Tag: Sundance 2025

“Sorry, Baby” at Sundance 2025

On February 13, 2025

Eva Victor appears in Sorry, Baby by Eva Victor, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mia Cioffi Henry.

One of the films that “sold” at Sundance 2025 (to A24) was the 103 minute comedy/drama feature “Sorry, Baby,” which went for $8 million. Shot in Massachusetts, it was also one of the films I had been looking forward to the most, because Lucas Hedges (Oscar-nominated for his role as Patrick Chandler in 2016’s “Manchester by the Sea” at 20 years of age) was cast as Gavin. The film was written, directed and starred Eva Victor as Agnes.

THE BAD

Eva Victor wrote an extremely small part for Lucas Hedges and totally wasted his presence for 2/3 of the film, preferring, instead, to focus on herself as the lead actress. Yes, it was a film about Agnes’ sexual experience with a married professor and her extreme (and belated) bad reaction to same, but when the talented now 29-year-old Hedges was onscreen, his part consisted primarily of an bathtub scene where his lines included, “I’m embarrassed and I was hiding my dick.” In fact, when he first appeared onscreen as Gavin, he almost immediately disappeared and it was not clear if he was going to return at all!

Ms. Victor responds to the awkward nude bathtub badinage with, “It’s okay. I was covering my breasts. Oh, wait. Can I look at it? I have never seen one that soft. They’re better like this.”

Probably not a scripted exchange that is going to garner Lucas Hedges his second Oscar nomination.

The scene that featured Ms. Victor with a baby was also weird.

I’m guessing that Eva Victor has no children, but, whether she does or not, the conversation she wrote for herself to have with a friend’s infant she is babysitting was strange. She talks about how the infant can tell her anything and says, “I’m sorry that bad things are going to happen to you. If I can ever stop bad things from happening, just let me know. I feel bad for you, in a way, but you’re alive and you don’t know that yet. But I can still listen and not be scared. So that’s good. Or that’s something at least.”

Again, probably not scripted dialogue that is going to win Ms. Victor Oscar nods.

I have two kids. I guarantee that this is not “normal” banter with an infant. If it had been comedic (see “Nightbitch”) I might feel differently, but it just struck me as reaching and unlikely and not normal in the world I inhabit.

The film was punctuated with sub-titles. “The Year with the Bad Thing” or “The Year with the Good Sandwich” onscreen as subtitled portions of the main story did not seem like a great idea. Some of the sub-titles were barely related to what we then saw onscreen.

The delayed PTSD concerning Agnes’ (Ms. Victor’s) interaction with her college professor seemed over-wrought and not very true-to-life (besides barely being depicted, since we just see her rush from the house.)

As a young college student, Ms. Victor’s character went to her married male professor’s house to discuss a paper. He made sexual advances, which are not described as that aggressive. In fact, the entire escapade was not very clearly depicted or described. Did Agnes actually feel she had been raped or…? Had she simply been a very bad judge of character in agreeing to visit the married professor’s house while his wife and family were out of town? Did he truly force himself upon her? Could she have said “no” more forcefully? She is shown pursuing the issue somewhat at the college offices on campus, but learns that the misbehaving professor (previously her favorite) has apparently already resigned and left town. (Quick work there!)

You’ll have to see the film when A24 streams it to answer the questions above for yourselves. Upsetting, yes.

To have a full-blown breakdown while behind the wheel of a car, years later? Seemed contrived. It did lead to a nice character turn from John Carroll Lynch as Pete, however,— (the genesis of “The Year of the Bad Sandwich” bad sub-title.) I thought back to Emerald Fennell’s master class in scripting the results of such an encounter in the 2020 film “Promising Young Woman” with Carrie Mulligan. A different premise, yes, and not meant to be humorous at any point, but at least what, exactly, had happened to that girl was clearly spelled out, rather than the muddied version here. At times, the episode seems to have severely and seriously impacted Agnes. At other times, she seems to have moved past the trauma fairly quickly—until a triggering incident while driving.

