What We’re Watching at Features Directed by Women at Tribeca Film Festival 2024
The Tribeca Film Festival celebrated its 23rd year this past June and I had the pleasure of being a part of it this year. I applied and received a virtual press pass earlier in the spring. This meant I was able to watch the majority of the films through a streaming portal— access to dozens of features and shorts, narrative and documentary, all at my fingertips in a completely different area of the country. Having this access was such a great learning experience for myself and our entire TLL team. We are a small remote team so having the opportunity to take part in this festival was a major accomplishment for us.
I went into my Tribeca viewings craving stories that taught me something new or transported me to a space I have yet to venture into on my own. I prioritized finding stories crafted by women across the globe that lit my curiosity from just their synopsis. While writing this, I noticed a loose theme across these five films— they all have a throughline of connection and community, but all ask different questions about these topics and offer a range of perspectives around them. Connection can build us and inspire us, as well as guide us toward new paths we haven’t yet ventured. Community is vital to understanding ourselves and our world.
Every single one of these films is very much their own and unlike the rest; some are features and some are documentaries, but they all taught me something new and left me feeling lots. I’m an emotional, sentimental viewer and often feel moved by creative projects, so it was no surprise to me when that happened here while watching these films. However, the part that shocked me was how each of the films featured here lingered in my mind for days after watching them. Their stories drew me in with their plots but hooked me with how long they’ve remained with me. That’s the power they hold and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to watch them because of Tribeca. Watch films, feel feelings, and leave inspired!
The Debutantes (2024) - Directed By Contessa Gayles (Documentary)
Contessa Gayles’s documentary follows a group of Black teen girls in the midst of their debutante journey in Canton, Ohio. After the town’s decade-long hiatus from this ceremony, this group reignites the tradition, but not without criticizing the politics and gendered practices along the way. There’s a push and pull between the past and modern culture throughout the film and it falls on the young girls to decipher what they want out of the experience themselves. As viewers, we get an inside look into this months-long process— classes, mentorship, social events, and dance lessons— as well as a window into the lives of these young girls navigating school, family, work, and now a cotillion. The film unpacks Canton’s debutante history as it confronts the present because there is nuance and complexity to this revived tradition intersecting race, class, gender, and respectability politics.
Gayles captures the joy of girlhood in this film. Watching these teens laugh, grow, learn, and support one another through this journey was inspiring. This film showcases a celebration of Black girlhood specifically but also does not shy away from showing all the ways these girls have been made to take on responsibilities meant for adults while undergoing the constant pressures to succeed in every area of their lives. The debutante ceremony marks a girl's pathway into adulthood and seeing it through the lens of these girls meant seeing how they confront conformity and define adulthood for themselves on their terms. Watching Gayles’s documentary made me reflect on the ways these traditions don’t often account for the joy that comes from forging a personal path for oneself and building community through friendship.
Beacon (2024) - Directed by Roxy Shih, Written by Julio Rojas
Roxy Shih’s psychological thriller follows young sailor Emily (Julia Goldani Telles) who finds herself on a lone island with a lighthouse keeper Ismael (Demián Bichir) after he saves her from a shipwreck during a storm. Tension builds and paranoia grows as the two both maintain a weary distance and try to rely on each other to survive as the only sources of life on this small, contained island. His superstitions get the best of him as he tries his best to believe Emily’s story. And her worries grow as Ismael’s answers to her ongoing questions continue to go unanswered. Both are navigating what the truth is and how to trust a stranger in isolation. As time moves and the days go by, Ismael quickly falls victim to his own superstitions as he fears Emily is actually a siren. The suspense grows and Emily begins questioning her own sense of self and the more she learns of Ismael’s suspicions, the more real they become in her mind as well.
