UNION follows the efforts of Chris Smalls (founding President of the Amazon Labor Union or ALU), Connor Spence (current President of the ALU) and a dedicated group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island. Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York. Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Led by the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world.

About the filmmaker - Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker based in New York. His feature documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT, which he directed, filmed and edited, won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His previous films, HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, which he directed, filmed and edited over five years, and THE SURRENDER, have screened internationally and were released on POV and Field of Vision, respectively.

About the filmmaker - Brett Story is an award-winning director, producer and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her films have screened in theaters and festivals internationally, including at Sundance, CPH-DOX, and SXSW. She is the director of the feature films THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES (2016) and THE HOTTEST AUGUST (2019), and the author of Up against one of the most powerful companies on the the book PRISON LAND (2019). In 2020 she was nominated for a Cinema Eye Award for Best Director. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Cinema at the University of Toronto.

In Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s life-affirming documentary, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions. Exhausted by loneliness, social anxiety, and all the crushing barrage of pressures felt by their generation, three teenagers leave the comforts of home to enroll in a traditional “folk high school” in the wilds of northernmost Norway. Dropped in the arctic wilderness for one year, Hege, Romain, and Bjørn Tore must rely only on themselves and a pack of loyal sled dogs as they take the daunting step from childhood to adulthood. Freed from technology, social media, and the noise of modern life, this brave trio learns to face themselves for the first time, and experience an unexpected transformation. We're joined by the co-directors Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing "Jesus Camp", (Academy Award nominee), and "12th & Delaware" (Peabody Award winner).

The Window on Death Row tells the story of Joaquín José Martínez, a Spanish citizen, who at the age of 24 was convicted of a double murder in the state of Florida. He spent the next five years behind bars, three of those on death row. With the help of the Spanish government and many of his country men, he was eventually exonerated of all charges against him. The case pitted the U.S. courts against that of the European Union and their ban on the death penalty. Nearly 20 years after his exoneration, Martínez transforms his personal trauma into public advocacy against the death penalty. His Catholic faith and relationship he built with his death row chaplain Dale Recinella have been central to his healing. We are joined on this edition of Cinemafile by director and producer Linda Freund and Executive Producer Mike Farrell.

About the filmmaker -Linda Freund is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Barcelona. Prior to “The Window on Death Row” (2025, Spain), she directed the documentary “The Migrant Priest” (2022, Italy). Most recently, she was a senior video journalist at The Wall Street Journal. Previously, she reported from conflict zones across South Asia and East Africa.

About the filmmaker - Actor/producer/activist Mike Farrell (MASH) has signed on as executive producer. A leading voice against capital punishment, Farrell has championed human rights for more than three decades. He has been president of the non-profit advocacy organization Death Penalty Focus since 1994.

ROSEMEAD centers on an ailing woman who uncovers a terrifying secret: her teenage son is consumed by violent impulses. As her health rapidly declines, she’s forced into a desperate struggle—how far will she go to stop what she fears he is becoming, and what is she willing to sacrifice to protect him? Set within the quiet tensions of a Chinese American household, the film explores the unraveling of a family pushed to the brink. ROSEMEAD marks the feature directorial debut of acclaimed cinematographer Eric Lin (The Exploding Girl, The Sound of Silence, Hearts Beat Loud) and introduces breakout newcomer Lawrence Shou alongside a searing career-defining performance by Lucy Liu. Our guest, Director Eric Lin stops by to talk about the film’s origin story, working with screenwriter Marilyn Fu and cinematographer Vincent Lyle, approaching lead actor Lucy Liu and his reflection on universality of this deeply moving family’s story.

About the filmmaker - Eric Lin is best known for his cinematography work on the critically acclaimed THE EXPLODING GIRL (Oscilloscope), THE SOUND OF SILENCE (IFC Films), HOUSE OF SPOILS (Amazon Studios), I SMILE BACK (Broad Green), and HEAR TS BEAT LOUD (Gunpowder & Sky), which premiered at prestigious film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, and T oronto. Early in his filmmaking days, Lin’s own New York University MFA short documentary, MUSIC PALACE, gained notice and played at Telluride and New Directors/New Films. ROSEMEAD marks Lin’s feature directorial debut.

After 26-year-old Sumi suffers an accident on the streets of wintry Winnipeg, her overbearing mother Sara (Kim Ho-jung) flies in from Seoul to be by her now comatose daughter's side. Desperate to ensure Sumi will have someone to look after her in the future, Sara embarks on a mission to catfish a suitable (preferably Korean) husband before her daughter wakes up. However, as Sara meddles in Sumi's life via a dating app, she ends up on a journey that will leave her forever changed. Director Johnny Ma (OLD STONE, TO LIVE TO SING) joins us to talk about the art and business of making a truly independent film, working with Pablo Larrain (JACKIE, NO) and a Guy Maddin cameo.

Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai and immigrated to Toronto at age 10. He is a DGA student-award winning director and a graduate from the Columbia University MFA program. His short film A GRAND CANAL screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. An alumni of the 2014 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Johnny's first feature OLD STONE debuted at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. His second feature TO LIVE TO SING premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 in Directors Fortnight, to tremendous reviews. He wrote, directed and produced an isolation short for Pablo Larrain's HOMEMADE for Netflix alongside Kristen Stewart and Ana Lily Amirpour. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR, is his third film, and the first produced outside of China.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival SUBURBAN FURY revisits the 1975 assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford through the perspective of would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore, a conservative mother from the San Francisco suburbs who became radicalized while working as an FBI informant. Freed after serving 32 years of a life sentence, Moore returns to San Francisco under watch of the Secret Service to tell the extraordinary story of her transformation from suburban housewife to government infiltrator to far-left extremist. Interweaving rarely seen archival footage with an imaginatively staged dialogue between Sara Jane Moore, the informant, and Bert Worthington, her FBI control agent, the film features exclusive access to Moore, revealing a beguiling, and often seemingly unreliable, narrator. Moore’s true nature, as well as the validity of political violence, are ultimately left up to the mind and heart of the viewer. At the 50th anniversary of her attempt, Suburban Fury resonates urgently in an era of democratic backsliding, offering no easy answers — only a singular vantage point inside a fractured mind and country. Director Robinson Devor joins us for a riveting account of the making of this film and the stranger than fiction life of Sarah Jane Moore.

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”is an observational documentary short about a vigil that began in March 2025, when a handful of women stood silently in a public square in Tel Aviv, each holding a photograph of a child killed in Gaza. On every image: the child’s name, age, date of death, and the words “WAS AND IS NO MORE.” Their stillness is heavy, pressing against the rhythm of ordinary life. Some passersby look away; others respond with denial, sorrow, or rage. Yet week after week, new names are added, new photographs are printed and lifted high. And each week, more people step forward to join this quiet act of protest. Director Hilla Medalia stops by for a conversation on what kind of an impact are the people bearing witness to the deaths of children are having on the Israeli body politic.

Hilla Medalia is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose work has garnered six Emmy® nominations. Her projects have received critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on television including HBO, Netflix, MTV, PBS, BBC and ARTE. Hilla has been awarded the Paris Human Rights Festival Jury Award, Golden Warsaw Phoenix, as well as the jury award at FIPA and more. She is a regular lecturer on the subject of production, directing and crowdfunding. Hilla is a mentor at Ex Oriente and Dok Incubator. She acts as lector and judge at film festivals and forums. Hilla is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the PGA and holds an M.A. from Southern Illinois University.

Set in a remote Chilean mining town in 1982, Diego Céspedes’ dazzling debut feature follows young Lidia, who grows up within a vibrant queer household led by drag performers and trans women. When a mysterious illness—rumored to spread through the gaze between men—sows fear and hysteria, the community becomes the target of suspicion and violence. Through Lidia’s eyes, Céspedes crafts a haunting allegory of love, myth, and prejudice that reimagines the early AIDS era as a queer western with poetic intimacy and desert-dry surrealism. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo recalls the emotional vibrancy of Almodóvar and continues Chile’s proud legacy of queer cinema—marking Céspedes as one of the most exciting new voices in world cinema. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo was also honored as the official submission of Chile for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 98th Academy Awards in 2026. Diego Céspedes joins us for a lively conversation on the films and filmmakers who have inspired him. 

Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh (Shahana Goswami), a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it. Our guest, director and screenwriter Sandhya Suri joins us to talk about the daunting production schedule in making Santosh as well as working with the talented actors, Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar who make this film work so beautifully. 

About the filmmaker - SANDHYA SURI is a British-Indian writer and director based in London. Her feature documentary I For India premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, garnering several international awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the US. In 2017, the British Film Institute commissioned filmmaker Sandhya Suri to trawl through its national archive and direct a documentary drawn from films shot during colonial rule in India. The result was Around India With A Movie Camera, a fascinating and thought-provoking 72-minute chronicle of how the British viewed its empire, and how its subjects returned the gaze. Her first fiction short The Field was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay, won Best International Short Film at TIFF in 2018, and was BAFTA- nominated for Best Short Film in 2019. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature Santosh, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

In the timeless allure of Rome, journalist Dylan (Daryl Wein) and his companion, photographer Lucy (Abigail Cowen), find themselves weaving through the historic streets on assignment. Their journalistic pursuits lead them to an enthralling interview with the charismatic but flailing musician Milo (Jack Farthing). Charmed by their company, Milo extends an invitation for a weekend escape to his girlfriend Francesca's (Maria Bakalova) opulent palazzo nestled in the verdant Italian countryside. Yet beneath their professional veneer, Dylan and Lucy harbor a clandestine motive: a meticulously orchestrated plan to abscond with a mythical unicorn painting, a prized treasure Milo once bestowed upon Francesca. Prior to their arrival at the grand palazzo, they are met by the enigmatic and vivacious Francesca, a performance artist whose intuition is as finely tuned as her art. An attempted heist under the cloak of night nearly unravels at Francesca's watchful gaze, compelling Lucy to retreat from their perilous gambit. 

About the filmmaker- Hala Matar is a Bahraini American director based in LA. Electra is her feature film debut. She has directed films for Vice, Nowness and for fashion brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Kenzo, Vivienne Westwood and Diesel. She made music videos for Interpol, The Voidz, and Poolside. She has worked with a variety of A list talents such as: Kristen Stewart, Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Knoxville, Suki Waterhouse and Matthew Gray Gubler. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stones, Pitchfork, Vogue, NME, Spin, NME, W Magazine