Just left me feeling that the behind-the-wheel PTSD scene was overblown and belonged in a different movie.

THE GOOD

Eva Victor, director of Sorry, Baby, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lee Dubin.

There is a courtroom scene that was quite amusing. I hoped for more like that one—scenes that would seem natural and normal and life-like and realistic. It was well done. There were good lines here and there, such as, “I did not think I would end up looking like a yam with a mouth on it.” And it was nice to see more female directors/writers coming up through the ranks,.

Director of Photography Mia Cioffi Henry acquitted herself nobly and the music by Lia Quyang Rusli was good.

Here’s what “Ioncinema” said about “Sorry, Baby:” “We imagine it’ll be extra champagne uncorking for some of the A24 folks who landed the film for a cool 8 million dollars – today’s IndieWire poll of the Best of Sundance (as voted on by 176 critics) further confirms that the breakout film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sorry, Baby – which placed highest not only in the Best Film category but also topped the Best Performance, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film lists. Eva Victor‘s debut did not claim the Grand Jury Prize but did manage to win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and had several distributors on the chase to land the rights.”

That is heady praise and means I am out of step with the mainstream reaction. I have a theory that the reason it was praised so highly is that almost ALL of the rest of the Sundance offerings were about death, dying, illness, or other such catastrophes. It was hard to find a comedy—although “Andre Is An Idiot” would qualify, except for the fact that it’s about a terminally ill man cataloguing his last months on the planet.

CONCLUSION

For me, there was promise in the courtroom scene for a Funny Film of the Future. Just looking at the credits, it seemed that the writer/director/star highlighted herself overmuch, which ended up hurting the film. Wasting Lucas Hedges in his role as Gavin was but one example.

It was not a “bad” film, but I’m still scratching my head over the over-emphasis on Agnes and the timing of Agnes’ trauma, etc.. For me, the emphasis on Agnes’ trauma was inconsistent with a “comedy” and her breakdown was overdone. And, then, too, there was the waste of other talented cast members, like Naomi Ackie as best friend Lydie and Kelly McCormack as Natasha.

(And don’t get me started on the complete waste of the uber talented Lucas Hedges.)

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” Screens at Sundance Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On February 1, 2025

In Education, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Movies, Politics, Reviews

Pavel Talankin, director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Helle Moos.

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” about the Putin-dictated shift in Russia’s schools was made possible by a young Russian schoolteacher named Pavel (“Pasha”) Talankin. At the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pasha was serving as the school videotographer and event coordinator for Karabash Elementary School, the biggest school in what is a very small town of 10,000 people deep in the Ural Mountains, Russia’s industrial heartland. Karabash was world famous because it was once dubbed “the most toxic place on Earth,” with an average life expectancy of 38 and a huge copper mining plant that has blackened the mountaintop with pollution. One commentator called it “the most depressing place I’ve ever been” and “the darkest place on the planet.” But to Pasha it was home, where he lived near his widowed mother (his father drowned in a lake when Pasha was 9) in a two-bedroom apartment in the city center. Pasha’s humble flat contained 427 books, carefully arranged by color coding, and he has a dog named Nebraska.

NEW RUSSIAN PROGRAM

At the outset of the Russian invasion, Pasha sent out an e-mail ( described as “an overly long e-mail”) about the exhaustive program Putin’s government was pushing on Russian schools. The New Federal Patriotic Education Program was an impediment to actual teaching. Said Pasha, “Few of us were prepared for such an effort to interfere in our ability to teach…I am a teacher forced to do the exact opposite of what a teacher should do.” I could relate to Pasha’s dismay, because I lived through a push from those above me in pay grade to make all of us jump through hoops to select students for the Scripps Spelling Bee Competition. It soon became clear that 75% of my classroom time would have had to be spent doing spelling bee trials to select the finalists. The other things I was supposed to be teaching, which included, at that time, literature, grammar, composition and spelling, were to be shunted aside in favor of the Spelling Bee lady, who apparently outranked me on the food chain (even though I was ostensibly Department Chairperson and had been there many more years and had an actual degree in my subject area, which this woman did not. She, however, was married to a fellow School Superintendent; I was not). I soon cut to the chase and selected my contestants based on abbreviated preliminary bees, which left me free to go back to actual teaching. Things did not go quite as smoothly for the woman who insisted that ALL of our classroom time be spent running things the way the local newspaper dictated and she soon ran in a ringer who had not competed at all, as he was in the hospital with a broken leg during her many elimination bees. But he had an I.Q. of 152, so the rules that Mrs. Superintendent had imposed on us all soon went out the window, given the upset wins her trials were creating.

