Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in November
Time to cozy up with a good flick and a robust conversation. This month’s indie offerings leave us with plenty to chew on and mull over, with several wartime dramas and interpersonal conflict up the wazoo. Nine of our ten recommendations will be shown in Film Independent Presents screenings, so you can discuss them in real time with fellow filmmakers! Take a gander at the possibilities.
A LONG WINTER
When You Can Watch: November 4
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Andrew Haigh
Cast: Fred Hechinger, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kit Connor
Why We’re Excited: Majestic beauty, coming of age and sexual awakening in rural 1950’s Colorado? Say no more. Spirit Award nominee Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers) brings the 2006 story by Colm Tóibín to screens, relocating it from the Pyrenees in the 1930s. The time change is important, since the Korean war is what instigates major changes for Mikey (Fred Hechinger, Thelma). When his brother leaves for military service, it domino-effects emotional decline and alcoholic benders for his mother, Louise (Caitríona Balfe, Belfast) and increased stoic grumpyness from his father, Lester (Spirit Award nominee Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear) who is eking out a living in beautiful but treacherous country. When Louise disappears into the frozen wild and all efforts to search for her are thwarted, the only thing is to embrace the situation and find new freedom in an impossibly long freeze.
NUISANCE BEAR
When You Can Watch: November 4
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Directors: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman
Cast: Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, Saad Kassis-Mohamed
Why We’re Excited: This project is ten years in the making, as cinematographers Vanden and Weisman expand their 2021 short into a 90-minute migration story that subverts the typical nature documentary. “Historically, with a lot of nature documentaries, you’re excluding your inclusion as a filmmaker, as people in the landscape,” Vanden told IDA. “This is a very colonial thing.” Reversing the camera’s gaze, the directing team puts polar bears in the role of protagonist. As the humans in Churchill, Manitoba don warm clothes and Halloween costumes, the bears begin their annual migratory path. Rather than serenely passing through, the bears get mixed up with traffic signs and garbage cans. Traps and relocation teams intervene to help get the bears where they’re going, but tourists and hunters also play a role in the bears’ journey north.
WILDWOOD
When You Can Watch: November 8
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Travis Knight
Cast: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan
Why We’re Excited: The lush, lavish and intricate animation in this epic fantasy and mammoth collaborative work of art directed by Travis Knight (Oscar nominated Kubo and the Two Strings) is a love letter to Portland. With hand-built sets and puppets that breathe, this stop-motion wonder offers compelling beauty with a dark streak. Adapted from Colin Meloy’s novel (frontman for the Decemberists), with illustrations by his wife Carson Ellis, the 16-year production draws us into the magical Oregon forests with teenage Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Andi Mack) and her friend Curtis (Spirit Award nominee Jacob Tremblay, Sovereign). Prue’s Portlandish ordinaryness is interrupted by crows who kidnap her baby brother. On a path to the unknown, she must confront a governess driven mad by grief and tragedy (Spirit Award winner Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman) as well as the problem of magic itself.
MINOTAUR
When You Can Watch: November 9
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Cast: Dmitriy Mazurov, Iris Lebedeva, Boris Kudrin
Why We’re Excited: After a devastating bout with long Covid, this is the first film from Russian filmmaker and Spirit Award nominee Andrey Zvyagintsev (Loveless). Bedridden for over a year, Zvyagintsev endured an induced coma before he could recover his strength. The war between Russia and Ukraine motivated him to respond with a thriller adapted loosely from the French film, The Unfaithful Wife by Claude Chabrol. In 2022 with his country at war and his business in crisis, a CEO (Dmitriy Mazurov, Sluga Gosudarev) reaches a breaking point when he discovers his wife’s affair. “In this screenplay, there is a scene with not a single word being said,” Zvyagintsev told THR. “I was completely mesmerized by that setup…If you have a 20 minute scene with all the details, all the essence, all the understanding, but not a single word said — this is really great filmmaking.”
