile

Director Rachael Cain's SOMNIUM follows the harrowing story of a young woman trying to figure things out. After a painful breakup, Gemma moves to Los Angeles with the hopes of making it big. To get on her feet, she takes a job working the overnight shift at SOMNIUM - a mysterious, experimental sleep clinic where dreams are made real. Meanwhile, Gemma throws herself into the cutthroat world of Hollywood auditions. But as the pressure to succeed mounts, she begins to experience strange and unsettling phenomena, and soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish spiral as she discovers a darkness lurking within the clinic walls. Director Racheal Cain stops by to talk about her feature film debut, SOMNIUM, and the thirteen year long and winding road of production, completion and now, it's theatrical release, as well as the inspiration for her sharply observed tale of a woman in distress.

Bunny Yeager, once heralded as the world’s prettiest photographer, had a huge influence on 20th-century pop culture, though few people know her name. Whether by popularizing the bikini, helping discover Bettie Page, shaping the image of Playboy, or inventing the selfie, Bunny was a trailblazer whose work bucked against conservative 1950s America and helped pave the way for the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. Yet the very changes she helped usher in would soon render her a forgotten relic… until now. Featuring testimonies from Dita Von Teese, Bruce Weber, and Larry King, Naked Ambition is a rediscovery of a brilliant yet overlooked artist. Co-directors Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch join us to talk about Bunny’s on-going influence on popular culture, art, and the multiple ways her determination to be seen an artist, feminist, entrepreneur, wife and mom impacted the people she cared about most. 

Carson Lund’s feature film debut, EEPHUS, focuses on two recreational baseball teams, the River Dogs and Adler’s Paint. The two teams have been meeting on their New England field on Sunday afternoons for longer than anyone can remember. These middle-aged sportsmen can’t run as fast as they used to or connect as reliably with a pitch, but their vigorous appetite for socializing, squabbling, and busting chops remains undiminished. After the know-nothing county board opts to raze the baseball diamond to make way for a school, the teams meet for one final game at their beloved Soldier’s Field, with girlfriends, kids, and local hooligans as intermittent spectators. Named for a rarely-deployed curveball, Eephus is both a ribald comedy for the baseball connoisseur and a movie for anyone who’s ever lamented their community slipping away. Director and writer Carson Lund stops by to talk about his own personal connection to this story, baseball in New Hampshire, mortality, casting Eephus aficionado Bill “Spaceman” Lee, casting legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and answering the question, what in the hell is an eephus? 

BOB TREVINO LIKES IT is inspired by the true friendship that writer/director Tracie Laymon found with a stranger when looking for her father online. Often playing the role of caretaker to people like her father who should be caring for her, Lily Trevino longs for a familial connection, having been abandoned by her mother as a child and then suddenly by her father in her twenties. When her father, Robert, finally checks out of her life, Lily looks for him on the internet. She tries to “friend” a man she believes is her father on Facebook. But instead of finding Robert Trevino, she finds Bob Trevino instead. Bob Trevino works long, hours at a construction company to support his wife Jeanie’s elaborate scrapbooking habit. When Bob gets the unexpected Facebook message from a stranger named Lily Trevino, he discerns she needs a friend as much as he does. Director / writer Tracie Laymon joins us for a conversation on her journey as a filmmaker, and sharing the feedback she has gotten from hundreds of filmgoers eager to share their own stories of familial trauma, neglect and abuse, as well as reconciliation and forgiveness

When the devastating Eaton fire destroyed her home and life’s work in Altadena, California, award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN is a powerful meditation on loss, resilience, and transformation—an urgent portrait of generational families facing displacement, and a town coming together in the face of destruction. A story of rupture and renewal, ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN reveals what remains when the physical structures of life disappear—and the healing that can happen through the power of connection with community, as Ondi, her family and neighbors fight to preserve not just homes, but history, identity, and belonging. Director Ondi Timoner joins us for a conversation on how picking up a camera to document the devastation her family had suffered in the devastating Altadena fire and later evolved into a sweeping story about Black history, generational loss, dealing with grief and loss, as well as, the power of a united community to assert control over their individual and collective future. 