But for Pasha, the restrictions were going to get worse, and they came from much higher up.

NEW RUSSIAN TREASON LAWS

A still from Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borestein and Pavel Talankin, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Pavel Talankin

Initially, shooting the film for this documentary was risky, but not illegal. But in April of 2023 Putin and his government passed a law mandating life imprisonment for treason and strengthening the laws about “treason.” Things would become increasingly dangerous for Pasha as he filmed what was happening in Karabash.

Pasha: “It’s a very unpleasant feeling. It’s like you’re in a room and the walls are closing in and the air is leaving. You remain trapped in the system. I love my job, but I don’t want to be a pawn of the regime.” Pasha actually resigned his position at one point, but when director collaborator David Borenstein contacted him, suggesting they act on Pasha’s idea, he withdrew his resignation and set about documenting what was going on in Russian schools. Pasha: “I’ll use my camera to film the abyss this school is sinking into.”

Others in the town mention how even first graders are being asked to recite war poems.

Pasha: “Since last year there is no freedom to be found here. All Russian movement is for the children’s movement.” Every day there are clubs being formed that resemble the Nazi Youth Clubs of Hitler’s day/ Victory Day, the holiest day of the year when parading crowds carry pictures of their dead veterans, seems to suggest, “Maybe one day you can be a dead soldier, too.” Pasha notes that the young people will have to carry the burden of victory over evil. Pasha: “All of you will die, but know one thing: Mother Russia will never forget you. Every warrior’s name will be carved into a plaque.”

At this point, Russia is losing 1,000 soldiers a day in the Ukrainian conflict. Says Pasha, “It’s now time for the mercenaries to teach: marching drills, grenade throwing competitions, shooting competition.” The film of boys as young as 10 being handed guns and sighting down the length of them is frightening. They are shown handling weapons of the Great Patriotic War, including Mosin, SVT machine guns, etc.

There are scripted lessons after scripted lessons. Proof that the school is complying with the directive is required. Soon, the scripts are given to the students, as well. They are being brainwashed by the state in the New Federal Patriotic Education Program.

KARABASH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER

David Borestein, director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Helle Moos

Pasha films history teacher Pavel Abdulmanov. Abdulmanov is strictly by the Russian book. He suggests that, “It’s so crucial to eliminate dissenting views so there is no split in our Mother Country. If you don’t like it, go to the country that you think is better.” When asked to name the Russian historical figures he admires most, he names Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s father of the Gulag system; Viktor Abakumov, Stalin’s spy hunter; and Pavel Sudoplatov, Stalin’s assassin for enemies. Sudoplatov masterminded the murder of Leon Trotsky from an ice pick driven into Leon Trotsky’s brain. Abdulmanov tells his students daily that “Russia could destroy Ukraine in a couple of days” and warns that countries in Europe will “soon be riding horses” as there will be no wheat or oil from Russia. He also tells the students that “state policy in Ukraine is decided by radicals and Nazis,” suggesting that Russia must eliminate the Nazis in power in Ukraine. Abdulmanov was given a luxury apartment as a reward for being named Teacher of the Year at the school.

LASHING OUT

Feeling an uncontrollable urge to lash out, one morning Pasha plays a recording of Lady Gaga singing the United States National Anthem, rather than the Soviet anthem. Soon thereafter, a police car is parked outside of Pasha’s apartment.

