Megan Penn Archives

REEL PRIDE

A non-binary transgender comes out to ex in ‘Frankie’

By Megan Penn Jun 25, 2021

Frankie is a deeply personal love letter of a film from director Jame Kautz to lead actor Morgan Ruaidhrí O’Sullivan. The result is Kautz’s LGBT live-action short film Fra...

REEL PRIDE

Joychild: Aurora Brachman’s doc makes New Yorker debut

By Megan Penn Jun 16, 2021

In Aurora Brachman’s MFA thesis film, a young child tells their mother, "I'm not a girl," for the first time. This documentary short Joychild shares a story of an 8-year-old ...

Indie Film

Leylak: Gritty NY Frontliners film debuts at Tribeca

By Megan Penn Jun 11, 2021

A New York story about the unwavering strength of an immigrant in a pandemic was exactly the kind of important, gritty story creative duo, Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos were l...

Indie Film

Tribeca Film Fest: Liza Anonymous’ creative team

By Megan Penn Jun 4, 2021

The desire to belong can take people to extremes. In Liza Anonymous, the character of Liza takes it too far. Liza is a lonely millennial addicted to s...

Reviews

The Doll: Iranian family grapples with 14-year-old bride

By Megan Penn May 21, 2021

Elahe Esmaili’s short film The Doll holds a mirror up to society on what it is like to survive as a woman in a man’s world. The documentary explores a 14-year-old girl’s ...

Indie Film

Sebastian Stan, Denise Gough love on Monday

By Megan Penn May 15, 2021

Two broken people trying to heal each other is the kind of love story we relish in and suffer through in the new film, Monday. The premise of the independent feature can only b...

Indie Film

Deadly Cuts: a story of hair extensions and dying

By Megan Penn Apr 30, 2021

Rachel Carey’s debut film Deadly Cuts is a story of female empowerment accentuated with extensions, hair dye, scissors, and a little bit of the blood of men- who were asking ...

Academy Awards

Emerald Fennell’s “poisonous popcorn film”

By Megan Penn Apr 28, 2021

Emeralds Fennell’s Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her self-described “poisonous popcorn film” Promising Young Woman marks the 13th woman to win in this l...

Academy Awards

Women who run with Oscars

By Megan Penn Apr 26, 2021

To say that women have been kept out of the spotlight when it comes to being behind the lens in film would be the understatement of the century. There is no dramatic flare ...

The Craft

Gísli Darri Halldórsson on Oscar-nominated Yes-People

By Megan Penn Apr 20, 2021

Gísli Darri Halldórsson’s 2021 Academy Award-nominated Animated Short Film Yes-People explores the monotonous daily life of humans stuck in behavioral loops. Yes-People...

Academy Awards

Oscar nom Feeling Through stars first Deafblind actor

By Megan Penn Apr 5, 2021

Oscar contender for Best live Action Short Feeling Through is a heartfelt film that is breaking barriers both on the screen and behind the scenes. Tarango was born in Arizon...

Indie Film

A Beautiful Curse is not a pandemic story, but a love story

By Megan Penn Apr 2, 2021

Director Martin Garde Abildgaard wants to make one thing clear - his debut feature A Beautiful Curse is not a pandemic story, it’s a love story. Though the backdrop of ...

Academy Awards

The United States vs. Billie Holiday is really U.S. vs POC

By Megan Penn Mar 26, 2021

The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which is currently streaming on Hulu, has already nabbed a Golden Globe Best for actress, singer Andra Day, who was also nominated for a 2...

SXSW

SXSW: Hannah Bang’s ‘Soak’ makes debut

By Megan Penn Mar 16, 2021

Hannah Bang’s film debut Soak is only the beginning of her exploration of female characters who carry an inner conflict that torments them. This MFA thesis live action short ...

The Craft

Celebrate IWD with these films from the 2000’s

By Megan Penn Mar 8, 2021

In honor of International Women's Day and as a woman in film, we have created a must watch female-centric film list of the 21st century. Since I was a little girl nothing h...

Reviews

Nomadland is a poetic journey

By Megan Penn Feb 23, 2021

Nomadland is a poetic journey off the beaten path of the forgotten. This American neo-Western is directed, written, edited, and produced by the refreshingly and viscerally auth...

The Craft

The male gaze of Super Bowl Commercials in front and behind the camera is demeaning

By Megan Penn Feb 10, 2021

Spots in the Big Game have become iconic and popular because of their cinematographic quality, unpredictability, humor, use of special effects and celebrity cameos. Above ever...

The Craft

Female directors kick ass in Golden Globe noms… finally

By Megan Penn Feb 5, 2021

"And here are the all-male nominees.” Natalie Portman remarked as she presented the award for best director at The Golden Globes in 2018. The actress made headlines for...

Reviews

‘Promising Young Woman’: love letter to women and an overdue warning notice to men – written in blood

By Megan Penn Feb 3, 2021

TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains information about sexual assault and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors. Cassie was a promising young woman in med school u...

Indie Film

Farah Nabulsi: the political is personal in short film

By Megan Penn Feb 1, 2021

The directorial debut of Farah Nabulsi couldn’t have been anything other than a film in which the political and the creative collide. Her short film The Present does just tha...