182. Couture (with Angelina Jolie) and Alice Winocour's traumatized bodies (TIFF 2025)
Alice Winocour's Couture is a backstage film about the fashion world — less about the clothes than the bodies who wear them, shape them, and photograph them. It's a film about the ways that commerce and fashion (and medicine) shape and damage women's bodies. As a Winocour fan and researcher since 2015, Alex Heeney connects Couture to Winocour's explorations of traumatized bodies, outsiders, and backstage stories throughout her body of work. 🎟 If you want to explore a film together in conversation — not just listen in — join me for Living Out Loud, my free Queer and Trans Storytelling Summit happening the first weekend of October. On Day 3, I’ll be hosting a short film screening and live group discussion — and you’re invited. 👉 Save your seat here.
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181. Between Dreams and Hope and queer survival (TIFF 2025)
At TIFF, Alex dives into Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi's Between Dreams and Hope, a powerful film about a trans man in Iran navigating the dehumanizing maze of gender-affirming care — and connects it to two others, from Canada and France, that reveal how patriarchy, money, and bureaucracy shape queer and trans survival. These aren’t straight reviews so much as reflections on how films spark curiosity, uncover hidden systems, and resist erasure. ✨ Don’t miss it! This October, join me for Living Out Loud — a FREE three-day live online summit all about queer and trans stories and queer and trans history. Sign up here
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180. Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (TIFF 2025)
Joachim Trier’s new film, Sentimental Value, is already a buzzy hit. Alex Heeney has been thinking and writing about Trier’s films for more than a decade, and this one sharpened her sense of what she values in his work. In this episode out of TIFF, she look at the film's portrait of a complicated family, the way it reframes familiar Trier themes, and how it speaks to his other films. ✨ This fall I’m hosting an exclusive live event where we’ll unpack Trier’s work together — the kind of deep-dive conversation you can’t get from the podcast. 👉Spots will be limited, so make sure you’re on the waitlist here.
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179. What if we told stories about women beyond their love lives?
What happens when a story that once felt modern… suddenly doesn’t? And what does that tell us about the limits — and possibilities — of the stories we tell about women? In this solo episode, Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney tracks a shift in perspective — hers, and maybe yours too. 📍 How a 2021 film reopened an old question 📍 Why Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) once felt strikingly modern — and what I see in it now 📍 And what this tells us about how our expectations for stories about women have changed — fast Along the way, I dig into: How the marriage plot continues to shape the kinds of stories we tell about women The limits of romantic “choice” when that’s the only choice on offer Why stories that include romance aren’t the problem — but centering it might be And how our expectations for women’s stories are shifting — fast 🎟️ Want to know what the 2021 pick is? Join Reel Ruminators to find out — and be part of the conversation.
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178. What happened when Hazel trusted my film curation
What happens when you watch a film — not just to be entertained — but to reflect, notice, and share? In this episode, Alex Heeney (curator of Reel Ruminators) sits down with Hazel Shaw, a UK member of the community, to uncover what really makes this unique movie-of-the-month space so rewarding — and how it sparks discoveries you might not expect. Together, they talk about: What happens when you watch films that aren't suggested by an algorithm Why gathering with film lovers from around the world can change the way you see a film Why some of the most surprising film conversations happen in spaces where no one needs to agree. The “aha” moments that can sneak up on you while watching and reflecting on a film. The lasting rewards of being exposed to films you might have overlooked on your own. Whether you’re already curious about Reel Ruminators or simply interested in what happens when film-watching becomes a shared, intentional practice, this episode offers a thoughtful, behind-the-scenes look — with reflections that may just surprise you, too. 🔗 Learn more about Reel Ruminators
A weekly film podcast that helps you have a more rewarding experience watching movies by connecting you to the best under-the-radar films from around the world so that you don’t have to watch all the movies to watch good movies that expand your cinematic horizons — both in content and form.
This is a podcast about those films, the joys and challenges of finding and watching those films, how filmmaking choices affect our experience of them, and the people and places we discover through looking outside the mainstream and beyond the English language.
Our mission is to upend the canon to be more inclusive by spotlighting and diving deep into international and independent films by and about women, Indigenous People, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups. Find multiple episodes on the films of Kelly Reichardt, Céline Sciamma, Andrew Haigh, and Joachim Trier.
Become a member to access the full (200+ episode) podcast archive and get early access to new episodes: http://seventh-row.com/join
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