Freida Lee Mock | Film Festival Today

Jay Berg’s AFI DOCS 2019 Top Five

August 11, 2019

Sundance Review: “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”
By Hannah Tran
February 10, 2026
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! (Josef Kubota Wladyka, 2026) 3 out of 5 stars You might not expect a film entitled Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! to be about grief, yet Josef Kubota Wladyka’s movie manages to be just as silly as its name suggests while also attempting a somber portrait of one woman’s healing process after her husband’s death. The story follows Haru, or Ha-Chan (Rinko Kikuchi, Pacific Rim: Uprising), a Tokyo woman who eagerly competes in ... >>
Sundance Review: “Public Access”
By Hannah Tran
February 9, 2026
Public Access (David Shadrack Smith, 2026) 3 out of 5 stars I believed I had a vague understanding of what public-access television was. Then I saw David Shadrack Smith’s documentary about it, and I realized I had no idea. Created at the beginning of the 1970s, public-access TV was mandated to ensure democratic ideals during the rise of cable. It is essentially just as its name suggests: media created by ordinary people, free from corporate ... >>
Sundance Interview: “Cookie Queens” Director Alysa Nahmias
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
February 9, 2026
Director Alysa Nahmias (Art & Krimes by Krimes) just premiered her newest documentary, Cookie Queens, at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival (out of which I reviewed it). The film follows four girls— Olive (age 12), Nikki (9), Shannon Elizabeth (8), and Ara (5)—as they each do their best to sell Girls Scout cookies according to their preset goals. Some have high expectations, while one only wants to sell 55 (well, maybe 60 so she can earn a ... >>
Sundance Review: “undertone”
By Hannah Tran
February 7, 2026
undertone (Ian Tuason, 2025) 3 out of 5 stars The latest entry in A24’s horror catalog once again proves that genuine terror has very little to do with budget size. undertone, directed by Ian Tuason in his feature debut, is a single-location story that spends the majority of its runtime with a single character. The film follows Evy (Nina Kiri), a lonely podcaster whose days are divided between caring for her dying mother and recording a ... >>
Sundance Review: “Josephine”
By Hannah Tran
February 5, 2026
Josephine (Beth de Araújo, 2026) 4½ out of 5 stars The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic winner from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Beth de Araújo’s Josephine also happened to be my personal favorite. And yet, it is simultaneously the one I am most hesitant to recommend. It opens on Josephine, an ordinary eight-year-old whose life is forever changed when, while out on a run with her father, she witnesses a brutal rape. With Josephine the sole ... >>

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