PASHA’S MOTHER

Throughout the film Pasha is shown bringing his mother flowers as she works to repair damaged school books in the school library. He repeatedly praises his mother. She is a particularly dour woman who never expresses any warmth towards her only son. At one point, he says he is going to stop over with something for her that evening and she tells him “Forget it.” Her view on the changes in the school’s atmosphere : “I am sorry, but people love war. It’s always been like that. People love to shoot each other.” Also representative of the town’s collective feelings is Masha, one of Pasha’s students, whose brother is drafted into the war effort. She says, “I could care less about the war as long as it doesn’t impact me personally.” This seems to be the main opinion of the town. (Masha’s brother eventually defects and is killed.)

GRADUATION

Pasha is in charge of arranging for Graduation Day. He addresses the assembled crowd, saying, “My dear friends: wherever your life takes you, I wish you solid ground under your feet. There’ll be turning points you’ll have to choose. Sometimes to express your love, you must sacrifice everything, but I know that your choice will come from your heart. Thank you so much for working with me through this year. I love you very much. The time for the last bell has come.” This heartfelt speech is followed by dancing in the most toxic town on Earth and students tossing Pasha into the air in celebration.

That night, he flees Russia. He is being paid as co-director of this impressive effort for the BBC’s Storyville, but he was not present at the Q&A at Sundance.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin: Graduation Day

A still from Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borestein and Pavel Talankin, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

CONCLUSION

Pasha put in three years of work on the project. He tells the camera, “Even a guy like me should have some principles. By June I am done here.”

This was a brave act of principle in the face of an oppressive autocratic regime. Having just completed a University of Texas class entitled “Putin’s Rise to Power” that laid out the ways in which Putin has closed down and expelled Western journalists from Russia. I am now enrolled in a class entitled “Misinformation and Disinformation.” Our first lecture went into a great deal of detail about how difficult it is to get truthful reporting out of Russia.

This documentary is a real treasure and should be seen by anyone who loves democracy. It was a courageous and brave act by someone who has risked his entire life to help alert the world to the truth of Vladimir Putin’s plans for world domination.

“2000 Meters to Andriivka” Premieres at Sundance, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 31, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Movies, Reviews

A still from 2000 Meters to Andriivka by Mstyslav Chernov, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mstyslav Chernov

AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov filmed “20 Days in Mariupol” two years ago. His first documentary showing the Russian invasion of Mariupol won the Oscar as Best Documentary of the year at the 2024 Academy Awards.

At Sundance this year the 97-minute documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka” embeds Chernov and Cinematographer Alex Babenko with troops advancing approximately one mile to the embattled town of Andriivka in Ukraine. Andriivka is representative of so many Ukrainian towns and villages seized by Russian troops. Onscreen, as they get closer to the town, the distance still to be traveled is shown in a kind of count-down fashion.

THE GOAL

The Russians have mined each of the sides of a forested area, the Zhyzhky forest, where the enemy has dug in. If the 93^rd brigade can make its way to the town, it will help cut the Russian supply line to the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut. The Zhyzhky forest has had three previous Ukrainian attempts to make it to Andriivka, in June, July and August, only to see the front line of brave Ukrainian soldiers mowed down by Russian troops.

The goal? “If we are lucky, we’ll get there and see the raising of the Ukrainian flag.”

They do get there, but the town is totally destroyed.

THE FIGHTERS

The bravery of the Ukrainian men is admirable, but it all seems so futile.

Mstyslav Chernov, director of 2000 Meters to Andriivka, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeff Vespa

Chernov has conversations with individual fighters—Freak, Kavun, Gagarin—and we see bodies littered everywhere on the hellscape that was once a forest leading towards the small village. The village of Andriivka, itself, when they finally reach it, is as decimated as the Gaza Strip. There really isn’t a building, as such, to hang a flag on or over. When Chernov is asked during the audience Q&A how things changed after the men reached Andriivka and raised the Ukrainian flag, he said, “It became sort of anti-climactic and climactic.” There is a small moment of humanity when one of the Ukrainian fighters finds a small kitten and smuggles it out with him.