FURIOUS
When You Can Watch: November 10
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Creator: Elizabeth Meriwether
Cast: Emmy Rossum, Lola Petticrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstine
Why We’re Excited: Written by Film Independent member Colleen McGuinness, this streaming series follows a rookie FBI agent named Alice (Spirit Award nominee Emmy Rossum, Songcatcher) on the scent of a killer named Catherine (Spirit Award nominee Lola Petticrew, Say Nothing). The path to justice is full of surprises and question marks as what begins with a straight-forward arrest warrant takes on psychological nuance. Catherine’s thirst for blood is aimed at predators like the powerful man who stole her innocence, which mirrors Alice’s own quest to escape an abusive past. But as Alice’s alcoholic supervisor puts it (Quincy Tyler Bernstine, The Tender Bar), it matters how you handle tragedy.
SOUL PATROL
When You Can Watch: November 15
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: J.M. Harper
Cast: Ed Emanuel, Emerson Branch, Teresa Brown
Why We’re Excited: Interviews with the first Black special ops team are woven together by Film Independent member J.M. Harper (As We Speak), telling stories from the Vietnam war and uncovering military history. Juxtaposed against the 1968 Civil Rights movement, war protests and JFK assassination, Ed Emanuel and his fellow soldiers consider what they did, felt and experienced – and whether it was worth it. Harper uses archival Super 8 footage (mostly shot by the team themselves) with modern reenactments to manifest the memories and stories from those traumatic years, which were also formative for these young men – Emanuel was only 17 when he went off to fight. On top of the hardships of war, the film explores tokenism as well as racial discrimination for this team of highly skilled soldiers, hoping to find a better way forward. Film Independent members Sam Bisbee, Danielle Massie, Nina Sing Fialkow, and Rahdi Taylor are producers.
POSSIBLE LOVE
When You Can Watch: November 16
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung
Why We’re Excited: Probing the wealth disparity in Korea by means of a documentary filmmaker – within the construct of a narrative film – seems uniquely indie. In this complex drama from Spirit Award nominee Lee Chang-dong (Burning), two couples meet at a funeral. Documentarian Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong, Parasite) is interviewing people involved in a massive strike that resulted in lots of lost jobs, just like the traumatized Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu, Spirit nominated Oasis). Ye-ji befriends Ho-soek’s wife, Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon, The Housemaid) whose brightness poses a sharp contrast in her marriage. When the two couples spend a weekend at the beach (where Ye-ji’s husband owns a mansion), their incredible differences instigate confrontations within themselves and with each other. A rich exploration of four people and their unique perspectives on life.
JOSEPHINE
When You Can Watch: November 20
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Beth de Araújo
Cast: Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan
Why We’re Excited: Tough but powerful, Josephine is a psychological thriller putting the 8-year-old title character (Mason Reeves) in the middle of an impossible situation. Beth de Araújo (Soft & Quiet) navigates emotional trauma in the context of a loving family at its wits’ end. When their little girl witnesses a sexual assault in Golden Gate park, Damien and Claire do their best to help her with the turbulent aftermath. Spirit nominee Channing Tatum (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) as Dad, goes for reassurances and physical protection, taking Josephine to self defense classes. Mom (Gemma Chan, Crazy Rich Asians) offers platitudes and distractions. But Josephine is struggling with violent behavior and erratic emotions, showing that none of the grownups around her are truly up to this challenge, and everyone has been let down by the social systems at play. Film Independent members Robina Riccitiello and Michelle Sugihara are producers.
PROGRAMMER’S PICK: COWARD
When You Can Watch: November 6
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Directors: Lukas Dhont
Cast: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Macchia, Willem De Schryver
Why We’re Excited: From Film Independent Lead Programmer Jenn Wilson–
Belgian director Lukas Dhont, known for his films on LGBTQ youth, Close and Girl,continues the theme with Coward. This time the youth in question are a troupe of young Belgian soldiers fighting in WWI. Their unfortunate assignment is to go out after a battle and round up dead soldiers and bury them in mass graves. Their task is a psychologically heavy burden, but one of their respites is to watch the regular shows put on by the troupe’s in-house theater group. Two of the soldiers, Francis and Pierre, meet and begin to fall in love. They would like to run off together but the homophobia of the era makes their union extremely risky. Beautifully written, directed, shot, and acted, Coward is one of the year’s films not to miss.
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
LA Film Festival Winner or Nominee
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