Clemente is the definitive documentary on the extraordinary life, career, and enduring legacy of Major League Baseball icon Roberto Clemente. Told through stunning archival footage, never-before-heard recordings, and unprecedented interviews, the film reveals the story of a man who lived by his own uncompromising code. A double outsider—too Black for white America and too Latino for Black America—Clemente refused to stay silent in the face of racism and injustice. Through sheer determination and relentless discipline, he rose from poverty to superstardom, yet never lost sight of those on the margins. Clemente is more than a sports story; it’s a portrait of a man who gave everything—for the game and for others. A powerful, joyful reminder that a life marked by passion, courage, and empathy can truly change the world. Director David Altrogge joins us for a conversation on an all-time great baseball player and his legacy on the game he excelled at, his family, including his three sons, Roberto Clemente, Jr., Luis Roberto Clemente, Roberto Enrique Clemente, and his impact on Puerto Rico.

After a deadly plane crash strands four young siblings deep within the Colombian rainforest, a dramatic rescue mission unfolds, uniting Indigenous trackers and the military in a race against time. For the first time ever, LOST IN THE JUNGLE offers the exclusive account of this incredible true story directly from the children themselves and the rescuers who scoured the Amazon rainforest for a grueling 40 days and nights to find them. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, along with Emmy® Award-winning director Juan Camilo Cruz, LOST IN THE JUNGLE is a gripping tale of survival, courage, and hope. Co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Juan Camilo Cruz join us to talk about how  the four siblings emerged in a miracle that captured the world’s attention. The Mucutuy children became an international symbol of survival and hope. .

Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied her 27 years together with Sally, telling the full story of this complicated and iconic astronaut for the first time. In addition to Tam O’ Shaughnessy, SALLY features acclaimed tennis star and groundbreaking advocate for women and LGBTQ+ rights, Billie Jean King, as well as celebrated astronauts from Sally Ride’s NASA class of 1978: Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, John Fabian and Steve Hawley, who is Sally’s ex-husband. Additional participants include Sally’s sister Bear Ride and mother Joyce Ride, along with journalist and Sally’s friend, Lynn Sherr. Director and Producer Cristina Costantini joins us to talk about life and the times that Sally Ride had to navigate, whether it be the ultra alpha male culture of NASA or an American public not ready to hear that the first American women in space was not “All American” and the impact those challenges had on Sally and her relationship with Tam and the people she loved. 

In this emotionally wrenching feature documentary, Between the Mountain and the Sky, director Jeremy Power Regimbal explores the life a Maggie Doyne, a selfless young woman who has radically change the lives of hundreds of orphaned children in a land she barely knew. After graduating high school in 2005, Maggie Doyne embarked on a gap year from her university studies, to visit Nepal, While there she met Tope, a now grown Nepalese orphan, caring for orphaned children. United in purpose, Maggie and Tope pooled resources to establish a children’s home, women's empowerment program, and school in Nepal. Years later, their relentless efforts led to being honored as the 2015 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR. But days after the award ceremony, Maggie, by then guardian to over fifty Nepalese children, faces an unimaginable loss, plunging the family into disbelief and despair. After a chance encounter amidst her grief, Maggie allows a filmmaker into her life to document herself, her family, and soon enough, their falling in love. "Between the Mountain and the Sky" explores resilience, love's impact in loss, and a family's enduring strength to find hope in the darkest times. Director Jeremy Power Regimbal (In Their Skin) joins us for a conversation on how he came to know about the work Maggie Doyne was doing, the power of love, and the many different ways his own life has changed since meeting Maggie and Tope. 

Director Ethan Silverman’s ANGELHEADED HIPSTER: THE SONGS OF MARC BOLAN & T-REX is a visually rich and musically daring documentary that fluidly moves between 1970s glam-rock stages and 21st-century recording studios. The film chronicles the creation of the late Hal Willner’s star-studded tribute album—featuring U2, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Macy Gray, Father John Misty, and more—while weaving in rare archival performances and interviews with Marc Bolan, Elton John, Ringo Starr, and David Bowie. Structured “like a musical, ” the film uses Bolan’s lyrics to guide a semi-linear journey through his life—from his early friendship with Bowie and his chart-topping glam era, to his untimely death at age 29. Shot across New York, London, Paris, Berlin, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, the film blends vérité rehearsal footage, stylized dream sequences, Super-8 home movies, and glittering Top of the Pops clips into an immersive celebration of Bolan’s gender-fluid swagger, poetic wordplay, and rhythm-driven songwriting—cementing his legacy as one of rock’s most visionary figures. Director Ethan Silverman joins us for a conversation on pulling together the all-star roster of musicians for the film AND the album tribute to one of the rock and roll era’s true music innovators and visionaries.