FREAK ET. AL.

Freak is one of the fighters we get to know. He is only 22 years old and talks about his previous time at university. He says his plan is to “go in with the thought that I’m going to stay alive.” (Freak is injured 6 months later and his body is never recovered.)

A 46-year old military policeman (and a grandfather) who volunteered to defend Ukraine says that he should not be made out to be a hero. “I haven’t done anything heroic , yet here I am on camera. It shouldn’t be like that. There are those who have done so much.” He worries that his wife back home won’t have clean water and that he didn’t fix the toilet well enough before he left for war.

Gagarin is shot and falls, onscreen. (Later, the soldier who held Gagarin’s hand as he died, will also be killed in a drone strike in his village). Gagarin’s funeral is the 56^th funeral in his small town. The town turns out en masse and there is much mourning and crying. One of the mourners says, “We are burying our children. Women bury their husbands. Our boys still had everything ahead of them. They could have been entrepreneurs, agriculturists. When the time came, they took up arms to defend us.”

CONCLUSION

Where “20 Days in Mariupol” was optimistic, now, with a new administration in place, one that seems much less interested in supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Russia (and much friendlier towards Putin), the counter-offensive does not seem to be viable. Russia now controls abut 20% of Ukraine as of January, 2025.

Director Chernov said, “I don’t want to to speak to any of my relatives right now, because I would want to tell them that everything is okay and it’s not.”

I felt depressed after the November presidential election and on January 20th. I’m even more depressed after viewing this remarkable film about what is actually happening in Ukraine. It should be seen in a double viewing with another remarkable Sundance film, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” which depicts how Russian schools are being told to brainwash students and turn them into soldiers at increasingly young ages.

“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” at Sundance 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 30, 2025

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

(Deaf actress Marlee Matlin appears at Sundance 2025. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute).

Deaf actress and activist Marlee Matlin was born 58 years ago in Morton Grove, Illinois. When asked to do a PBS Masters biography of her life, she requested a deaf director. Shoshanna Stern became the guiding force behind this autobiographical recounting of Matlin’s life and career.

She lost her hearing at 18 months of age for reasons never completely determined. As she shares, her parents never got over the guilt. She describes a childhood feeling of being cut off, dismissed and ignored, saying, “That’s just how it was as the deaf girl.”

Although she had always loved to perform, she was often not allowed to audition because of her handicap.

MARLEE & WILLIAM HURT

However, when the play “Children of a Lesser God” was being made into a movie, the search for a deaf actress to play the lead led to casting the then 19-year-old Matlin in the part, opposite William Hurt, who was then 35. Sparks flew. The two became a couple for a brief period, which led to charges of abuse on Matlin’s part and denials on Hurt’s. She has said, “Bill Hurt was threatened by my youth and the sudden change in my success from just one movie.” Her autobiographical recounting of their romance in “I’ll Scream Later,” written in 2009, also described sexual molestation at ages 11 and 15.

Matlin’s impassioned performance in “Children of a Lesser God” won her the Oscar as Best Actress of the Year in 1987, but also contributed to the break-up of her romance with the much older Hurt. One thing that Marlee has acknowledged that was a positive from her time with Hurt was that he convinced her to get clean from a dependence on drugs and alcohol and to go to rehab, as he had done. She checked into the Betty Ford Center. She remains married to her husband Kevin Grandalski after four children and 32 years, which may be as major an accomplishment as being the youngest woman (and only deaf actress) to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

MARLEE & HENRY WINKLER

When Marlee was twelve years old, a chance meeting with Henry Winkler in Chicago—then riding high as the Fonz on “Happy Days”—led to a lifetime friendship with the actor and his wife. In fact, Marlee lived with the Winklers for two years and was married to her current husband, a Burbank police officer, in the Winklers’ back yard in 1993.

