Natalia Keogan

For much of her life, Karla Murthy listened as her father regaled her with tales of his troubled upbringing and eventual journey to America. Raised in poverty in India, Shantha Murthy spent years of his childhood destitute and working for meager wages at a restaurant, his only respite arriving in the form of an American couple who eventually brought him to the U.S. as their adoptee. The rest follows a fairly simple pattern: he met a girl in his new home state of Texas, got hitched and started a family of his own. This, he claimed, was his true life’s goal; but the allure of the so-called “American Dream” drew Shantha to business ventures that didn’t quite materialized, resulting in debt that never got paid down. During one of his career pivots—this time as a gas station attendant—his daughter, Karla Murthy, decided to document the stories and anecdotes she’d heard him recount hundreds of times before. From her new home base in New York, she would call her father and record his musings, realizing that they contained more insight into themes of identity, migration and working class realities than she had previously realized.

In 1936, an Australian film called White Death made nary a splash. American adventure novelist Zane Grey (starring as himself) bets that he can

“Winter kept us warm,” reads an early line in T.S. Eliot’s landmark poem The Waste Land, “covering Earth in forgetful snow.” This season, often associated with loneliness and despair, heralds quite the opposite both in Eliot’s masterwork and in Canadian filmmaker David Secter’s. The latter’s 1965 feature debut, Winter Kept Us Warm

Loosely based on her mother’s grueling daily schedule, Calleen Koh’s delightfully animated My Wonderful Life brings to life the deranged fantasies that can plague the overworked. Office drone Grace Lee falls strains her body beyond its breaking point—the demands of her workplace, family and even a local stray cat cause her to collapse on the job. When she wakes up in the hospital, she feels an odd sense of relief and relaxation. She can finally rest without feeling guilty; as a result, she resolves to extend her hospital stay by any means necessary. When her body begins to heal itself, she begins to inflict increasingly horrifying harm upon herself.

Reem Jubran, Calleen Koh, Nicole Chi, Eva Steinmetz and Sujin Jung

Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.

Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.

Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.

Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.

Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.