Interviews

With BAAB, Nayla Al Khaja delivers her most intimate and uncompromising work to date. A psychological dark fantasy rooted in grief, sound, and Arab folklore, the film unfolds through the fractured inner world of a woman haunted by the loss of her twin sister. Rejecting linear storytelling in favor of atmosphere, silence, and sensory disorientation, BAAB becomes less a narrative than an experience — one that invites the viewer to step through a threshold where reality, memory, and myth collide.

Los Angeles–based producer Desmond Qi Hong Loh represents a new generation of filmmakers navigating storytelling across formats, cultures, and platforms. A graduate of California State University, Northridge’s Film Production program, Loh has built a body of work that moves fluidly between award-winning short films, high-performing vertical dramas, and global digital media.

More than twenty years after publishing The Poetic Repercussion, writer and filmmaker Mark Anthony Thomas returns to the words that shaped his earliest creative life—not to revisit them with nostalgia, but to translate them forward. In Need of Seawater, directed by Richard Yeagley, is the first chapter of a poetic documentary trilogy that transforms memory into movement, and poetry into a living, cinematic language.

Winner of the 2025 Goya Award for Best Documentary Short Film, Seeds From Kivu is not simply a documentary—it is an act of witness. Directed by Néstor López and Carlos Valle, the film takes viewers deep into eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where women who have survived extreme sexual violence seek healing at Panzi Hospital under the care of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege.

Divia, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is a haunting, meditative journey through Ukraine’s wounded landscapes—told entirely without dialogue. Produced by Ukrainian filmmaker and Los Angeles–based producer Polina Herman, the documentary explores the ecological devastation caused by war, while revealing moments of resilience slowly returning to the land.

After a powerful festival run, Catherine Argyrople’s Growing Pains has officially landed on Tubi. Inspired by her own journey as a childhood cancer survivor, Argyrople delivers an intimate story about friendship, identity, and the pressures young women face today. We caught up with the filmmaker to talk about healing through art, authentic representation, and the emotional road behind her debut feature.

Fresh off being named 2025 New Hampshire Filmmaker of the Year, writer-director Brad Courtemanche is stepping into his next ambitious project — What Only Cicadas See, a grounded near-future thriller that explores how technology mirrors human morality more than it defines it.

In All American, director Mark Andrew Altschul brings the spotlight to three remarkable young women breaking barriers in one of the most male-dominated sports — wrestling. Filmed over five years across New York City and beyond, the documentary follows Naomi, Jojo, and Arham, three high school athletes whose stories of perseverance, identity, and belonging transcend the mat.

Blending surreal fantasy with raw human emotion, If You Should Leave Before Me is one of those rare indie films that feels both handmade and deeply universal. Directed by brothers J. Markus and Boyd Anderson, the film follows a couple navigating love, loss, and the afterlife through a series of vivid, dreamlike worlds.

With Light Up, filmmaker Ryan Ashley Lowery delivers a deeply personal and radiant tribute to the Black queer community. Premiering at the 2024 Bronzelens Film Festival, the documentary shines a spotlight on five remarkable individuals whose courage, faith, and authenticity illuminate the path for others. Through honest conversations, spiritual reflection, and moments of joy, Lowery crafts what he calls “a love letter” — to himself, to the LGBTQ+ community, and to anyone learning to embrace their full truth. IndieWrap sat down with the director to discuss representation, vulnerability, and the power of letting your light shine.