ACTIVISM

Marlee has leaned into activism on behalf of the deaf, although she claims, in the documentary, to have been uninformed about deaf issues when she achieved prominence for her Oscar win in 1987. As she said, “I was thrust into it, but nobody explained it to me.” One of her projects, (undertaken with the help of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who had a deaf brother) was to make all television sets captioning capable, to aid with language deprivation that the deaf encounter.

Matlin’s involvement with the 2022 film “Coda” is included, which won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Troy Kotsure, who said, “What kept me inspired was Marlee Matlin.”

Matlin’s words at that time were “Let’s move forward. Let there be other firsts.”

Matlin is shown in her car with Billy Joel’s song “My Life” playing, mouthing the words, “I never said I was the victim of circumstances.”

CONCLUSION

The look at Matlin’s career was interesting. I know from my 20 years of teaching next door to the hearing impaired room at the junior high school level (as well as from having deaf students in my classrooms) that a deaf student who is doing well in school is often a truly brilliant individual. The hurdles for deaf students who are often “left alone to solve it on their own” are huge. She admits in the documentary that, “I have no idea how I survived.”

Matlin has a production company and has several projects in the works, including a desire to work again with Director Shoshanna Stern.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 29, 2025

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival).

“INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN” debuted January 24^th at Sundance in the Animated Shorts Film Program with three additional in-person screenings to follow. The film will also screen online across North America January 29^th, 7:00 AM PST through February 3^rd, 3:55 AM PST. The series is in development. It is being coproduced by Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) and by the National Film Board of Canada. Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) is an Indigenous-led and community-oriented Vancouver-based studio founded in 2010, which focuses on visionary illustration, stop motion, 2D, 3D and virtual reality animations.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Returns” is a story set two lifetimes in the future (Denendeh), when the world hangs in the balance. Sadly, that seems very much like the world today. On tonight’s news they announced that the world clock predicting the end of the world has been reset at 87 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. (Hardly encouraging, but a good preface to this piece).

The animated story focuses on a young, enigmatic gender-shifting warrior named Dove. “Inkwo” means medicine; it is used to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters that re-emerge to feed upon humans. The flesh-consuming creatures become stronger with each body and soul they devour.

Amanda Strong, director of Inkwo for When the Starving Return, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The animation, sound, and voice acting are top-notch. The creatures are appropriately horrific and threatening. Amanda Strong, showrunner for the production, is a Sundance Native Lab Fellowship recipient (the first Canadian Indigenous Fellow), a Red River Métis artist, writer, producer, director, and mother. A Canadian Screen Award and Emmy-nominated director, Amanda is the owner, director and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions. Her collaborative creations amplify Indigenous storytelling.

The story is adapted from the collection of published and unpublished short stories and graphic novels “Wheetago War,” written by award-winning storyteller Richard Van Camp. It features voice talents Tantoo Cardinal (“Legend of the Fall,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Paulina Alexis (“Reservation Dogs”) and Art Napoleon (“Moosemeat & Marmalade”).

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.)

The series articulates truths like this: “When people forgot their connection to the land, they lost themselves as well.” That sort of truth isn’t confined to just a futuristic animated series about monsters. The fading family farm, our pollution of the very food we consume, the escalating climate changes globally being largely ignored by U.S. leadership—all bear testimony to the truth of that observation.

Another scripted moment, between the frog that Dove saves (who promises strong medicine—-“Inkwo”) is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us. There seems to be a surplus of greed in the U.S. in 2025, so, hopefully the “inkwo” will help those who disagree with the way things seem to be going in the United States. Another insightful line: “We are all born hunted.”

Certainly feels that way more and more, especially if you are an immigrant in the U.S.

I applaud the goal of the series, which is: “Taking a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on the Earth.”

In the United States in January, 2025, all of us need to take a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on Earth. Perhaps we could start by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization and not re-creating the sort of camps the United States government established in WWII. As concerned citizens, we must urge elected representatives to do what they know is best for democracy in the United States. Endorsing and embracing a kakistocracy is counter-productive to safeguarding peace and prosperity.

CREDITS

DIRECTOR