Independent Films

Filmmaker Magazine

• Inner Landscapes: Tenzin Phuntsog on “Next Life” November 25, 2025
  An image of the Dalai Lama gives diasporic texture to an otherwise anonymous suburban American house; the camera tracks to the next room, where a father, mother, and son sit like statues. A Tibetan doctor arrives, and father Pala (Tsewang Migyur Khangsar) tells him that Western medicine cannot seem to explain the pain he feels […]
  Alex Lei
• From Mail-Order to Online: Tom Davenport on Founding Folkstreams, the Pioneering Online Streaming Site November 25, 2025
  When I first discovered the works of Jean Rouch, Robert Gardner, and Timothy Asch—academic anthropologists who opted to make films rather than books about their research subjects—my appreciation of their work was hampered by some lingering questions: “How in the world did they distribute this? Who paid for this? Who was watching this?” Sure, the […]
  Zach Lewis
• Steel Blue World: DP Dan Laustsen on “Frankenstein” November 21, 2025
  Though Guillermo del Toro’s 1997 American studio debut Mimic was a notoriously unpleasant experience, the silver lining of that giant cockroach creature feature was the filmmaker crossing paths with Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen. It took 18 years for them to work together again, but they’ve made up for lost time since by teaming on Crimson […]
  Matt Mulcahey
• “It was Extremely Brutal”: Max Keegan on “The Shepherd and the Bear” November 21, 2025
  High in the Pyrenees, a centuries-old way of life approaches its twilight amid a controversial rewilding scheme. France’s government has for decades airlifted brown bears from Slovenia to repopulate those hunted out of existence by the region’s hunters. But the bears are apex predators who threaten the flocks of a community of shepherds, whose earth-bound […]
  Steve Dollar
• Maryland Film Festival 2025: Cinema Saturation in Baltimore November 20, 2025
  If last year’s Maryland Film Festival felt like a trial run for a new era of Baltimore’s cornerstone film event, the 26th Maryland Film Festival solidified its direction. Bouncing back from the low point of 2023, when the event was postponed for a year due to financial constraints, MdFF looks to continue growing its reach—a […]
  Alex Lei
• Metrograph To Screen Filmmaker 25 New Faces Shorts on December 6 November 20, 2025
  Filmmaker is very happy to be partnering on December 6, 2025 with New York’s Metrograph for an evening of shorts drawn from the magazine’s 2025 25 New Faces list. I wrote for the Metrograph’s calendar: Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces list has annually curated a cross-section of emerging and impressive new independent film talent. Directors, writers, […]
  Scott Macaulay
• “You Learn to Let Yourself Go Completely”: June Squibb, Back To One, Episode 367 November 18, 2025
  June Squibb has only been acting for about seven decades, so forgive her if she hasn’t figured this whole acting thing out yet. Luckily she isn’t stopping or even slowing down. In fact, at 96 years old, she is more busy than ever before. Since her Oscar nomination for a supporting role in Alexander Payne’s […]
  Peter Rinaldi
• “We Are an Accumulation of These Encounters”: Lynne Sachs on Her IDFA-Debuting Every Contact Leaves a Trace November 16, 2025
  Every Contact Leaves a Trace, its title alluding to a basic principle of forensic science, is the latest cinematic exploration from experimental filmmaker and poet Lynne Sachs. Pairing this concept with seven (of the 600) business cards she’s collected over the years, Sachs embarks on an investigation into “how an encounter with someone seeps into […]
  Lauren Wissot
• “The Ethical Work Hasn’t Stopped Now That the Film has Premiered”: Monica Strømdahl on Her DOC NYC-Premiering Flophouse America November 16, 2025
  Flophouse America is the unnervingly intimate feature debut of Monica Strømdahl, an internationally award-winning photographer who spent 15 years documenting the impoverished communities that have sprung up in rundown motels throughout the US. Which is how she met Mikal, an energetic, 11-year old boy who’s called home the hotel room he’s shared with his parents […]
  Lauren Wissot
• Tokyo 2025: Mario Patrocínio on “Maria Vitória” November 14, 2025
  Mario Patrocínio’s Maria Vitória is the writer-director’s first narrative feature, but it brings the chops of his documentary background to ground the story of the titular young woman (Mariana Cardoso). Under the relentless eye of her controlling father Nacho (Miguel Borges), Maria is subjected to a rigorous soccer training regimen that makes having a social […]
  Vadim Rizov