This film is a gripping watch that keeps you floating amongst the sea as a viewer trying to navigate who to trust as Emily and Ismael exist in the gray area of good and evil – seeking truth and evidence, but coming up short, just as the two of them are. As their circumstances become more bizarre, you can’t help but also question the actions of the duo and the suspense continues to build until the very end. The score by Nuno Malo only adds to the stress as the story unfolds.
Missing from Fire Trail Road (2024) - Written and Directed by Sabrina Van Tassel (Documentary)
This heart-wrenching documentary from Sabrina Van Tassel covers the tragic reality of the abundance of abductions and murders of Indigenous women across the United States. The film centers around one case in Washington state, Mary Ellen Johnson Davis, who has been missing since Thanksgiving 2020 from the Tulalip Reservation. She is one of many, many cases of Indigenous women across the country who continue to go missing. Van Tassel tells Mary Ellen’s story and uses this documentary to shine light on this epidemic, by speaking with other Indigenous women about the suffering and lack of attention from the US government and media platforms. The report of Mary Ellen is one case amongst hundreds that go overlooked by investigators and the responsibility lands in the hands of family and friends of the victims to search and hopefully find their loved ones.
Bringing awareness to the lack of national attention these cases have received is vital to continuing these investigations. Van Tassel covers Mary Ellen’s story and much more and even speaks with Deb Haaland, US Secretary of the Interior (also a beloved New Mexican— a New Mexican wrote this sentence). This documentary is a must-watch to learn more about this tragic reality and understand how the injustices facing these communities and Indigenous women across the country have never ceased. Van Tassel unpacks the ways ongoing violence and the trauma from generations affect these women. Shedding light on these disappearances and continuing to have these conversations and voice these injustices is necessary for any change to happen.
Samia (2024) - Directed by Yasemin Samdereli, Written by Yasemin Şamdereli, Nesrin Şamdereli, Giuseppe Catozzella
Yasemin Samdereli’s film is based on the true story of Olympian Samia Yusuf Omar (llham Mohamed Osman) and her journey as an athlete in Mogadishu, Somalia in the midst of civil war. The film tells the story of Samia’s life to become an Olympic runner and represent her country in the 2008 Olympics at the age of 17, but it does not end there. Samia returns to her home determined to go back to the 2012 Olympics but her path takes turns no one expects. Despite the constant criticisms from family and people in her hometown since she was a child, she refuses to stop running and focuses on how her talent and skillset in the sport can take her places far beyond her home. Her determination is her guiding light toward athletic success.
This film tells a story of triumph and dedication to one’s passion. Unlike some sports films that end with a winning shot or a celebration, Samia shows us the harsh realities of life when passion and skill took her where she wanted to go but also acknowledged all that was set up against her. I left this biopic emotional and moved from the story, as well as inspired by the portrayal of Samia and her drive toward her goals— never giving up on her passions and dreams.
Don’t You Let Me Go (2024) - Written and Directed by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge
Grief and friendship are the central themes of this film written and directed by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge. We first see Adela (Chiara Hourcade) at the wake of her best friend, Elena (Victoria Jorge). She spends the day comforting others in this space that feels nothing like her best friend's vibrant spirit, but she still struggles to leave because it means accepting the truth that her best friend is gone. When she finally makes her way out, she’s met with a magical bus that transports her to a distant memory with her best friend. She relives those special moments and takes the time to cherish their past together again. This magical weekend fills Adela with joy as she holds her best friend tight.
Experiencing the mundanity of life with your best friend is one of the best pleasures of life— reading beside each other at a beach, cooking together, laughing about nothing— and that’s all Adela does with her best friend during this magical trip. Soaking in the feeling of having her near her again and basking in the peace that’s brought only by the person closest to her. Examining grief through platonic love and best friendship is heartbreaking and beautiful, and that’s exactly how it felt watching this film. So many stories of friendship capture the joys or rifts, but rarely is the pain of true loss ever shared like it is here. The magical realism in this story adds such a beautiful element around grief— a memory comes to life to relive it, just like we all long to do when grieving in order to capture the joy again.
