Director Maris Curran’s feature documentary, Jeannette, is a striking and intimate vérité, this portrait of competitive bodybuilder and queer single mother Jeannette Feliciano. The story unfolds as a nuanced story of balancing the relentlessness of daily existence with the realities of living through trauma. In the wake of Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub shooting, Jeannette continues to coach other survivors at the gym while raising her son. Life seems calm again,  until Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico and Jeannette is thrown back into crisis mode. Skirting headlines to instead focus on the tenderness of healing, Maris Curran (Five Nights in Maine) delivers her feature documentary debut with the World Premiere of JEANNETTE. Director Maris Curran and the subject Jeannette Feliciano joins us for a conversation on the process of becoming comfortable with each other as Jeannette facilitates Maris’s camera and crew into every aspect of her life why it was important for both of them to give the horrifying reality of the Pulse Club mass shooting the appropriate perspective in the sweep of Jeanette’s complex and rewarding life.

Download MP3 Podcast | Open Player in New Window

For updates and screenings go to: thefilmcollaborative.org

About the filmmaker – JEANNETTE is the feature documentary directorial debut of acclaimed queer filmmaker Maris Curran, whose films have shown at Berlinale, TIFF, MoMA, the NY Times Op-Docs, and PBS’s Independent Lens. Among her films are her feature narrative debut, Five Nights in Maine (2016) starring David Oyelowo, Diane Wiest, and Rosie Perez; and two documentary shorts, The Man Is the Music (2016) and While I Yet Live (2018). She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was a Fulbright Fellow, and is the past recipient of an SFFILM/KRF Filmmaking Grant. After World Premiering at the 2022 San Francisco International Film Festival in Documentary Competition. JEANNETTE will be playing festivals throughout the year, with official announcements to be made soon.

SOCIAL MEDIA

facebook.com/thefilmcollaborative

twitter.com/mariscurran

twitter.com/filmcollab

instagram.com/maris.curran

instagram.com/jeannettefelicianopro

“Poignant…a thoughtful, meditative look at the struggles of those with PTSD in a gun-rabid, homophobic country.”— KARIN MCKIE, EDGE MEDIA NETWORK