CIFF 2025 ROUND-UP: OUR TOP TEN FILMS, November 2025 - 0613focus
“It’s safe to say CIFF delivered, with some of this year’s best features adorning its roster and many films soaring above our predicted ranking. With a plethora of thought-provoking, entertaining, and at times heartbreaking stories, here are the top 10 films we saw at CIFF this year.”
IN CONVERSATION: ‘THE THINGS YOU KILL’ WRITER, DIRECTOR, AND PRODUCER ALIREZA KHATAMI November 2025 - 0613focus
“With decisive visuals, fantastic performances, and a genre-defying story, The Things You Kill is a brilliant dissection of masculinity, patriarchal inheritance, and cyclical violence. We had a chance to sit down with the writer-director to untangle the film’s themes and explore how his background as a self-described man between nations contributed to their development.”
THE MASTERMIND: A QUIET WARNING, November 2025 - 0613focus
“Like the title, Reichardt subverts our expectations through a comedy of errors entrenched in blind privilege. Immensely political up until its implosive final scene, The Mastermind delivers a simultaneously understated yet direct cautionary tale of white nescience and masculine ambition.”
IN CONVERSATION: ‘PRIMAVERA’ WRITER AND DIRECTOR DAMIANO MICHIELETTO, November 2025 - 0613focus
“We had a chance to sit down with Michieletto during the 61st Chicago International Film Festival to discuss the film’s evolution and how his background as one of the most acclaimed opera directors of his generation helped shape his vision.”
ISSUE 02: IMPERIUM, November 2025 - Pardon My Reach - Tea-Stained Literary
“Imperium is an issue showcasing works on the nature of power, conquest, oppression, and other themes within this bracket. We felt that, considering the current geopolitical state of the world, such an issue was needed and would provide an outlet for necessary discussions on power, how it has affected us historically and in the current moment.”
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU: THE BURDEN OF MOTHERHOOD, October 2025 - 0613focus
“What differentiates If I Had Legs I’d Kick You from previous iterations is the clear revulsion towards the ultimate standard of womanhood that it crams down your throat at any given moment. There is no gentleness in Linda’s shattered existence. The writer-director instead presents a hellscape of earsplitting screams and snot-filled tears from the inescapable perspective of a person grabbing you by your neck.”
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT: PANAHI’S SUFFERING SEEKS NO ANSWERS, October 2025 - 0613focus
“The weight of trying to make their own suffering at the hands of an autocracy mean something suffocates every choice these characters make. Less a statement on the ethical principles of reprisal than it is a powerful display of anguish, the film conveys ambiguity in the face of humanity’s need for certainty by channeling the burden of pain.”
OUR MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS AT THE 61ST CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, October 2025 - 0613focus
“With over 15 films on our screening agenda in the next two weeks, we’re eager for whatever the midwestern festival has to offer. Here are our picks of the top 10 films we’re excited to see at CIFF in 2025.”
CAUGHT STEALING: ARONOFSKY GOES LETHAL , September 2025 - 0613focus
“Feeling more like it belongs on the shelf of ‘90s action flicks such as Point Break (1991) or The Fugitive (1993), Aronofsky deviates heavily from his prior work. Unlike the director’s previous films (such as his recent 2022 Oscar-winning project The Whale), Caught Stealing doesn’t seem to concern itself with any deeper message hidden beneath its surface.”
REFLECTIONS, September 2025 - My Mother’s House - The Margins Magz, Strokes & Sews Magazine, Azall Magazine
“This theme is a mirror held up to the self; smudged with fingerprints, lined with cracks, full of distortions, angles, unexpected beauty, and difficult truths.”
ISSUE 2: THE MAGPIE BRIDGE , September 2025 - Baldur’s Death - Dyonyzine
“The main idea for 'The Magpie Bridge' is based off of the beloved Chinese folktale about a mortal cowherd, Niulang, and a celestial weaver girl, Zhinu, who fall in love and marry, but are ultimately separated by the Milky Way. Their story is celebrated annually on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in the Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day.”
A LESSON IN HEALING: AGUST D’S “AMYGDALA", August 2025 - 0613focus Issue 3: Now On View
“Yoongi now crawls towards the exit as the camera begins to tilt. The rotation creates an illusion of verticality, the struggle to reach the brightness behind its wooden exterior becoming arduous as his body drags skyward along the dark floor."
ISSUE 2: STATE OF MIND, July 2025 - 0613focus
Could You Please Sit Still?
“Using both a mixture of my own experience as a psychiatric patient and a critical analytical perspective of the mental health industry, this piece examines the gender and power disparities prevalent in doctor-patient relationships.”
Donnie Darko: The Antithesis of White Nostalgia
“Frank is the hallucinatory manifestation of destruction, warping time and space to create a reality where Donnie exposes a new tangible existence and destroys himself and the subjective, suffocating reality of the nostalgic nuclear standard.”
DEMETER’S GARDEN ANTHOLOGY, June 2025 - Our Bodies Are Gardens - Vellichor Literary, The Chartium, Jardin Zine, Luxury Literature Magazine
“This anthology lets you explore four distinct themes (forgiveness, revenge, healing, and resilience) that embody the essence of spring, each representing a different facet of life, death, and growth.”
ADOLESCENCE: PATRIARCHY LAID BARE, April 2025 - 0613focus
“Graham and Thorne combine the subtle normalization of misogynistic structures with their violent outcomes, creating an electric and horrifying display of a reality many women have already become familiar with.
BUNNYLOVR: VIRTUAL ISOLATION IN THE NEW GENERATION, February 2025 - 0613focus
“Despite the lack of thematic follow-through, I still found Bunnylovr to be a thought-provoking modern analysis of women in the age of computerized loneliness and a promising debut feature. Zhu’s ability to capture her character’s crushing isolation on screen through both a captivating performance and immersive direction only proves her staying power.”